VEISHEA

rdf:langString VEISHEA

rdf:langString VEISHEA (pronounced "VEE-sha") was an annual week-long celebration held each spring on the campus of Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. The celebration featured a parade and many open-house demonstrations of the university facilities and departments. Campus organizations exhibited products and technologies and held fund raisers for various charity groups. In addition, VEISHEA brought speakers, lecturers, and entertainers to Iowa State. Throughout its over eight-decade history it hosted such guests as Bob Hope, John Wayne, Presidents Harry Truman, Ronald Reagan, and Lyndon Johnson, and performers Diana Ross, Mike Jones (rapper), Billy Joel, Sonny and Cher, the Goo Goo Dolls, and The Black Eyed Peas. VEISHEA was the largest student run festival in the nation, bringing in tens of thousands of visitors to the campus each year. A 2014 disturbance led ISU President Steven Leath to suspend VEISHEA, and in August 2014 Leath announced that VEISHEA was being permanently discontinued with the VEISHEA name being retired. The name of the festival was an acronym for the colleges of the university that existed when the festival was founded in 1922: * Veterinary Medicine * Engineering * Industrial Science * Home Economics * Agriculture. The Iowa State Daily, the university's student newspaper, has spelled VEISHEA as an acronym and as a word, with only the first letter capitalized. Official university paraphernalia regarding the event still put it in full caps, per the trademark owned by VEISHEA and maintained by Iowa State University Trademark Licensing.