On the bright, sun-filled afternoon of April 17, 2004, thousands of ISU students, Ames residents and alumni gathered to mark the 82nd Veishea celebration.

Hours later, Campustown would descend into chaos. After one year, ISU students and administrators and City of Ames officials continue to try to find ways to bring a peaceful Veishea back.

“I thought disturbances of Veishea were behind us,” Ames Police Chief Loras Jaeger said of last year’s celebration. “We responded to the party on Hunt Street and everything went bad from there.”

Officers failed to gain control of the party and shortly after, a riot overwhelmed Campustown. Twenty-six people were arrested, and more than $100,000 of damage was done to the Campustown area.

The April 18 riot led ISU President Gregory Geoffroy to suspend Veishea for 2005, prompting the creation of public forums and a task force of students, administrators and permanent Ames residents to draft recommendations to improve Veishea.

“Prior to the Veishea disturbance, we didn’t have enough meaningful conversation among community members — this process made it crystal-clear how important that dialogue is,” said Pete Englin, dean of students.

A series of changes — including an emphasis on greater dialogue between students, administrators and Ames community members — were intended to curb the fear of further Veishea-related violence.

Concerns remain as to whether enough has been done to prevent future disturbances.

“The bigger issue is trying to figure out how to reduce the size of off-campus parties, which have created disturbances in the past,” Borich said. “I think alcohol can attract so many people and can create disturbances.”

This weekend proved to be a drastic change from last year, however. Ames and ISU police reported they broke up relatively few large house parties. Hunt Street — the location of the large off-campus party attributed to instigating last year’s riot — lay calm and relatively quiet Saturday night.

“It appears we’ve had nothing more than an average weekend,” Ames Police Cmdr. Randy Kessel said early Sunday morning in front of Ames Fire Station No. 2, 132 Welch Ave. “I think the fact that we haven’t had any problems this week shows the success of our party response team.”

Although students were able to prove festivities can be held in April and still be responsible, this weekend’s lack of disruption does not equate to being able to hold a successful Veishea, Jaeger said.

“We need to keep this for the long-term,” Jaeger said. “We can get enthusiastic the year after a major disturbance, but if we can do that year after year, that will be the test.”

Many of the plans for a long-term peaceful celebration came out of the final report from the 2004 Task Force on Assuring Successful Veishea and Other Student/Community Celebrations, issued in November.

“I think the dialogue was very comprehensive; I think that it was good the way the process was done,” Ames Mayor Ted Tedesco said.

The recommendations included open forums to discuss Veishea’s future, methods to reduce off-campus parties and moving some Veishea events away from Campustown.

“I think the process was good for students to voice their opinions regarding Veishea,” said Angela Groh, Government of the Student Body president.

On March 23, Geoffroy announced Veishea would return in 2006.

“I think the administration was really inclusive with student viewpoints,” said Tony Borich, ex-officio member of the Ames City Council. “They’ve done an excellent job consulting students on a student issue.”