Two factors stand out as obviously connected to every Veishea weekend riot — alcohol and parties. Since 1988, each of the three riots and the fatal stabbing clearly involved both. Given that not many large off-campus parties go on without the consumption of generous amounts of alcohol, it can be tough to tease the two issues apart. Addressing only one has the potential to make the other worse.

This is likely why serious change regarding the riots has been so slow in coming. Other than changes to the student disciplinary regulations, everything so far has been on the “we’re thinking about doing this” level. We’re thinking about adding more nighttime entertainment. We’re thinking about changing the “dry Veishea” rules in some unspecific way. And so on.

One thing that the university has expressed reluctance to think about is the push for a city ordinance change to allow 19- and 20-year-olds into some bars. In a recent Des Moines Register article, ISU President Gregory Geoffroy expressed his view that, in contrast to Iowa City, Ames has the right ordinances regarding the presence of minors in drinking establishments.

We hope that his support of the ordinances is not absolute, because student leaders are working on proposals that could provide entertainment to underage students away from these volatile off-campus parties.

The first iteration of this came from the Campustown Student Association, which proposed the idea of grants to bars that make extra efforts in both providing entertainment and improving enforcement.

It is unlikely that this would fly, politically; Youth and Shelter Services and the Story County Prevention Policy Board would probably overreact as usual to what they see as bribing business owners to corrupt minors.

Off-campus parties typically have the highest rates of binge drinking. What opponents of reducing the entrance age into bars seem to be saying is: Pushing students to drink more irresponsibly and with less supervision is just fine, as long as it is out of the public eye.

A new proposal being worked on draws from the idea of One Community. It suggests making case-by-case exceptions to current rules which require that an establishment makes more than half its profits from non-alcohol sales. These exceptions would be targeted at the Main Street district bars.

Although we are not big fans of the idea of playing favorites with which bars receive exceptions, as a practical matter, it is unlikely that most Campustown bars would even be interested in changing. They already fill up almost every night, and the nights they don’t are usually nights that students aren’t looking for late night entertainment, anyway.

In truth, no one really knows what the end result of such a change would be. The city should implement a trial program and evaluate its effectiveness. The time to act is long past.