Terrorists > VEISHEA

For the uninitiated, VEISHEA is an annual week-long celebration held each spring on the campus of Iowa State University.  VEISHEA is an acronym for the original 5 colleges of the university:  Veterinary Medicine, Engineering, Industrial Science, Home Economics, Agriculture.  It's presumably the largest student run festival in the nation,

VEISHEA has been marred in the past two decades by off-campus, late night, alcohol-induced, party-goer rioting on the last weekend, causing mostly minor but some significant damage and injuries.  The last time it had happened was 2004, and the university president at the time canceled VEISHEA for the following year.  Another riot happened again this week (this time early in the week), and in response the new university president, Steven Leath, suspended the rest of -- which is to say most of -- VEISHEA for the year.

Lots of losers in this, but hands down the biggest losers in all of it are.....the ISU university presidents.

While there is no defending the instigators or participants in these, neither is there a rational defense of canceling VEISHEA in response.  By all accounts, it wasn't so much a riot as a social-media inspired mob scene with a few drunken idiots.  To make matters worse, Leath acts as if his action has the full support of the university leadership.

Let's drop the public posturing and consider the facts that Leath is ignoring, and would like others to ignore:

1) He says he's thinking of the institution and safety in making his decision to cancel, but what exactly does he mean by institution?  The administration?  The faculty?  Because the university institution doesn't exist without the students, and the vast majority of them want VEISHEA to go on.  So do the surrounding campus businesses.

2) Speaking of the administration and faculty, while they made be around for dozens of VEISHEA festivals (thank you, tenure!), the students are only there for a few.  Many of them volunteer and put many hours of work into it.  Now Leath has taken away the fruits of their labor, because of a few folks who might not even be students.  It's bad enough that the majority are made to suffer for the few in elementary school or high school, but this is college.  C'mon, man.

3) By canceling VEISHEA, Leath has unquestionably increased the probability of more trouble.  Now there will be no alcohol-free alternative activities, and more students are likely to attended the off-campus parties, which have always been a source of mob-like behavior.  This probability has already become reality, as police have stated that in the following two days after the 'riot' there have been about twice the usual off-campus incidents reported than in past years.  (Note: This year's riot was in part a result of police closing down an off-campus party. Is it really that hard for Leath and his institutional cronies to put 2 and 2 together?)

4) Leath could easily allow VEISHEA to commence while law enforcement reviews the volumes of video evidence (something other riots didn't have), and both they and he can ultimately take action against the few who deserve it.  Instead, he chose to rush to judgement, and punish the many who don't deserve it.  When are educational institutions, at any level, going to accept that they effectively govern behavior that goes on beyond their physical territory?

This continues a pattern of questionable, socially-conservative decisions from Leath.  He was the pansy for the conservatives on the state board of regents a year ago in stopping the Harkin Institute at Iowa State, and by not allowing freedom in their research, valuable senatorial papers will now go to Drake University instead. And no one has any idea why he's single-handedly prohibited a player from participating on the men's basketball team this year, even though said previously-suspended player has been cleared by the legal system.

How much longer before the contributing alumni just suspend their donations in the same way Leath seems to arbitrarily suspend things?  Maybe they should -- then I'm guessing he'll suddenly find ways to make things work, instead of thinking of reasons for things to not work.  I noticed one alumnus already commenting that if there was a student uprising at a sporting event, the president wouldn't cancel the rest of the athletic season. But apparently, canceling VEISHEA is OK, because it only hurts students and not the big donor fans.

By canceling VEISHEA and threatening its future, Leath and his predecessor have simply allowed the terrorists to win at the expense of the students.  At Iowa State, this is called leadership, but it's really just retreat.