Task Force Recommendation for VEISHEA
- Thread starter Angie
- Start date
Don't know anything about Tom Hill but in his public statement on the news tonight Leath singled out Hill for praise, so maybe Leath's decision now is just a rubber stamp of the committees recommendations. Being a 72 alum it's hard to imagine ISU without Veishea, but anything that takes its place will be an excuse for partiers to go crazy if campus security and Ames police don't take steps to beef up security no matter what they call it. Just seems like the authorities could work with the student body to be better prepared for rowdy partiers and get a police force to hot spots before they spread. Maybe it's not that easy but there is huge homecoming partying all over the country almost every fall week-end that seldom gets out of hand.
This is 95% the same as completely cancelling Veishea. Changing the name is a good idea. Everything else is bad. No attempt whatsoever at controlling alcohol abuse - root cause of problem. This is like hiring an architect to fix a leaky faucet.
Then it was Dane Cook in 05. Stars over VEISHEA was renamed to Stars Over ISU, but still went on. The only difference I remember between 05 and 06 were the parade, Saturday's club tents on central campus, and the food vendors. They cancelled the name and the parade, but allowed students to still have a spring festival with a lot of the bigger events.
- Mar 27, 2006
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good decision. good riddance. yeah, some people might try to have an unofficial festival, and yeah some people might show up. But without an actual event to draw people in, the unofficial celebrations will be less and less attended as the years go by, and it will become just another weekend.
This is my thought. Why can't they go after the actual problem here. Why does everyone need to suffer because the police and university can't do there job. Stop making the same stupid mistakes of driving people onto Welch from house parties, and step up enforcement that week. Dont allow any big house parties near central campus. Drive them farther away from campus. No riots would go down in west Ames, or even farther up on west st
- Mar 27, 2006
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I would say killing the event that the riots stem from is absolutely going after the actual problem. It's a funny thing, over the years, the vast majority of the riots in Ames, have seemed to primarily happen during VEISHEA week. Not so much during the other 51 weeks of the year. Seems pretty logical to me. Get rid of the event and the problem will eventually go away.
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
You might be understating here. Have there been any non-VEISHEA week riots?
There might be. I don't remember any. They certainly did go right to the root of the problem here.
Agree. Out of the dozens of Veisheas at ISU how many years have there been riots, two? There were more riots than that weekly when I was at ISU during the Viet Nam/Kent State days. Instead of over-reacting and chucking one of if not our most well known tradition and punishing the thousands of students and prospective students that benefit, it doesn't seem like a lot to ask for the administration, students, and local authorities to work better together to prevent it from occasionally happening. Does anybody really think there isn't as much or more partying going on at homecomings every fall, and you seldom hear of riots. Find out what those administrations and local authorities are doing to prevent partying from turning into riots.
There have been 4 or 5 that have been termed riots, but there is plenty of property damage and other crime that occurs during Veishea even if it isn't a full scale riot
Why can't they step up enforcement or learn new tactics to handle the behavior. Honestly its the idiots who glorify the "riots", which I was one of back in '04. But let's be serious, these were more pep rally like gatherings with a few idiots doing the damage than any sort of actual riot. Back in '04 everyone sat around drinking beer chanting isu stuff and only came because they heard others were gathering. If the cops could just handle business, disperse the crowd and take care of the idiots, everything would be fine. Do you really think if a group of cops advanced on a guy tearing down a light pole would cause the students to attack the cops? Of course not, they would see the cops mean business.
Stop glorifying it as a riot when it hardly is anything more than a gathering with a few boneheads.
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Can't scapegoat the police for peoples bad behavior. The police can't win...throw on riot gear and they are the bad guys for being too rough, stand back and they are too weak.
If parties didn't have hundreds of people, they wouldn't have to break them up. If people didn't let out of towners come visit or into their parties, etc.
I do think the student body, if TRULY dedicated to a solution, could help make it work.
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I for sure don't think the cops are to blame for 100% of it, but a "riot" to me means the crowd is actively gathering together to attack whatever establishment over a particular issue. In this case it's a majority of people standing around for no reason other than to be in this so called "riot" and have fun. Again its not like anyone is there to intentionally harm property, the police, or to make a statement about an issues. The ones that do destroy property are immature idiots who think it would be cool as the crowd would cheer. Cops should just take these people down rather than sit back and watch with the crowd. Again its not like the crowd is ever going to advance on the cops.
They just need to handle it a little better, and try different tactics on letting these groups form.
I do also think we need to get rid of this "riot" stigma so college aged people dont attend veishea simply to say they have been in a pseudo riot.
Look at the definition of riot. I blame the media for glorifying the behavior like that. What happens at veishea definently doesn't meet the first or second definition.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/riot
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Glad it's done. Yes it was has history behind it but it is becoming more of a hassle than doing any good. I don't think the university had any choice in the decision, it had to done. Stepping up enforcement may of worked but I don't think they could take anymore chances.
Farnsworth, just stop. You're so wrong it isn't even worth commenting on but I'm going to anyways.
Do you not see an issue with something when you have to increase police presence just to be able to hopefully handle it? It's on the Ames/ISU police departments to step up their patrols for a week just because some students think they can do whatever the hell they want with no repercussions? A football game is one thing, an entire week of people being *** holes because "IT'S VEISHEA!!!!" is another.
It isn't just riots. It's every single year something impressively stupid happens which is preventable. Dude jumping from balcony to balcony at Legacy and falling to shattered legs. Dude falling off a balcony at Chamberlain Lofts to his death. Every year there's property damage and vandalism. It isn't up to the police to control behavior, it's up to the participants. The participants have proven time and time again they can't handle it so they tackled the problem. They tried working with the property managers in Campustown. They tried telling people to keep house parties under control. No one cared to listen so they took care of the problem.
Do you not see an issue with something when you have to increase police presence just to be able to hopefully handle it? It's on the Ames/ISU police departments to step up their patrols for a week just because some students think they can do whatever the hell they want with no repercussions? A football game is one thing, an entire week of people being *** holes because "IT'S VEISHEA!!!!" is another.
It isn't just riots. It's every single year something impressively stupid happens which is preventable. Dude jumping from balcony to balcony at Legacy and falling to shattered legs. Dude falling off a balcony at Chamberlain Lofts to his death. Every year there's property damage and vandalism. It isn't up to the police to control behavior, it's up to the participants. The participants have proven time and time again they can't handle it so they tackled the problem. They tried working with the property managers in Campustown. They tried telling people to keep house parties under control. No one cared to listen so they took care of the problem.
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- Mar 27, 2006
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Why? Because VEISHEA just isn't worth it. There are about a hundred other ways I'd rather have my tax dollars spent than on extra police training and personnel for a silly festival that the students can't handle.
