Most of the parties held on the campus of SUNY Buffalo State are repetitive and simply do not appeal to every ethnicity of the students who reside on it. Every year we are stuck with the same style of music, festivities and group of students from the same or similar cultural backgrounds that attend these functions.  

Walking through campus, it appears the majority of Buffalo State’s residents either come from New York City or have Caribbean roots which give only those specific students something to relate to. The problem is that there are students from other places who don’t find these parties that are funded by the mandatory student activity fee all that enjoyable.

These campus parties only highlight a scene that appeals to people who enjoy music genres such as Rap and Soca. All this does is limit the amount of diverse social gatherings on campus. Many students who attend these functions are African-American. For students of any other ethnicity or background, there is a slim chance you’d see them at these events.

With a social scene that doesn’t include something for everyone, you rarely see commuters, Buffalonians or students from out of state attending these parties. 

While conducting interviews about the social scene on campus, a sophomore biology campus resident student, gave her take on the gatherings. 

“In all honesty, I feel like they can use some help”, she said. “They’re not bad, but they’re not great. I feel like coming from the background where I’m from being West Indian, it’s hard to actually enjoy parties on campus. The music taste isn’t there and the turn out is never that great. It could be better. I try to go to as much USG (United Students Government) planned parties as possible and those parties aren’t bad.” 

“I would like to go to at least one party and not have alcohol thrown in my hair because that’s not cool,” she said. 

She also said she doesn’t feel the parties are very diverse.  

“No, I do not. Like I said, I’m West Indian so I feel like it’s more geared toward Americans and what Americans listen to. You know you have some Americans who love their Afro-Beats and they want that to be incorporated and some DJ’s focus mainly on what they think is ‘in’.” 

Aliyah Braxton, another sophomore biology campus resident student, has attended roughly 11 parties in her time at Buffalo State. 

“I feel like parties that are held on campus are very exciting and something that you don’t normally see at colleges and it keeps you safe,” Braxton said. 

Braxton believes they are pretty diverse and says that there isn’t anything she’d want to see happen differently at the parties. 

“I think it (the amount of diversity) depends on which organization is holding the party, but some do, and some don’t,” Braxton said. “I think they have a wide variety of music that most of us students on campus listen to.”

Commuter students who attend Buffalo State aren’t attending these parties or campus events because they feel it’s nothing going on that appeals to them. 

A junior journalism commuter student says the only time he was involved on campus was during his time being a part of the football team. After leaving the team to focus on his personal life, he says that the campus festivities held no interest for him. 

Sadly, a lot of non-African-American and commuter students feel the same. 

The United Students Government and other organizations that set up social events on campus simply need to do a better job at including more variety that everyone will enjoy. Everything doesn’t need to surround sexual themes and Hip-Hop culture. Hopefully, we’ll see some major changes in the future.