A riotous mob or a college showcase? From cherry pies and open houses to burning debris and smashed windshields, the two faces of Veishea are as different as night and day.

Veishea began in 1922 as a collaboration of the previous celebrations of individual colleges.

The first Veishea included an outdoor festival called the “May fete,” a night of one-act plays, a vaudeville act, a baseball game and a parade through campus.

It was billed by the Iowa State Student, ISU’s campus newspaper during the first half of the century, as a “continuous riot of color, activity and spirit.”

Veishea was intended to bring prospective stu- dents to campus.

In a letter to high school principals across the state of Iowa, printed on April 24, 1922, the Veishea publicity committee wrote:

“On May 11-13, Iowa State College will hold a three-day exposition to which you and every one of your staff and students are cordially invited. At that time, you will have every opportunity to show your students what each department of your state college has to offer, what the student does and studies, and what the opportunities are for the graduate of each department.”

Through the years, the celebration kept this “showcase” function, while adding other events for students, such as large concerts and featured speakers.

Charles and Priscilla Sage, both professors at ISU and long-time residents of Welch Avenue, saw the progress of Veishea through the years.

“[Veishea] was really a mecca for high school students to experience Iowa State,” Charles Sage said. “Everybody put forth what was really good about ISU so students would come here.”

Veishea featured many big names, including Harry Truman, Bob Hope, Ronald Reagan and Jack Dempsey. National bands also played at the dances and concerts, such as Count Basie, Diana Ross and Billy Joel. The event was celebrated primarily on the ISU campus.

“For most of the years, it’s been great fun,” Priscilla Sage said.

Chris Smith, a 1971 graduate of ISU, agreed.

Smith grew up in Ames and attended Veishea throughout her childhood. She said the Ames High School let students out of classes the Friday of Veishea weekend, and they would spend all day on campus touring buildings and exhibits and visiting greek houses.

“It was a way for students to show they were really proud of their school,” she said. “The whole point of it was to market Iowa State.”

However, the showcasing aspect of Veishea changed in the mid-1970s, according to Charles Sage.

Dr. Tom Thielen, vice president for student affairs from 1977 until 1997, said the showcasing aspect of Veishea changed about the time he came to Ames.

With videos and the media, students “know about ISU other than through Veishea,” he said.

When attracting prospective students became less important, student participation in the event began to drop. Smith said that during her first two years at ISU, when she lived in the dorms, residence halls were involved in Veishea as much as members of the greek system. She said that male and female floors would team up to build floats.

But by 1977, when Thielen began working at ISU, only a “narrow scope of students” was involved.

“Floats became very expensive,” he said, and the number of float entries in the parade decreased.

Priscilla Sage said this was when the celebration began to move off of the campus.

As bars moved to Campustown and students moved off campus, she said, parties began to be a greater part of Veishea.

Thielen also said students moving off campus changed the atmosphere of Veishea.

“Off-campus parties were really hard on the city,” he said. “Parties would get too large and just got out of hand.”