I have been watching this year’s Veishea debate “from the sidelines” in a manner of speaking. I am a transfer student whose only previous knowledge of this celebration has been through brochures sent to me by the Office of Admissions. This will be my first, and possibly last, Veishea, and I honestly have no idea what to expect. If you believe the university, then it will just be a big drunkfest requiring about five times the regular police force to stop any rioting. If you believe most of the students who are under 21, it will be a chance to “stick it to the man” and drink despite their pledge to do otherwise. And if you believe students over 21, it will be a scene much like a stereotypical gentlemen’s club where men (or women) sit in their fine leather chairs, sipping port and discussing politics. Somehow I feel none of these portray a totally accurate depiction of what Veishea has been or will be.

From what I have heard, Veishea has always been a weekend where the student body can let its hair down. A chance where parties could be thrown, and yes, alcohol could be consumed. It was a time when some great musical acts would be brought into Hilton, and everyone there would be assured of a great concert. But most importantly, it was supposed to be a chance for students to blow off some steam before finals began and have some much needed fun. Hopefully, this year there will still be the fun, but most of the ways students used to get there (i.e. parties, great concerts and alcohol) are not really options. Sure, we will have a pretty good concert at a very reasonable price in the rec, which the entertainment committee should be commended for putting together in such a short time, but that is nothing compared to a huge name act in Hilton Coliseum. But the simplest method students use to have fun, parties, will not be feasible this year. Even if you throw an alcohol-free party, DPS still has the authority (thanks to new ordinances) to bust it up and give you a huge fine even though you have done absolutely nothing wrong.

It seems fairly obvious to me what we as students have to do: exactly what we would be doing any other weekend of the year. If you want to drink alcohol and risk getting arrested and fined under the new Veishea legislation, that is your right. If you want to party and create a “nuisance” according to the administration, go ahead. That is your right also. I know most people are probably saying, “But then we will lose Veishea!!” All I can say is, “So what?” Veishea was originally supposed to be a student-run festival, and later on it became a way for students to have one long weekend of fun. Either way, the university has strangled every ounce of both definitions out of the celebration. It is hard to be student-run when the administration puts restrictions on everything, and it is hard to have fun with no parties. The university has a lot more to lose from no Veishea than the students do. If there is no Veishea, students will still throw parties and consume alcohol, there will still be great musical acts at Hilton (can we say Aerosmith?), and we will still be able to have fun every other weekend of the year. However, if there is no Veishea, the university stands to lose a lot of money. I remember when I was contemplating coming here, I saw a lot about this student-run festival, the largest student-run festival in the nation, and it was a fairly big selling point about how the university trusted its students (this was, of course, before I got to campus). The administration has used Veishea to attract new students for decades, and if Veishea is lost, they will lose a big recruiting tool. The university will also lose a lot of alumni support if Veishea goes down the tubes. I am sure there are many an alum who looks back fondly at Veisheas of the past and thinks how great it was, and if it is dropped, they will be fairly mad. I would be. Loss of alumni support spells loss of revenue for the university, which is definitely something they do not want to lose.

Maybe I am missing the whole point here, but we can still have a great time with out Veishea, so if Jischke wants to make a bunch of absurd rules and destroy what is supposed to be this huge celebration at the expense of the university’s offers, I say we should let him. We have done everything asked of us to save the event, but the administration doesn’t have enough trust to let us.

Michael Mischnick

Sophomore

Chemical engineering