College open houses, one of Veishea’s oldest traditions, will be making a splash this year, after fading into the background for bigger events in recent years.

“Each college used to put on their own celebration, and Veishea was created to bring them all together,” said Benji Rouse, open house committee co-chair. “The open house has been an integral part of Veishea from the beginning . [it] got forgotten as to what it was about for a while. Now we are getting back to celebrating students and Iowa State – it’s coming back to the forefront.”

The first Veishea was celebrated in 1922 as a way to combine the individual celebrations of the seven colleges, according to material from Veishea archive documents. The individual celebrations were meant to bring alumni, visitors and prospective students to campus to show off Iowa State’s achievements.

“It was easier for the colleges to come together and have one event over many small events,” said Erin Stockdill, Veishea Village committee member. “Veishea started as open houses to display what Iowa State was doing. Potential students from all over Iowa could see what Iowa State had to offer.”

Stockdill, senior in animal science, said it is more practical to have a centralized celebration instead of each college having their own. Veishea doesn’t disrupt the university schedule, and it allows more people to come to campus for one weekend rather then a few separate weekends.

Open Houses will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on April 21 throughout campus. Danielle Etzel, open house committee co-chair, said open houses give clubs and organizations a chance to show what they have been working on. There will be pony rides, experiments, brochures and pamphlets about the groups.

“People can learn more about Iowa State,” said Etzel, junior in agricultural food science. “People can see what other students are involved in and what other colleges are up to.”

Open houses are also important to Veishea because “it gets down to the true meaning of Veishea, showing what students at Iowa State do and what goes on behind the scenes,” said Rouse, junior in agronomy.

The open house committee set a goal to get more than 100 clubs involved, Etzel said.

“We are trying to get about 100 groups, with at least one organization from every college,” she said. “In the past, there were sometimes no groups from a college, because of lack of organization or communication. People should be happy to show off their club or organization.”

Rouse said he hopes to increase attendance for all of the open houses, including those not located on central campus.

“People can win prizes by going to different sections of campus to visit the open houses,” he said. “This is an incentive for people to get to all areas of the open house, which is something new this year.”