VEISHEA - Definition and Overview

VEISHEA (pronounced "VEE-sha") is the name of an annual university-wide celebration held each spring on the campus of Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa in the United States. The name of the festival is an acronym for the colleges of the university that existed when the festival was founded: Veterinary Medicine, Education, Industrial Science, Home Economics, and Agriculture.

The celebration features a parade and many open-house demonstrations of the university facilities and department. Campus organizations show off products, technologies, and hold fund raisers for various charity groups.

In recent years, it also earned the reputation as a somewhat raucous student celebration with notable distasteful incidents fueled by excessive alcohol consumption. VEISHEA became an alcohol-free event in 1998 after a fatal stabbing the previous year. The latest incident happened in 2004, when a riot broke out during the early morning hours of April 18. The riot, which started when Ames police arrived at an off-campus party, involved a crowd of about 1,000 students. On April 27, ISU President Gregory Geoffroy announced that VEISHEA will not be held in 2005. He also announced the formation of a task force to study the cause of the riots; the results will determine whether VEISHEA should continue after 2005.