In 1922, Veishea began as an opportunity to celebrate spring as a unified student body and to showcase ISU to the state of Iowa.

Unfortunately, little remains of that original Veishea spirit. Instead of welcoming guests to our campus this year, we’re forcing them to jump through hoops.

For Veishea this year, the Department of Residence issued a new policy for guests staying in the residence halls. The policy states that guests must be registered, regardless of length of stay.

So if a friend stops by to say hi, better get them registered. If your parents are in town to revisit the campus, get them down to the hall director’s office.

Needless to say, these new restrictions are ridiculous. Residents of the dorms are paying rent for their rooms. That means that for this semester, the room belongs to the student.

Aside from destroying the place, a student should be free to do what he or she wants in it. Nowhere else would paying residents be subject to these kinds of rules. They are just too restrictive.

The Department of Residence is trying to make it as challenging and time-consuming as they can for students to have guests during the Veishea weekend. This will keep students from inviting guests to Veishea because it is too much of a hassle, which is the underlying goal of the new policy.

Part of the reason for this rule seems to lie in keeping potential troublemakers away from Veishea. But honestly, if students are going to bring guests to party, they’re not going to register them anyway.

Turning ISU into a dry campus is supposed to keep out-of-towners away from Ames. The liberties given to police officers this weekend and the consequences that wait for people should be enough. People know that there are not going to be huge parties this year.

This new dorm policy is scaring away a different kind of guest, one who is here to see Iowa State University. The whole reason the Veishea celebration was started was to to showcase our university. Who are we showcasing our university to this year, the Iowa State family?

With the release of this new policy, the administration is, once again, displaying its lack of trust for the students. But more importantly, it is destroying one of the true functions of Veishea.