Vice President for Student Affairs Thomas Hill summed it all up in his speech Friday, helping kick off the 2003 Veishea celebration on Central Campus.

“Veishea was in distress — a lot of people felt Veishea wouldn’t make it,” he said. “This new creation is more like the original Veishea than the celebrations of the 1990s. The credit goes to a group of students who made this possible and did the things they needed to do.”

Hill went on to commend another group of students from five years ago, students who were willing to make the sacrifices that were necessary to keep the tradition from being shut down forever. And looking around campus this weekend, the changes were evident.

Gone were the line of cars exiting Ames in search of greener party pastures. The only mention of the word “dry” was in reference to the weather everyone was able to enjoy this weekend. Smiles, cherry pies and a newfound sense of community filled the air during the weekend.

The focus of the “oldest student run celebration” had indeed been shifted back to what it was originally intended — a showcase of and for Iowa State.

Though some may gripe that they hardly noticed the transformation on campus and in Campustown, the old favorites were back — Cy’s Big Top, the beloved parade, the games on Central Campus, Stars Over Veishea — and a few of the newer items sparkled as well, such as the Battle of the Bands on the Taste Stage.

Of course, there were some disappointments: There was no large musical act — and the promised skydiving machine that was to take that concert’s place was absent without explanation — and the only other large draw, “Dew the Rec,” was hurt by the lackluster wonder that is Jim Breuer (whose strung-out attempt at humor seemed only to involve longwinded stories about himself, saying “faggot” a whole lot and then showing us things he can do with his fingers).

But those were just low points of this year’s Veishea, and not apocalyptic signs that Veishea is dead. Those are the disappointments of a grand student-run event intended to celebrate Iowa State’s colleges.

The disappointment this Veishea weekend didn’t have to be that there were no drunken riots or couch burning. It doesn’t have to be a huge buzzkill to have security crackdown around campus a little bit more, in an effort to avoid another death over Veishea weekend.

The disappointment isn’t that Veishea is now dry.

There is a time for drinking and a time for celebrating and, while the two normally occur at the same time, it is not entirely ridiculous that the ISU administration has sought to keep Veishea a dry celebration. True — every ISU student has the right to make his or her own choices, including whether to drink. But if this celebration is ever to regain the glory it once had, ISU students need to make the choice to support Veishea again.

Editorial Board: Cavan Reagan, Amber Billings, Ayrel Clark, Charlie Weaver, Katie List