So, President Jischke thinks “it would not be appropriate to associate” the murder of a young man on Welch Avenue during Veishea with the celebration; Dean MacKay writes it off as “something between two individuals;” and Brad James wants to point out that the crime occurred outside A Taste of Veishea (a whole half-block away). The scramble on the part of the administration to distance this crime from Veishea, while not surprising in light of similar, previous abdications of responsibility, is nonetheless appalling.

The university sponsors and sanctions an activity that attracts more than 100,000 people, many of them young adults, to the campus and surrounding areas, and then claims it can’t control what they do after the sun goes down.

Perhaps an aggressive stance to eliminate the culture of alcohol abuse that has become an unwelcome part of our Veishea tradition is the place to start. While I am in no way questioning the admirable efforts of the Veishea committees to provide non-alcoholic evening entertainment, it seems apparent that, in light of alcohol-induced violence associated with past celebrations, more drastic action is in order.

The Veishea riots of 1988, 1992 and 1994 (yes, what happened on Franklin Avenue was a riot, in spite of Jischke’s refusal to call it that; ask former City Councilwoman Pat Brown about it sometime), as well as the drunk-driving death of a young woman at Knapp and Hayward in 1993, ought to indicate that the bacchanalian revelry that is associated with Veishea will have violent consequences.

The murder of a young man at this year’s “big party” shouldn’t be a big surprise to anyone who has followed Veishea’s recent history. Whether the university wants to be associated with this violence is moot; by creating the carnival atmosphere, we open up the space in which this violence occurs.

If, as many (myself included) wish, we are to retain Veishea, then the university, and its top administrators, need to quit abdicating their responsibility for the post-sundown partying. I suggest, as a beginning, that:

(1) all fraternities, sororities and other social organizations sign an agreement with the university BANNING alcohol from their houses and events during Veishea weekend, (2) a zero-tolerance policy toward alcohol offenses be enacted, which would include keeping violators off the streets until they post bond and are physically sober, even if it means turning the Great Hall of the Union into a holding facility for violators, and (3) the City of Ames takes steps to tighten the keg ordinance, if such a move is constitutionally possible.

Personally, I’d like to see some of our responsibility-dodging top administrators checking arrestees for alcohol poisoning down at the Ames P.D. It might change their minds about the seriousness of the situation.

The only way to keep our tradition of Veishea is to shed the recently added tradition of alcohol abuse and its attendant violence.

Kel Munger

Graduate Student

English