BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Local colleges are back in session and near the University at Buffalo, neighbors are taking notice. But it's not the reason the university or the city would like.
Over the three-day Labor Day weekend, police arrested 20 students near the University at Buffalo's South Campus and cited more than 60 others.
"I think it might have been much for people to get arrested," UB sophomore Brooke Gossert said.
Buffalo police said they don't like to put college students behind bars but are trying to proactively curb house parties and underage drinking.
"It almost feels like that there's a culture, that it's expected that you can come into University Heights and party and that's what we're trying to break down," said BPD E-District Chief Carmen Menza.
It's a long-standing problem for permanent homeowners in the University Heights neighborhood. Even before the arrests, they'd scheduled a meeting to try and come up with a plan to stop the parties.
"We're not against student rentals. What we're against is out of hand behavior and damage to property and quality of life issues," University Heights resident Pam Landel said.
She said she doesn't want to gripe, but rather help the city, university and her neighbors brainstorm ideas. Among Landel's recommendations was reducing the frequency of buses that run from North Campus to South Campus during the nights on the weekend. University District Council Member Rasheed Wyatt said he plans to talk with UB's President about that idea, Wednesday.
"Bus service is also for the 24-hour libraries that we have and like that's kind of unfair for students because that's kind of a privilege that we have through school so I don't think it would be fair to take that away," said Carly Schenker, sophomore.
Students said they believe it's an overreaction.
"There was a few kids just having fun, like, it's college kids," Gossert said. "You can expect them to go out and socialize. It wasn't like blowout parties that were disrupting anyone or anyone was dying or getting hurt, you know what I mean?"
But police said it's for the safety of everybody who lives in the area including the students.