On Thursday, Nov. 10, hundreds of leadership teams from campuses and student organizations along with city officials, local neighborhood groups, merchants, landlords, planning and zoning staff, liquor control officials and social scientists will gather on campus for a National Summit on Preventing Civil Disturbances.

The summit is designed to build on the topic from two previous national summits by establishing “best practices in responding to ongoing civil disturbances in college communities,” according to the summit’s Web site. The summit is being sponsored by the Office of the President, the Department of Public Safety, the Government of the Student Body and the City of Ames.

In an effort to create an action plan for preventing disturbances such as the April 2004 Veishea riot that occurred in Campustown, ISU, GSB and city officials said a main goal of the summit is to gain student input about prevention and crowd control. Angela Groh, GSB president, Loras Jaeger, Ames Police chief, and John McCarroll, executive director of university relations, have all said the objective is to educate students on campus.

Students might see a problem with this, however, because the registration fee for the summit is $100 a head. The fee covers meals (two luncheons and a social hour) travel expenses for the cost of flying in speakers and other setup costs. Students can receive a waiver by writing an essay about why they want to attend and how the information could be applied.

It may seem to be the surest way to discourage student involvement, however, students need to take a closer look.

Although students are granted a waiver, university and city officials, landlords, liquor control officials and social scientists do not have the option of filing a waiver, and are all required to fork over the $100 fee. It might seem like a hassle and the ultimate disincentive by adding another essay on top of more essays, tests and research papers, but ISU students are actually getting a discount.

DPS, university and Ames Police officials said the essay only needs to be brief (a paragraph to a page at most) and students should make a “reasonable attempt” to show genuine interest in attending.

“It’s something that should require no more than a half hour to come up with,” university relations officials said.

The waiver is a tool to encourage students to attend, and should be used as such. Take the 30 minutes to fill out the essay and help university and city leaders realize that prevention of civil disturbances requires a joint effort of campus officials, city leaders, local residents, local law enforcement … and students.

Essays can be sent with a completed registration form, which is available at http://www.iastate.edu/summit/registration.html. The deadline is Monday.