With a variety of new events and tournaments planned – as well as concerns about the security of the event – the return of Veishea is sure to have a different look compared to years past.

Jessica Lecy, Veishea general co-chairwoman, said the executive committee has made some changes to the Veishea schedule this year to offer a greater range of events for everyone to enjoy during Veishea 2006.

“Some of the really big changes are to try and get a diverse array of events so that we can offer different things to community members,” said Lecy, senior in food science. She has been involved in planning Veishea since 2002.

Lecy said the executive board is excited about several new events this year, including the History Expo on Friday in Beardshear Hall, which will showcase the development of Veishea traditions and events over the past 84 years.

“We really hope that we’ve created something for everyone,” Lecy said.

The executive committee has also been working hard to address the safety and security concerns surrounding Veishea, Lecy said. The committee has been working closely with Ames Police Chief Loras Jaeger to ensure that the planning committee and the Ames Police Department are on the same page.

Jaeger said there are a number of police officers from Ames Police helping to plan the event this year.

“Veishea is one of those issues that always has the potential to get out of hand,” Jaeger said. “We’re trying to work with the various Veishea student committees to try and put in enough resources and planning to make sure it will be a safe weekend.”

Jaeger said his department has added a party response team that has been around for about a year and operates during warm weather months. With Veishea on the horizon, Jaeger said Ames Police has been working hard to increase the participation in the party response team, with the goal of teaching students to be safe at a party.

“We’re really working hard with the party response team, and we’re partnering more with Iowa State University,” Jaeger said.

“It works on weekends and has been a very successful program.”

When asked whether he is concerned about the security of the event this year, Jaeger said only time will tell.

“We’ll know after Veishea,” he said.

Andrew Wake, junior in sociology, has come in contact with a party response team, and said he thinks student involvement is a big concern of the party patrol.

“I know they already want students [to help] with the party patrol— – they want student involvement this year,” he said.

Lecy said another way for students to get involved in the safety of the event is becoming a Veishea Peer Security Aide. She said there are already more than 130 security aides who have volunteered this year to assist with events and ensure that things go as planned.

As a freshman, Wake volunteered as a Veishea Peer Security Aide in 2004 and said the committee does a good job training the volunteers about what to do in case of a security problem.

He added that moving events from Welch Avenue and spreading them out across campus is a good idea, and should help the celebration to be safer for students and members of the community.

“From what I understand, they’ve been working really hard to make sure they don’t have any problems,” he said.

“They’ve spread stuff out across campus so not everyone is in one place.”

Justin Jedlicka, Veishea tournaments co-chairman, said the tournament committee has organized some new tournaments and fun events this year for students and families to take part in.

Some of the new tournaments include a Glowball Golf Tournament, a car show in the East Campus Parking Deck near the Gerdin Business Building and Xbox “NCAA 2006 Football” and “Halo 2” tournaments.

“We had lots of decisions of new tournaments to bring in and we chose the ones that we saw to have the best chance of being successful into the future,” Jedlicka said. “I hope that 20 years from now I can come back to Veishea and still hear about some of the tournaments that we started.”

Jedlicka said the tournament committee has also been planning an event that will be held at Frederiksen Court.

The event will take place Thursday and includes live entertainment, a barbecue, a three-point and slam-dunk contest, 2-on-2 volleyball and a knockout contest. The event is yet to be named but will be open to “everyone from here to Alaska,” Jedlicka said.

“I think that will be a neat event because while all these tournaments are going on there will be live entertainment in the background,” he said.

Jedlicka said he is also excited about this year’s flag football tournament, which will take on a new look as it moves inside the Bergstrom Indoor Training Facility, which has been used by the Athletic Department since March 2004.

“This year’s lineup is comprised of 22 tournaments that are so diverse that there aren’t many people that can’t find a tournament that interests them,” Jedlicka said.

For more information about the schedule of events or tournament registration, or to learn how to get involved with a Veishea planning committee in the future, visit the Veishea Web site at www.veishea.iastate.edu.