Linh Ta, and Katherine Klingseis

AMES, Ia. – Changes are needed in the way Iowa State University's annual spring celebration Veishea is run, a task force has decided. But those changes have not been determined.

The 17 members of a task force established after a violent run the week of Veishea this year voted unanimously on Thursday to recommend discontinuing Veishea in its current form.

While the task force did not decide on specific changes, it did discuss eliminating Veishea's name, spreading special events throughout the year, and holding an overarching university-wide event that could occur at a different time.

"We felt it was necessary to make, I dare say, significant changes in Veishea," said Micheal Owen, a task force member who is an ISU professor of agronomy.

Veishea is a 92-year-old spring celebration that has a history of coinciding with violent acts, including large riots, in Ames. This year's event was suspended after an overnight riot caused thousands of dollars of property damage and sent one student to the hospital with a serious head injury.

ISU President Steven Leath appointed the task force in April to make a recommendation about Veishea's future.

Thomas Hill, senior vice president for student affairs and chairman of the task force, could not be reached for comment Friday.

The task force has for weeks reviewed data and held public forums. The group examined costs for ISU's Department of Public Safety associated with Veishea. This year, the department had $35,620 in Veishea-related costs. In previous years, the costs ranged from $17,496 in 2007 to $35,893 in 2013, data provided to the task force show.

Owen said the data influenced his decision to support changing Veishea's current form. He attended his first Veishea in 1953 and said he appreciates the history of the event, but said the Ames and ISU communities have changed over the years and that Veishea should change with it.

"The one thing we are trying to do in this task force is not to think so much with our heart, but more with our head and to really look at the data objectively," Owen said.

Hillary Kletscher, ISU student body president, said that based on feedback she has received, students want to remain involved with Veishea regardless of its form.

"The student body, for the most part, had the majority opinion to keep Veishea, revamp it, and that is what I'll support moving forward in the discussion," Kletscher said.

Daniel Tjaden, who this fall will be a senior at Assumption High School in Davenport, plans to attend Iowa State after he graduates. He was looking forward to going to Veishea, he said.

"I've heard it's one of the best campus experience to have here," Tjaden said.

Tjaden said officials can try to prevent the negative events that have happened during Veishea, but "some stuff can't be stopped."

Ed Letcher, a 2012 ISU graduate from Milford, said he supports keeping Veishea "because it's a tradition."

Letcher, who is taking more ISU courses this summer in preparation for medical school, suggested changing Veishea into a month-long event.

"If you spread that over a month, maybe it could curtail the debauchery," Letcher said.

Michael Gansen, an ISU junior from Cedar Rapids, said he has difficulty seeing Veishea continuing in its current state, especially under its current name.

"It would still be an unofficial week of drinking," Gansen said. "It's a long-lasting tradition; a self-sustaining thing."

Gansen said moving the celebration to the fall could "change the general feeling."

Individual members of the committee will submit their own ideas on how the future of Veishea should look. The next task force meeting will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday in the Pioneer Room in the Memorial Union on ISU's campus in Ames.

The committee will make a recommendation on changes about Veishea to Leath and his executive team. Leath and his team will make the final decision.

Send reaction

Iowa State University's Veishea task force is soliciting feedback on proposed changes. Submit your thoughts at www.veisheataskforce.iastate.edu.

This article was updated June 9, 2014, to correct the time of the next meeting and the number of members in attendance at the first meeting.