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University Heights dealing with raucous student activity

Mike Desmond/wbfo news

Hundreds and perhaps thousands of students walked through University Heights over the weekend, looking for parties and behaving badly and noisily.

"It almost feels like there's a culture that it's expected that you can come into University Heights and party," said District Police Chief Carmen Menza.

"That's what we're trying to break down, the culture that it's not okay to come here because, you know what, as I tell all the college students: I say where do you live? And, they'll tell me in the suburbs or other parts of the city or other parts of the state. And, I say would this be okay with your parents if this was happening next door to them and the answer is always NO."

He says a special detail is arresting people and issuing summonses and the behavior continues.

Residents packed a meeting of the University Heights Collaborative last night to protest they aren't getting enough help from the police or the city or the university.

The city says inspectors are checking the overcrowded buildings. UB says it's suspending bad-behaving students and offering alternatives.

Mike Desmond is one of Western New York’s most experienced reporters, having spent nearly a half-century covering the region for newspapers, television stations and public radio. He has been with WBFO and its predecessor, WNED-AM, since 1988. As a reporter for WBFO, he has covered literally thousands of stories involving education, science, business, the environment and many other issues. Mike has been a long-time theater reviewer for a variety of publications and was formerly a part-time reporter for The New York Times.