In the August 28, 1997, edition of the Iowa State Daily, I found in the column from the Daily’s editorial staff the statement “Yet, what we are worried about is with the reputation Veishea has, will going dry really solve any problems?”

Quite simply (and in my honest opinion) the answer is “No.” However, before going further to explain, I like President Jischke’s challenge to eliminate the excess alcohol intake during Veishea.

For many years the “thing to do” at Veishea has been attending the parties.

That is not why the celebration was created and I believe that the students, faculty, staff and administrators of Iowa Statehave forgotten that.

This is sad. Veishea was started to celebrate education and bring all the colleges closer together.

In the past, Veishea has done wonderful things, such as doing a drive to raise money to support war efforts and beginning a program, called Veishea Scholars, to provide some financial support for incoming students.

Many students have no knowledge of these things, and even worse, many of them don’t care —because the Veishea we have now is not about education or our university.

It’s about attending bashes and “having fun” in the way college students seem so fond of.

Back to the question that was stated earlier: the reputation of Veishea is tarnished.

I salute the efforts of past general co-chairs for the awesome and daunting tasks that they each had on their plates.

Many of them have put in massive amounts of time and energy to make their Veishea the best and safest ever.

However, each year, they have to begin again the fight against the bad rap Veishea has gotten.

Each year, they have to pray that there are no disturbances or we will all be subjected to viewing again and again the footage of the riots that happened several years ago.

As annoying as that is, the sad fact remains: the reason that the footage is prepped and ready for viewing each year is that there is no support of the celebration, except that which comes from the students.

There is no community support.

Before you all start complaining about that statement and pointing out that lots of people in the community attend the activities that Veishea puts on, ask yourself if the Ames community (this includes the people living here, as well as the businesses) would care if Veishea ceased to happen.

I highly doubt it. I know of quite a few of them, community members and businesses alike, that would quietly rejoice.

Part of this stems from having bad relations with Veishea and its committees in the past.

A solution?

Maybe not a solution, but definitely a first step, is that maybe Veishea should focus its attention on repairing the relationship with the community.

Public relations is more than just handing out posters and doing radio spots.

It also means returning phone calls in a timely manner. It means answering the phone.

It means sending out those thank- you notes.

It means being nice to the people that provide services to this university during Veishea and not acting like we’re the ones doing them a favor.

These are not the only problems facing Veishea. But we have to start somewhere.

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Lynn Reed

Senior

Political science and history

Educational Outreach Committee

Veishea ’96

Opening and Closing Ceremonies,

Veishea ’95