Members of Leath's "Veishea Task Force" Announced
- Thread starter ZachsterPoke
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Well, you also just compared drunk college students to Hitler, so your objectivity seems a bit questionable here.
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
No, I didn't. I named a decision already completed that I'd love to change but can't, because it's finished.
This big time.
I would be fine with ISU getting rid of activities for students (concerts, comedians, magic shows, whatever -- anything that happens during the week and at night that isn't a student performance) if it looks like the dumb****** are going to continue to be stupid, and just bringing back VEISHEA as a family weekend; the parade, central campus tents, pies, etc.
What decision has been completed that you'd love to change but can't because it's finished? VEISHEA? In your opinion, perhaps. Not in mine.
Maybe my college/department put more emphasis on the departmental pride than yours does/did. Perhaps that's why I'm apparently more "invested" in making it work than you seem to be. Either way, I hope you're wrong and I'm right, not so that I can be prideful, but because it means that VEISHEA will be VEISHEA, not the corruption some people are trying to make it.
I don't think students get drunk and riot because there are concerts/comedians/magic shows, they do it because it's VEISHEA and that's what you do during VEISHEA.
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
VEISHEA means party to students and people around them. That cultural decision was made over 2 decades ago. I'd love to change that, but that's over and done with. People made their choice.
Sure, some are bothered now because something could be lost. There were 26 years to change that culture, and nobody got the job done. That's why it's fair to pull the plug now.
Eh, not meant to be. College of Ag gets a lot of mileage out of the VEISHEA displays and ag-related events. Other colleges had traditions they maintained every year. Anyone remember the homemade yogurt from the microbiology department? How about the fun kid activities in Psych? My boys loved the parade and the petting zoo at the vet school.
I get his point though. If you remove the extra events that would make VEISHEA a more attractive weekend for parties and out-of-town guests than normal it probably dilutes that scene a little bit, maybe just enough to keep a mob from forming. If the name is really that big of a problem as far as encouraging parties, than I guess change the name and put the parade and campus showcase events under a new banner. Nobody is going to plan a party just to go to a parade hung over the next morning. They might party in spite of it, but not because of it.
This is true for a certain population, but not the larger population. How many students do the heavy partying? A few hundred (with several hundred "friends"). How many students participate in the other campus activities and concerts (with alumni and true friends)? Thousands.
Turn VEISHEA into a daytime festival. Call it "VEISHEA Days." Disassociate it with the night-time activities. And then get smarter about patroling the party areas. This problem is easier to fix than the football team's offense!
Have met the man and talked with him in depth. If there is one thing he stands for it's student opportunities. This is one of those opportunities.
Yeah Erik, it's not like they riot every year, just every 4 or 5 years on average.
Well not directly, no. My thinking was a way to address the "because it's VEISHEA and that's what you do during VEISHEA" thing. Essentially they would announce there is no VEISHEA week anymore. But instead of cancelling everything outright, try to limit the scope of VEISHEA to the daytime activities over the weekend. Since those activities are family activities, they would be less likely to insinuate that the week is meant to be a big party, which in turn might help with the craziness in campustown. Essentially the rest of the week would be reduced to be like every other week.
Just a thought.. who knows if it'd help, I'm certainly no expert on this stuff. I just don't want to see the administration throw out the baby with the bath water.
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CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
This is the sort of thing that can go towards keeping something around, but you have to find a way to quantify and prove that it's thousands of students involved in the other events.
If it is, then you've got something.
If it isn't, not so much.
A one-day or one-weekend festival with a zero tolerance evening policy might have a chance. I still think it's too late and they've had enough chances. This is the closest sort of thing to workable that might be there.
The percentage of students that party VEISHEA week is bigger than that, but I think the key is that for most of them they're partying probably isn't much worse or cause more problems than any other party weekend in Ames.
- Mar 27, 2006
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It's true. In fact, VEISHEA actually started out as a violent German tradition from the 18th century. See, German soldiers would hire themselves out as mercenaries and fight for whoever paid them enough. When they'd ransack a town, they'd have this big party where they'd all get drunk, destroy property, tip over horsecarts, and show off the art/science projects that they all worked on when they weren't fighting. They called it HESSHEA.
The Revolutionary War brought them to America, and the HESSHEA celebration came along for the ride. After we kicked King George to the curb, a lot of those German mercenaries stuck around, and settled in the Midwest, where their savage celebration became a local yearly tradition. Oh, yeah Hitler was a BIG fan. He especially loved the cherry pies, because the red filling was a great representation of the blood of innocents.
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