Residence hall participation encouraged in Veishea events

Emily Oliver

The Veishea committee is trying to get more residence hall students involved in its activities this year.

Eric Peters, president of the Inter-Residence Hall Association and senior in sociology, said one problem residence hall students face is that, by the time Veishea rolls around, they are already involved with different clubs. Also, many times residence hall floors don’t have enough money to participate, he said.

Peters said representatives from Veishea usually come to a few IRHA meetings but are not persistent with their visits. However, representatives from Veishea are coming more regularly to IRHA meetings this year and have asked Peters to come to the Veishea advisory committee, he said.

Peters said he thinks more residence hall students will participate this year because they will know in advance which events they can participate in and which positions are available.

The positions available include parade aides, security aides and Veishea core aides, said Allie Quinn, Veishea’s representative to IRHA.

Parade aides help during the parade, security aides block off Welch Avenue for the parade and Veishea core aides assist committees, she said.

Quinn, freshman in liberal arts and sciences — open option, said while living in the residence halls she always thought it was only sororities and fraternities that participated in Veishea.

“There are definitely a lot of greek people in Veishea,” she said. “We’re trying to move away [from that idea] so people don’t think it’s just for the greek community. It’s for everybody.”

Amy Moreno, senior in animal science, said being a resident assistant restricts her from the amount of campus activities she can participate in, as resident assistants can only be involved with 10 hours of campus activities.

Being involved with Veishea would be a huge time commitment for her and other residence hall students, she said.

Moreno said Veishea is not necessarily aimed at the greek community, but the greek community gets more involved with events.

“Greeks have a tradition or priority [of being involved with Veishea]. It’s not as big of a tradition for residence hall students,” she said.

Quinn said there are other options for residence hall students to get involved with Veishea.

Jenna Maubach, Veishea Village representative and sophomore in agricultural business, said each floor in the residence halls has the opportunity to design a miniature golf hole for a miniature golf course operated during Veishea week. The floors would be in charge of building and staffing the hole, Maubach said.

The event will be sponsored by Habitat for Humanity, Quinn said.

Residence hall students are also encouraged to audition for “Fiddler on the Roof,” a musical performance for Stars Over Veishea, she said.