VEISHEA still deserves a chance

Members of the Iowa State University VEISHEA Task Force will meet with area business owners and residents for the first time this evening in an effort to determine the future of the long-standing student-led celebration. We urge forgiveness and cautious optimism.

The task force was created after this year's celebrations were suspended in the wake of a violent incident. It marked the first time since 2005 that some scheduled events, planned for weeks and months, were not held.

Although various disturbances, which have garnered a great deal of media attention, have occurred at the celebration events throughout the years, incidents of a larger scale have been relatively scarce when compared with VEISHEA's 90-year-plus history.

There were disturbances in 1988, 1992, 1994 and 2004 that resulted in significant property damage, with a full suspension of the event in 2005. In 1997, one man fatally stabbed another on a fraternity lawn; both were visitors.

Throughout the years, there's little doubt many additional and more mild disturbances have occurred during the weeklong celebrations - and most them, like the 2014 riots, involving ISU students. But beyond the street parties on Welch and Stanton and their participants are hundreds of students hoping to showcase their talents and support local charities. Thousands of visitors, many of them school alumni, flock to the area each spring to reminisce and boost the local economy.

Following the 2004 riots, town and gown officials made changes for the betterment of VEISHEA. They were a good start, but far from a finale. One idea to explore: How much would it cost for the student-led Veishea Council to pay 'hot-spot” taverns to close or not serve alcohol during the week?

No matter what the task force decides, VEISHEA - organized or unorganized, official or non-official - won't end. It is too ingrained within the ISU culture simply to fade without further notice and is potentially more combustible as a martyr.

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