As Veishea is still six months away, I am not surprised to see so little attention paid to the votes being taken now in the GSB Senate, Interfraternity Council, Residence Halls and other organizations, as to whether Veishea will be dry or not.

The university administration has done a great job vilifying those who wish to exercise their right to drink in their own residences, while at the same time linking the adjectives “safe and alcohol-free” before Veishea, as if alcohol-free is the only way Veishea could be safe.

The administration has been quite ingenious in getting the last two Veisheas to run without alcohol.

If any part succeeds, they can point out that Iowa State students do not need alcohol to have a good time.

However, if any portion is a failure, say no one shows up, Campustown is deserted and the Open House area sponsored by Iowa State is a farce, then the administration can say “Well, I guess students only came to Veishea to drink alcohol.”

Unfortunately for the university, that last point is simply not true.

To illustrate how ridiculous this assertion that the only reason people either came to Veishea in past years or stayed in town that weekend was to drink, let me offer an analogy: What if the university decided that the only safe way to have Veishea would be if sex were not allowed?

Now, bear with me, there are some parallels.

The administration could certainly point to the increased likelihood of increased sex during Veishea (so many visitors, a relatively small area, social setting, etc.), not to mention the fact that crimes certainly were committed (whether reported or not) that involved sex over the weekend of past Veishea celebrations.

So, the university says that no sex will be allowed during Veishea. They do not offer any safe-sex programming, nor do they try to work with students to reach a compromise.

In fact, they say that if any major student organization votes to be allowed to have sex during Veishea, then the celebration itself will be cancelled.

They point out what a pity it would be to not have Veishea just because students must have sex during one weekend.

The city of Ames even jumps in, passing more resolutions so that businesses could not promote sex, and increases the penalties if people are caught having sex illegally.

The student groups even try it out for the first two years, with the Greek system policing itself with patrols lasting all throughout the night, just in case one or two people may be having sex.

If this were the case, would many students stay in town for Veishea?

No, of course not. Is it because students HAVE to have sex during Veishea? Obviously not.

It is simply because college students want to have the OPTION to have sex just like any other weekend.

Furthermore, they do not appreciate having the administration hold Veishea itself over the students’ heads to force them to vote against having sex.

This idea seems preposterous on the Administration’s part, right?

Now, substitute the word “alcohol” all the times I used “sex.”

You can see now the justified stance that students who do not want a completely dry Veishea have taken.

The simple fact is that the administration does not care about trying to work with students to bring back the opportunity to drink alcohol, even for those students who have the legal right to.

Why would they, when they can blame the destruction of Veishea on the evil culprit alcohol, instead of the true cause, their own hard-headedness?

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Dan Brower

Senior

Political science and international studies