To the editor:

Last year, Brandon Riley and I held a peaceful protest against the changes the administration made to Veishea. President Jischke spun the changes as an effort to return Veishea to its roots and claimed students welcomed the changes.

What the administration saw as changes made by the student body, we saw as concessions by a small group of elected/appointed student officials who were afraid to accept unjust blame for ruining Iowa State’s proudest tradition.

We spent three hours gathering signatures on a petition, and in those three hours, 792 people signed. Before reading the petition, administrators dismissed our efforts saying we had nothing to complain about, because Veishea was student organized. Our complaint was that the administration had gone a long way toward ruining Veishea to make it more palatable for them, thus robbing students of the ability to organize a proper celebration.

Brandon was costumed as a giant beer can, but we were not protesting the reduction in drinking rather that the reduction was accomplished with an administrative mandate. The administration either could not understand or chose not to acknowledge our perspective. We handed over the 792 signatures at Beardshear Hall the following day. The text of the petition was clearly printed at the top of each page:

“We, the undersigned, believe that control of Veishea needs to be brought back to the students of Iowa State University. Last year, our administration gave us an ultimatum poorly disguised as a choice. We had to choose between a Veishea designed by the administration or no Veishea at all.

“As long as students are unwillingly forced to accept the administration’s mandate, it reflects poorly on the administration and the university as a whole.

“We support the efforts of current Veishea leaders. In no way do we wish for Veishea to be discontinued.

“We are signing this petition on April 7, 1999, in order to convey our beliefs to University Administration in a way that will be heard.”

The message was attacked and twisted to give the impression we were dissatisfied with the student leadership. This was not the case. Veishea is still a student-run celebration. In fact, our administration has done little to add to the student-run events that existed before their mandate. They have dismissed the opinion of 792 student supporters who signed the petition, as well those who didn’t happen to walk by during those three hours.

Most Iowa State students want Veishea to be a success, and no one wants to see it end. Students have salvaged some fun out of what was the best weekend to be a Cyclone. Most of us care about what was once our celebration. We wanted the weekend to be fun and memorable like it used to be, but our limited success was hard-earned because in the administration’s haste to make the celebration trouble-free, they made it difficult for us to enjoy.

President Jischke has called the last three Veishea celebrations successful. Can a lack of drinking by itself constitute a successful celebration, or should we seek something more? Until recently, Veishea was well-known throughout the Midwest as a fun time to be in Ames. Now it has been all but forgotten except at Iowa State. Maybe we should attempt to remake Veishea into something that most Iowa State students enjoy.

I am reasonable. Most students are not satisfied with the current state of our celebration. If any student can formulate a reasonable argument for why we should allow Veishea to continue in its current form (without citing our duty to perpetuate the “tradition” it represents), I challenge them to write to the Daily and explain.

There are about 24,000 students who would find the input useful. For anyone who cares about the future of our event and wants to see change, make yourselves visible, write a letter to the editor, talk to student leaders. The idea that there are only two choices concerning the future of Veishea is a fallacy.

Robert Deisz

Senior

Biochemistry