With wood, papier mƒche and chicken wire, the greek community and a residence hall association will be working together to mold, paste and hammer the first mixed-pairing Veishea float.

Phi Delta Theta fraternity, 2035 Sunset Drive, and Chi Omega sorority, 227 Gray Ave., offered to team up with Richardson Court Association residents to help the residence halls become more active in the spring celebration.

“It’s a bridge that hasn’t been crossed before,” said Andy Walling, RCA president. “I refuse to give in to the stereotype that [the residence halls and the greek system] can’t get along.”

Walling said he has been an active supporter for getting the residence halls more involved in Veishea. So far, he said, student reaction has been positive. “That means to me that they’re excited about socializing with the greek system,” said Walling, sophomore in pre-business.

Kurt Johnson, Veishea co-chairman for Phi Delta Theta, said the main reason his fraternity decided to pair with RCA was to make it possible for them to be independent in the future.

“We knew that we wanted to help out and give them the opportunity to get back in Veishea,” said Johnson, junior in industrial engineering. “We’ll show them the basic designs and how much work it really takes.”

Efforts have been made in the past to get the residence halls more involved in Veishea, but students found they were at a disadvantage, said Veishea Parade Co-Chairman Michael Kremer.

“We tried to start last year,” said Kremer, junior in marketing. “It was never a thing of Veishea wanting to leave them out.”

Kremer said the float will be a good opportunity for RCA to get into the Veishea celebration and help them overcome some of their perceived disadvantages.

“In years past, somewhere along the line it got really expensive for the residence halls. There were problems with time commitment, and it was hard to raise money,” Kremer said. “The residence halls are a large part of the ISU campus, and it’s unfortunate that they haven’t participated.”

Walling said he will present a bill to the RCA senate in January to allocate $2,000 to help pay for the float’s supplies. Walling said he already has people in line to take leadership positions.

“We’re organizing now,” he said. “We’ve had co-chairs come forward already that are extremely committed people.”

RCA will be the only dorm association paired with the greek system. The Union Drive Association has had two houses represented in Veishea, but they chose to work alone.

“We needed to maximize our participation on our own floats,” UDA President Rick Cordaro said.

Noble and MacDonald houses, both in UDA, have been participating “for many years,” said Cordaro, junior in electrical engineering, and it has been a long-standing tradition. But Cordaro said RCA’s participation will hopefully create a ripple effect for future residence hall participation.

“We’ll be able to say, ‘Look, it can be done — residence halls and the greek system can work together on a project,'” Cordaro said.

Towers Residence Association President Matt Heerema said he had hoped to see TRA participate, but it fell through in the end.

“As far as I know, only one greek pairing wanted to join with the residence halls,” said Heerema, junior in pre-business. “RCA had first dibs on a pairing since they had wanted to do it first. But if RCA asks for help, we’ll be more than willing.”

When the time comes for Veishea to begin, Walling said he expects RCA residents to be ready to participate and will have the mental knowledge and tools to venture alone in 2002.

“I don’t think it’s going to work perfectly,” he said. “But we’re going to come out and know what to do next year, and that’s a start.”