The cancellation of Veishea 2005 is causing decreases in funding and club participation for some ISU organizations.

Valerie Hobson, senior in agricultural biochemistry and president of the Society of Chemistry Undergraduate Majors, said the club always holds a chemical demonstration show at Veishea with a script, costumes and scenes, but, because there will be no Veishea this year, less participation is expected.

“The show usually isn’t much of a recruiting effort, but there are a lot of people who are in SCUM specifically for the Veishea show,” Hobson said. “I’m pretty sure if we do the same sort of show, we’ll get those members to come back again, but it’s iffy.”

SCUM plans to have a show on the weekend Veishea was scheduled for but expects lower attendance from children and families, Hobson said.

“We could potentially write this year’s script to be a little bit more geared toward college students with slightly different humor,” Hobson said. “But we’ll have to really advertise it heavily to get the same sort of attendance that we usually do.”

The ISU Physics and Astronomy Club also typically holds demonstrations during Veishea, said its president, Rachel Wilken, senior in physics. Although the club also holds smaller demonstrations in elementary schools, the Veishea demonstration helped unify the club, Wilken said.

“Usually, all of the club participated in the demonstrations for Veishea, so it’s the one thing that brought all the club together, and now our big event is gone,” Wilken said.

“The officers will now have a bigger task of finding something new and interesting to get the members excited about.”

Some clubs are also predicting spring fund-raising efforts to be more difficult this year.

The ISU Horticulture Club is one of the clubs that typically holds fund-raisers during Veishea. Jenny Petersen, senior in horticulture and club president, said the club made money by selling potted annuals and perennials.

This year, the club will need to advertise more and probably won’t grow as many plants, she said.

“It’ll be hard this spring to judge how many plants we’ll sell,” Petersen said. “We have regulars who come back each year, but we don’t know if people will make a conscious effort to stop out if there is not a huge celebration going on.”

In the Dairy Science Club, members raise money through making and selling ice cream. They also provide an opportunity to milk cows by hand and an informational display about dairy cows in Kildee Hall, said Erin Vagts, president of the Dairy Science Club and senior in public service and administration in agriculture.

“From not selling ice cream, we’re going to be hurt financially… we are trying to brainstorm ideas on what we can do to maybe raise extra money and what we can do to have the same type of display,” Vagts said.

GSB is trying to help clubs address financial problems, said Kristi Kramer, GSB finance director.

“Without Veishea, a lot of people aren’t able to have their annual fund-raisers, so that’s automatically affecting their budgets,” Kramer said.

“If clubs come in and request a line-item transfer for some of their funding, we’re happy to sit down with them and discuss their options.”

GSB will also hold a five-week forum titled “Where’s the Money at?” to help student organizations realize all the resources available at Iowa State and in the community, said Sophia Magill, president of GSB.

“What we’re trying to do is recognize that there were funding problems for clubs even before Veishea occurred,” Magill said. “These forums should provide a lot of information. I think it’s just like anything else, we’re trying to respond to students and their needs.”