Veishea ready to go

Editorial Board

The Inter-Residence Hall Association has spoken, and it’s official: Veishea will go on.

At Thursday night’s meeting, IRHA, which was the last student organization to sound off on the alcohol-free Veishea pledge, voted 13-11 in favor of Veishea resolution III, a bill that accepts the pledge, calling for “a safe, multicultural and alcohol-free Veishea.”

However, similar to the resolution that the Government of Student Body passed several weeks ago, the bill asks for Iowa State students and the ISU administration to work together in planning the celebration.

The show will go on, and hopefully this year ISU administrators won’t be at the helm of what is supposed to be a student-run celebration.

The students have spoken, and they want Veishea to continue. Let’s make sure it’s done right this year.

Let’s make sure that hordes of students don’t leave that weekend because they’re dissatisfied with the entertainment available or because they don’t feel connected to their celebration.

Let’s make sure that students have a significant hand in making the celebration their own.

And let’s make sure that in years to come, since it appears that if Veishea’s going to continue, it’s got to be alcohol-free, student representatives and student leaders keep having the types of discussion they had this year.

The first year Veishea was dry, the celebration was in flux.

The administrators wanted it one way or no go, and students were too confused about what was going on to voice their opinions.

And nobody wanted another Uri Sellers tragedy to occur.

The second dry Veishea year, students seemed largely dissatisfied with the way the previous celebration had been handled, but they still wanted their celebration — their tradition.

So student leaders went along with the administration once again, because they cared more about Veishea than the red-tape battles surrounding it.

But this year, student leaders heavily debated, and in front of the administration, they questioned the way the previous alcohol-free Veisheas had been handled.

They talked to their constituents and made honest efforts to try to make everyone’s voice heard.

And as ISU President Martin Jischke said at one of GSB’s Veishea meetings, any sort of debate or discussion is extremely healthy.

So congratulations to all the student leaders who went out of their way to make sure their constituents got their say.

And congratulations to Veishea — let’s make this year’s celebration better than ever.

Let’s make it ours.


Iowa State Daily Editorial Board: Sara Ziegler, Greg Jerrett, Kate Kompas and Carrie Tett.