Let me tell you a secret. I don’t drink. I never got drunk in high school. My only alcohol was communion wine on Sundays and the occasional, permitted sip of my dad’s beer, which I hated.

The month before I turned 21, while with my parents in Germany, I had a strawberry daiquiri at the Berlin Hard Rock Cafe. (My dad bought it.) I believe I also had a glass of champagne at a family Thanksgiving dinner once, too.

That’s about it.

I didn’t want to drink. My friends didn’t drink, I didn’t see any point to getting drunk, and I never wanted to risk getting busted.

Since turning 21, I’ve been to a couple bars, and I’ll have an occasional Tom Collins, but I’ve still never been drunk, and I still don’t want to. I don’t look down on other people who drink more than I do, but I’ve made the choice for myself that drinking is something I don’t want to do.

But guess what? I still won’t be taking the Veishea pledge.

Even though I don’t drink, I refuse to let the Iowa State administration decide for me when and where I can, if I so choose.

Let me be clear. This issue is not about alcohol.

It is not about the “right” to party on Welch, and it’s not about the “right” to set couches on fire and stop traffic in Lincoln Way. We’ve been there before, and we don’t need to go there ever again.

It’s the rare idiot student who is fighting the Veishea pledge because he or she can’t go without a beer for the 72 hours of Veishea weekend. And honestly, those students deserve to leave town during Veishea.

But that’s not the problem.

The problem is not that we can’t stop drinking. The problem is that we of-age adults don’t need or deserve the administration deciding personal choices like drinking for us.

Administrators would probably disagree with me. Some would say the death of Uri Sellers during the 1997 Veishea celebration necessitates extreme measures such as a dry Veishea, even at the expense of student freedoms.

They think alcohol at Veishea killed Uri Sellers, and they think the only way to prevent another murder like that is to prohibit alcohol.

They are wrong. Absolutely wrong.

Drunk ISU students did not kill Uri Sellers. Two ruffians from Fort Dodge, who were well-wasted before ever entering Ames’ city limits, started the fight that ended with Sellers’ death.

So, how do you keep people like Michael Runyan and Luke Nielson from coming back to Veishea? How do you keep them from coming during any other weekend of the year?

Some would argue that prohibiting students from drinking on campus would keep people who were only looking to party from coming. But wouldn’t limiting Veishea events to Iowa State students, alumni, family and friends — the “Cyclone Family” — also keep guys like Runyan and Nielson away?

The university already has done something to stop troublemakers from coming to town during Veishea. And although some would argue with that stand as well, the “Cyclone Family” does make sense in order to ensure a safe Veishea.

Keeping alcohol from of-age students does not.

If ISU students over the age of 21 had not been able to drink during Veishea in 1997, would Sellers still be alive? Logic says no.

The students who were drinking with Sellers on the Adalante fraternity lawn were underage, as was Sellers himself. Runyan, then 20 years old, and Nielson, then 18, were not only drinking illegally, but they were also taking illegal drugs before the stabbing.

So, how does taking away alcohol from of-age students help this equation?

What the parties involved in Sellers’ murder were doing before it happened was already illegal. All the administration and area law enforcement had to do was enforce existing state laws prohibiting minors from drinking.

So why, in the name of providing a safe Veishea that already could have been provided, do ISU students have to shoulder the blame for Sellers’ death by giving up our freedom to think for ourselves?

Don’t get me wrong. It’s completely understandable that President Jischke would want to do everything in his power to ensure that he never has to call a family like that again, breaking the news of a son’s death.

But a dry Veishea won’t prevent that. There is no evidence to believe otherwise.

So what is the point of this? The “punishment” of a dry Veishea not only does not fit the crime, it doesn’t even punish the right criminals.

I am an adult. I legally have the ability and judgment to decide whether to drink, during Veishea or during any other time.

I did not contribute to the death of Uri Sellers. And most important, my abstinence during Veishea could not have saved his life.

I probably won’t drink during Veishea. But I will not sign the Veishea pledge.

I will not allow the administration to embarrass me or humiliate me by treating me like a 10-year-old.

Regardless of how you feel about alcohol, if you value your right to make decisions for yourself, you won’t take the pledge, either.

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Sara Ziegler is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Sioux Falls, S.D. She is editor in chief of the Daily.