What The Hell Happened In Ames Last Night?

Jared Borislow11 years ago

Midwestern universities have always been known for throwing some bangers. Little 500, Unofficial, Mifflin (R.I.P.), The DeVry University (Gary, Ind., satellite campus) Annual “Chug-til-your-butt-can’t-take-it-no-more” Franzia Throwdown–pick any one of those and you can’t really go wrong. Another party that deserves to be on this list, now even more after last night, is Iowa State University’s VEISHEA.

According to Iowa State’s website:

VEISHEA is an annual celebration held at Iowa State each spring, and one of its oldest traditions. It serves as a showcase and display of the Iowa State community with a wide variety of educational and entertainment events.

Well, it sure was entertaining.

Late last night, students began to riot, as they are often prone to doing. This wasn’t a normal riot, though. This was a balls-to-the-wall, “let’s go and destroy our own campus for no reason other than the fact that it is the week during which we are supposed to celebrate our community” riot.

KCCI’s Kim St. Onge reports:

A couple thoughts right off the bat:

1. Kim St. Onge can get it.
2. Maggie Loomis can get it, too, if she changes that attitude.
3. Those students don’t appear to be flipping a car. Quite the contrary–they appear to be returning it to its normal, unflipped position.
4. Police were able to disperse everyone just by yelling through bullhorns? The Tucson Terminator might have some choice words for you all.

Now to more rioting:

I tried to do some investigative work into this matter. Through Twitter, I found a kid who was there, but sadly I could not reach him for a comment.

Here’s a photo of some rioters on their phones, which was apparently tweeted out by Sean Connery:

This also came up when I looked up #VEISHEA. Classic OTPHJoe.

Iowa State University President Steven Leath released a brief statement earlier today about the incident.

I was immediately made aware of the situation that began in Campustown shortly before midnight, and have continued to receive information over the past few hours from police and other staff. We are all distraught and disappointed over the events that have unfolded near campus overnight. I can confirm that one of our students has been seriously injured and his condition is unknown at this hour. Student Affairs staff have reached out to the family. At this time, I ask everyone to keep this student in your thoughts and prayers.

My senior cabinet will convene first thing in the morning to assess this situation and evaluate options for the remainder of our official Veishea activities planned for this week.

Additional information will be posted on the Iowa State homepage at www.iastate.edu as soon as it is available.

Ames turns up for Tuesday, and it’s a TFM.

[via ISU News Service, VEISHEA]

Image via YouTube