Members of Leath's "Veishea Task Force" Announced

[ImJustKCClone]

Erik, serious question. The culture that needs to be changed is not the culture of VEISHEA, but the culture of students drinking to get drunk, of binge drinking and drinking games to speed the process. The culture that needs to be changed is the idea that it is fun to be destructive. To destroy something that doesn't belong to you, simply because you can. What can we, as adults - I believe you're a little older than the average student, yes? - what can WE do to affect that culture?

 

[Skyh13]

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.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

 

[ImJustKCClone]

Yeah Erik, it's not like they riot every year, just every 4 or 5 years on average.

In modern times. Nice deflection though.

 

[CycloneErik]

Erik, serious question. The culture that needs to be changed is not the culture of VEISHEA, but the culture of students drinking to get drunk, of binge drinking and drinking games to speed the process. The culture that needs to be changed is the idea that it is fun to be destructive. To destroy something that doesn't belong to you, simply because you can. What can we, as adults - I believe you're a little older than the average student, yes? - what can WE do to affect that culture?

Show that it doesn't reach a new level around this celebration.

Around the other culture, I have no idea. That's been passed on pretty heavily culturally by this point.
I still maintain doubts that most students are into much of a party world, but they certainly are that week.

 

[Tornado man]

All that says is that we are more interested in taking the easy way out to solve this problem than engaging our community, students, and alumni base and keeping them involved with this campus in a positive way. I was ok with cancelling this year because it needed to be addressed and they didn't have time to develop and evaluate a bunch of other options. I'm fine with a hiatus if they don't think one year is a sufficient enough amount of time to get the event back on track. I will be VERY disappointed in the administration if the best idea they can come up with is a permanent cancellation. This is Iowa State, we are smarter, more creative people than that.

Agree with your post except for this. If you're going to keep Veishea, what purpose does a "hiatus" serve? Take a few months, determine strategies, and then implement them for next year. To me, taking a year or two off is taking the "easy way" out too...

 

[MNCyGuy]

It's true. In fact, VEISHEA actually started out as a violent German tradition from the 18th century. Back then it was called HESSHEA. 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. 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.

Fun fact, Hessians weren't actually mercenaries, at least not in the way we would think of them in the present day. They were the official national army of the nation-state Hesse-Cassel which would eventually become part of present day Germany. It was a common practice for these small Germanic states to lease their military to larger countries as a way to generate income. Hesse-Cassel in particular was renowned for having well-trained soldiers and their economy basically revolved around the military and industries, like uniform making, that supported the military. Thus the Hessians involved in the American revolution were not really the drunk German soldiers-of-fortune many of us were led to believe in history class.

And thus concludes our informative history thread interlude. You may now return to debating the future of VEISHEA.

 

[3TrueFans]

In modern times. Nice deflection though.

26 years is a pretty good set of data to look at I'd say.

 

[Angie]

In modern times. Nice deflection though.

But we live in modern times.

I get what you're saying, but can't what you're wanting just be accomplished by having a one-day exhibition on central campus without everything surrounding it, with some corresponding arts events at Iowa State Center? There's no need for this to be a week long, with all of the build-up surrounding it.

 

[Mr Janny]

Fun fact, Hessians weren't actually mercenaries, at least not in the way we would think of them in the present day. They were the official national army of the nation-state Hesse-Cassel which would eventually become part of present day Germany. It was a common practice for these small Germanic states to lease their military to larger countries as a way to generate income. Hesse-Cassel in particular was renowned for having well-trained soldiers and their economy basically revolved around the military and industries, like uniform making, that supported the military. Thus the Hessians involved in the American revolution were not really the drunk German soldiers-of-fortune many of us were led to believe in history class.

And thus concludes our informative history thread interlude. You may now return to debating the future of VEISHEA.

you can't tell me that some of them weren't drunk.

 

[MNCyGuy]

Agree with your post except for this. If you're going to keep Veishea, what purpose does a "hiatus" serve? Take a few months, determine strategies, and then implement them for next year. To me, taking a year or two off is taking the "easy way" out too...

IF they thought it was a legitimate strategy that would eliminate some of the party culture around the week, I could be supportive of that. And I would want them to set a definite return timetable. I agree that an open-ended hiatus would be weak.

 

[MNCyGuy]

you can't tell me that some of them weren't drunk.

That's a question for the ladies of the Stuff You Missed in History Class Podcast. I'm pretty much tapped out on things I retained from their Hessians episode.

 

[WooBadger18]

you can't tell me that some of them weren't drunk.

Fun fact: German's can't get drunk and their BAC has to be close to 50% beer.

 

[crawfy54]

In my opinion, the riot on Tueday of Veishea would not have happened had the police been more prepared. And why should they have been? It was Tuesday. However, I saw a report that there was only 8 policemen on duty that night, before the riot started of course. If that is true, they really should have been more prepared. Also, don't bust two huge parties at the same time. Especially when they are the only two parties in campustown. Gotta let those parties burn themselves out. The police did a good job of not letting any parties get to that level the rest of the week.

Not an excuse for what happened. Just saying.

 

[ImJustKCClone]

But we live in modern times.

I get what you're saying, but can't what you're wanting just be accomplished by having a one-day exhibition on central campus without everything surrounding it, with some corresponding arts events at Iowa State Center? There's no need for this to be a week long, with all of the build-up surrounding it.

Actually, I'd be good with that. Thursday/Friday/Saturday (so that there would be time for attendance by out-of-towners). Focus on the daytime events, and the student-organized evening events that don't necessarily encourage alcohol consumption like SOV, maybe talent shows or skits in the Great Hall. And the students themselves need to start downplaying the idea that it's a "party week", along with those of us associated with it as alumni & in other ways.

My point about modern times is that much is being made of the "party tradition" of the past few years, while ignoring that there were three times as many years without those kinds of incidents prior to the first riot, and only one fourth of the years in the "current era party atmosphere" have escalated to out of control levels. I think we're allowing the bad to overshadow all of the good. It can be reined back in, but it will take a major push by the students as well as everyone else.

 

[ImJustKCClone]

26 years is a pretty good set of data to look at I'd say.

My response was a little sharper than I intended. However, see my above response to Angie...

 

[LutherBlue]

In my opinion, the riot on Tueday of Veishea would not have happened had the police been more prepared. And why should they have been? It was Tuesday. However, I saw a report that there was only 8 policemen on duty that night, before the riot started of course. If that is true, they really should have been more prepared. Also, don't bust two huge parties at the same time. Especially when they are the only two parties in campustown. Gotta let those parties burn themselves out. The police did a good job of not letting any parties get to that level the rest of the week.

Not an excuse for what happened. Just saying.

This was also my thought. You can ramp up police presence and have Jeff Woody on patrol or whatever you want to do, but if you have to do it for 5-6 consecutive nights ... maybe the event's not worth saving.

 

[CyDude16]

Regardless an unofficial veishea will continue no matter what they decide. I am guilty of over consuming veishea week but I still enjoyed many of the events it provided. Really think there was a reality check for many students in that their actions were stupid that night, let the out of towners get in trouble.

 

[CyDude16]

Erik, serious question. The culture that needs to be changed is not the culture of VEISHEA, but the culture of students drinking to get drunk, of binge drinking and drinking games to speed the process. The culture that needs to be changed is the idea that it is fun to be destructive. To destroy something that doesn't belong to you, simply because you can. What can we, as adults - I believe you're a little older than the average student, yes? - what can WE do to affect that culture?

Yeah it's only my generation and this generation in college that binge drinks and caused problems.

In my opinion, the riot on Tueday of Veishea would not have happened had the police been more prepared. And why should they have been? It was Tuesday. However, I saw a report that there was only 8 policemen on duty that night, before the riot started of course. If that is true, they really should have been more prepared. Also, don't bust two huge parties at the same time. Especially when they are the only two parties in campustown. Gotta let those parties burn themselves out. The police did a good job of not letting any parties get to that level the rest of the week.

Not an excuse for what happened. Just saying.

The ones who threw that massive parties we're the ones that called the cops to break it up. FYI

 

[ImJustKCClone]

Yeah it's only my generation and this generation in college that binge drinks and caused problems.



The ones who threw that massive parties we're the ones that called the cops to break it up. FYI

I don't believe I said that.

 

[Frak]

I think that cancelling it is a very real option. No matter what, students are going to party hard all week if it's VEISHEA and no altering of events is going to change that. If they are really serious in keeping it, my suggestion would be to first block off Welch Ave the entire week. Allow vendors and carnival games to set up on the street. Maybe set up the stage for concerts by the Welch clock tower. Then up the police presence. I would ask ISU to pay for more rent-a-cops and also ask the GSB to fund some. Get cops walking that street every night. The other thing that I would do is to rethink the police strategy for busting parties. I think that totally shutting down a party should be last resort. And then let it be known the police strategy. Let party throwers know that the police are there to work with them, but consequences for not complying with police requests will result in charges for MIP, bootlegging, etc. Just let them know that the cops are going to work with them and not come in and bust everyone for no reason. Also make it known that any students caught vandalizing property will be subject to expulsion.

I'd be fine with cancelling next year's VEISHEA. But when/if they do decide to reinstate it, I think that getting info out to the students ahead of time so that everyone knows where the police/university stand would go a long ways.