TRADITION
Earlier this spring of 2017 students across the Iowa State campus awoke to an email from their President Steven Leath to find he has announced his resignation and accepted a new position at the University of Auburn.
Now it’s out with the old and in with the new. Some of the traditions at ISU will be gone forever. In the meantime, ISU students will be vigilant as the search for a new president begins. Cyclone students look back on the legacy he left behind and reflect on his tenure here at Iowa State.
VEISHEA, a long-standing tradition of celebration in the springtime at Iowa State dismantled by President Leath due to the event becoming out of control and leading to violence. 2014 was the last year of VEISHEA, and the soon to be graduates will be some of the last that remember it. VEISHEA was a large event that allowed for students to get involved in many different things
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President Leath has suggested alternative options to VEISHEA for Iowa State students but only time will tell what holds and what will not.
As one Iowa State student, Matt Banwart put it “President Leath cared more about the numbers than he did people, culture, and tradition. Cutting VEISHEA also decreased opportunities for students to get involved with planning committees for a large scale event and while some students coming in will never get to experience it, they will feel the backlash of it in a big way. While Leath was good at doing things like increasing tuition numbers the student experience for what it means to be a student at ISU has been taken away with the removal of VEISHEA.”
Planes, one of President Leath’s hobbies during his tenure at Iowa State has been flying himself home on University owned planes for ‘fundraising opportunities’ that Leath stated as hunting trips with members of the NRA and government