I may have been the only person on campus who was disgusted when I read in the Daily that ISU President Gregory Geoffroy “has decided that the Veishea celebration will continue in 2006.” Surrounding Geoffroy were various members of the community and student leaders, grinning widely after our illustrious university president allowed us to have our annual, supposedly student-run, spring celebration back.

What makes me sick about this announcement is that student “leaders” have sold out on student interests, while the administration has only given us suggestions that some liberties that were always part of Veishea may be reinstated. Rather than asserting our power as students, we have buckled under the power of the university in its quest for a festival that casts the university in a blindingly positive, albeit artificial, light, as it seeks to use students to help it compete for parental and alumni dollars.

What was once a celebration of, by and for the students has become a shallow facade of what it once was. It is now a sham festival of the city, by the administration, and for the community, local businesses and alumni. Although Iowa State touts it as the “largest student-run, alcohol-free celebration of entertainment and education in the nation,” any realist can quickly see that what we have today is a watered-down, sanitized version of what, at one time, was likely a truly remarkable spectacle: an independent rousing of student pride in our fine university.

What kind of student celebration is held only on the approval of the administration? Have we become so dependent on centralized social order that we have forgotten that it was students just like us who started the festival to begin with? Now we have to beg permission from our masters in the administration to allow us to hold our celebration.

Postgame disturbances were never judged sufficient to suspend football. Even a murder was not considered adequate to suspend Veishea in the past. But, somehow, a rowdy off-campus party that just happened to occur on the same weekend as Veishea was sufficient to suspend a time-honored tradition? Only if students give up their rights to host the festival themselves, and only if it has become solely the tool of the administration.

Are the students the problem, as we have been portrayed by the community and others? Are we somehow different from our predecessors, or are we simply reacting as members of a free society do when faced with an overly oppressive system that uses us for benefit not entirely in our own best interest? What the administration seems to forget, along with most students, is that this is OUR festival. We started it, we are disgusted with what it has become (as evidenced by outright opposition in the form of numerous disturbances during the past few decades), and we are going to take it back. If we do not, it will never be ours and will always be a tool of the administration. In this sense, Geoffroy’s suspension is the best thing to happen to Veishea.

What is stopping us from holding our festival without administrative approval? Why don’t Veishea’s student organizers simply get together, set a date, declare it Veishea and return the celebration to student control once more? Veishea would be instilled with renewed vigor. It probably would not be very pretty or extravagant without the university’s blessing, but it would be ours and we could take pride in that.

Other ISU presidents will be remembered for their tolerant, even-handed tactics when dealing with students — like President Robert Parks during the tumultuous 1960s — but Geoffroy will go down in ISU history as the president who gave birth to “Shadow Veishea” through his suspension precedent. For that, we should thank him: Veishea will once again be a festival run by and for the students, without the administrative control that has made it a hollow shell of a once-proud tradition.

So thanks, but no thanks, President Geoffroy. We appreciate your sentiment, but we would prefer to throw our own festival from now on. The administration can sit back and watch if it likes, but we politely request that it be so kind as to mind its own business and leave our festival to us.