The Iowa State administration has been criticized by students for turning Veishea ’98 into an alcohol-free, family-oriented event, but Thomas Hill, vice president for Student Affairs, still supports and defends the decision and has even higher expectations for Veishea ’99.

Hill said the key to a successful Veishea is student participation and ownership of the event.

“They have to buy into having a safe, successful, alcohol-free celebration,” he said.

Hill said alcohol was a primary contributing factor in Uri Sellers’ murder during Veishea ’97, which led administrators to take action.

“Veishea was going extremely well, minus that incident,” he said. “But you put that incident in, and it’s the most serious incident that could have occurred — the loss of life.”

Because of the role of alcohol in the stabbing death of Sellers, Hill said making Veishea alcohol free was the only clear option.

“There were few choices in this situation. Alcohol was the ingredient that led to a very tragic event,” he said. “That was enough to do it.”

Hill said the administration was very close to calling off Veishea altogether.

“If pulling alcohol out of it … would pull us closer to a safer event, then that’s a no-brainer,” he said.

Although Hill realized many students left town for the weekend during Veishea ’98, he said he would “encourage them to leave” if three days without alcohol seems unbearable.

“If they want to drink, I’m not going to try to keep them here,” he said. “We can’t create an activity that’s going to make a drinker not like drinking.”

Hill said students’ perception of people fleeing Ames during Veishea weekend last year may have been a misconception.

“People seemed to think there were a whole lot fewer people — what happened was people were sober this time,” he said.

He also attributed complaints about the entertainment, particularly The Flaming Lips Experiment during Rock Veishea at Hilton Coliseum, to sober eyes and ears.

“If you’d have been drunk, you would have loved it,” he said.

Because the administration’s approval for Veishea was very late last year, Hill said the entertainment committee got a late start and was unable to come up with a lot of high-quality acts.

“The later you are in securing entertainment, the less quality the entertainment will be. We got what was left,” he said. “This year we got started earlier, and I think the caliber of entertainment will be better.”

Hill said as long as Veishea is alcohol free, those who break the rules will be punished.

“If you try to do it here in Ames and we catch you, we’re going to body slam you,” he said.

Hill said making Veishea alcohol free and limiting activities to the “Cyclone Family” was the only way to save the historical event.

“Any time you’ve got to change the character of an event, you can’t do it and do business as usual,” he said. “If we were going to save this thing, we had to limit it to people who cared about this event and this institution.”

As far as Veishea ’99 goes, Hill said he hopes it goes as well as last year and feels not too many changes will need to be made.

“I think there’s some tweaking you can do to it,” he said. “A change would be more students participating in it.”

He said if students can’t be sober for one weekend, “that’s mind boggling.”

“One time a year — I don’t think that’s asking a whole lot, I really don’t,” he said.

Hill said the same groups that took the pledge to not drink during Veishea weekend last year did the same for this year, so the celebration will have a similar format to Veishea ’98.

“I truly anticipate, expect, hope for the same results,” he said. “I quite frankly would like to see it get better.”

Although Veishea is secure for now, Hill said there is no reason it could not be canceled in the future if students don’t appreciate and support it as they should.

“It would eliminate some significant opportunities for students,” he said, “but financially it would not have a bearing on the university or the city.”

Hill said by making Veishea alcohol free, the university is not trying to tell students what they can and cannot do.

“We say don’t drink for a weekend, and you react like we’re banning alcohol forever,” he said. “What’s the big deal? For three days — give me a break.”

Hill said he doesn’t expect everyone to sacrifice drinking for Veishea weekend, but he hopes people will care enough to preserve the event and participate in the activities without alcohol.

“Think about the selfishness in that,” he said.