Bring back VEISHEA, the great ISU tradition

VEISHEA – an acronym for the first colleges established at ISU – was an annual week-long event that took place each April. There was food, art, and even a parade, but unfortunately for current Cyclones, the much beloved tradition is no more.

Widely recognized as a week-long party and binge-drinking session, VEISHEA almost turned deadly in Spring 2014. The burning of couches and dangerous riots led to President’s Leath’s decision to end the long-standing tradition, and now the hearts of ISU students are left with a VEISHEA-sized hole to fill.

ISU students and non-students alike had plenty of booze-filled VEISHEA stories. College is a time to live and learn, and when what is essentially a week straight of drinking occurs, it can quickly turn into a shit show. Mistakes may have been made, but YOLO, right?

Whether you’re a student, alumnus, or someone totally unaffiliated with ISU, chances are you have fond memories of VEISHEA weeks past, and wouldn’t mind if the popular tradition was reinstated.

Common student gathering site during VEISHEA

“My freshman year of college at UNI, several of my friends went to VEISHEA,” said Scott Heggen, a senior in Business at the University of Northern Iowa. “They went to the concerts, specifically B.O.B. They took videos and came back, telling stories of an amazing weekend.

“I vowed to make it out to Ames the next year. When the next year rolled around, I had gotten tickets for the T.I. concert and was planning to go with several friends. Little did I know that a week before the concert, it would suddenly be canceled. I was very disappointed I was never able to attend a true VEISHEA.”

One of many concerts during VEISHEA week

As much fun as the week was, it also invited a certain amount of chaos.

“One year I came up to celebrate VEISHEA with a couple of my ISU friends,” recalled Bobbi Rocha, a Des Moines resident. “We were walking out of Fighting Burrito when chaos broke loose on Welch Avenue. People were yelling, the streets were full of students and then we heard a loud noise. A car had been tipped over, a common occurrence at VEISHEA.”

Car flipping in action

Matt Whitehouse, a senior studying Aerospace Engineering here at ISU, summed up his years of enjoying the tradition.

“It was freshman year and I had not really had too much experience with alcohol. So naturally, having three large glasses of Everclear and Hawaiian Punch (AKA jungle juice) was quite the ride,” he said.

“Campus was absolutely buzzing with happiness – and probably vomit – all week. There were vendors with (what seemed like at the time) delicious food all around Lake Laverne, signage and decorations all over campus, and fun events for everyone.

“It’s true that VEISHEA was used as an excuse to drink, drank, drunk, but there was so much more to get out of the experience. Grouplove, B.O.B., and others performed at affordable concerts in the Micro-Biology parking lot, students could buy buttons to get lunch on central campus, and of course, [there was] the parade.”

Typical ‘chaotic’ VEISHEA scene in Campustown

The parade was the most personal for me. My freshman year, I was a Build Leader for Freshman Leaders in Engineering’s (FLiE) parade float. The float represented the entire college of Engineering – and it was enormous, probably 40 feet long and 25 feet high. Situated on the back of the float was a giant “CyHome” made of plywood with a speaker system inside. I personally designed and built a jet out of papier mache, wood, and chicken wire which was then suspended on a cable between a large suspension bridge and the CyHome. The club got to walk the parade route with the Dean and show off our hard work, enthusiasm, and school pride.

Looking back, I choose to cherish my memories with VEISHEA, even if it’s gone. While I personally never got to experience the drinking side of the celebration legally, a smile will always work its way onto my face as I fondly remember my year and a couple of days with VEISHEA. It’s sad to think younger students might not even know what VEISHEA truly was.

As the upperclassmen are just about to graduate and leave this campus for what could be forever, so do the memories they have from this great tradition. It was more than just a party – it was a celebration for the community of Cyclones who call Ames home.

VEISHEA gathering