Three weeks ago, President Martin Jischke asked Iowa State students to make a pledge for Veishea.

That pledge required residents in dormitories and greek houses to abstain from alcohol during the local celebration.

He said he would leave the decision up to ISU students and let them decide whether they would follow it.

If students approved it, he mentioned donating money to help find alternative activities.

Well, so much for letting students decide their own future.

In the past two weeks, the administration has resorted to threats and coercion in order to whip the students in line.

On two different occasions, officials from the Dean of Students Office have threatened revoking fraternity charters.

Both Dean McKay and Dr. Thomas Hill have repeatedly warned houses to tow the line or else.

These ominous signs have come with little or no reasoning behind them.

Despite the fact that the greek system has taken giant steps in policing itself, the Dean of Students and her associates are apparently not pleased.

No one from that office has said why they are taking such a hostile stance.

There have been no instances of violations by fraternities serious enough to warrant the removal of that house from campus.

In another related story, two fraternity parties were apparently cancelled this past weekend because of rumors that DPS and President Jischke (or some other senior university official) would be patrolling them throughout the night.

Those houses sponsoring the parties cancelled them, obviously since they didn’t want DPS and the president of the university breathing down their necks all night.

It appears that President Jischke has no intention of allowing ISU’s fraternity population to determine its own course for the Veishea celebration.

Through no fault of its own, the greek system is in effect being blamed for Veishea’s problems.

How are the fraternities responsible for the past troubles of Veishea?

Are they to blame for the riots of 1988 and 1992 or the death of Uri Sellers? Should they absorb the brunt of university threats?

The administrators have chosen to force greeks to swallow a proposal that they don’t fully support. Though 12 houses have signed on, that still leaves 20 that have yet to make a decision. That’s clearly not a majority.

The prevailing strategy seems to be that this proposition will be accepted, or those who oppose it will face the consequences.

With the controversy surrounding this issue, that kind of a strategy is totally counterproductive.

If the university wants students to go along with this proposal, a more cooperative strategy would work much better.

Of course, there are those who say the greeks are incapable of going dry, and their belligerence will destroy the 75-year-old tradition.

Why should fraternities go dry? They already go dry for an entire week (Greek Week) in the spring.

They are totally capable of abstaining; the question is — should they?

I think we should pose the same pledge to all citizens of Ames.

Obviously they wouldn’t do that, so does that make it fair to ask of-age students in the dorms and greek houses to do the same thing?

You can call it belligerence. I call it fighting to keep your privileges and freedoms. If you are of age and abide by the law, then what right does the university have to tell you what you can do in your own home?

The university thinks that it can walk in to these houses with little or no probable cause.

Wouldn’t you cancel a party you were throwing if you knew the police were going to be there?

As I said, if officials would cooperate fully with the fraternities, this kind of hostility could be avoided.

However, it is the university who has thrown down the gauntlet once again.

These strong-arm tactics are typical of the administration.

They are forcing students to veto this measure and it is they, not the fraternities, who are threatening the future existence of Veishea.

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Rob Zeis is a senior in finance from Des Moines.