Getting Involved
Buffalo State offers many extracurricular activities for students interested in politics and diplomacy.
Student Political Society
The Student Political Society (SPS) is the student academic club associated with the Department of Political Science. SPS hosts many events throughout the academic year such as visits and discussions with local politicians, post-election analyses, the ins-and-outs of graduate school, and lectures/discussions on topics of current interest to club members. SPS has a bulletin board next to the political science department chair's conference room (next to the department office). The Student Political Society office is located in B211 Classroom Building.
Pi Sigma Alpha (Xi Theta Chapter)
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Patrick McGovern
Pi Sigma Alpha is the National Political Science Honor Society. Buffalo State has held chapter membership in Pi Sigma Alpha since 1983. Membership in Pi Sigma Alpha is by invitation. The chapter faculty advisor will send out invitation letters in early March of each year.
Eligible students must meet the following criteria:
- Complete at least 30 hours overall and 18 or more hours in political science at Buffalo State.
- Earn a minimum overall GPA of 3.2 and a minimum GPA of 3.2 in political science courses.
The lifetime national membership fee is $35, which is collected by the local chapter (Xi Theta). The initiation fee is the only payment members ever make to the national office of the honor society; there are no annual dues. Students bring a check made payable to Buffalo State Department of Political Science. Honorees are officially inducted into Pi Sigma Alpha at the Political Science Department Award Ceremony (which takes place in late April or early May).
Buffalo State Mock Trial Team
The Buffalo State Mock Trial team is a student club and mock trial competition team. We are affiliated members of the American Mock Trial Association, a national organization that sponsors regional and national undergraduate mock trial tournaments around the country. We have competed in the Adirondacks Regional Tournament sponsored by the AMTA. These regional tournaments draw many teams from public and private colleges and universities around New York State, Pennsylvania, and New England.
The objective of the team is to give students hands-on experience with the legal system and trial procedures. Mock trial competitions follow closely the courtroom processes in the “real” world. While the cases are hypothetical, student attorneys must present evidence, conduct direct and cross examinations of witnesses (witnesses are also played by student competitors), follow rules of evidence and trial procedure, and present opening and closing arguments to a two-person panel of judges who score them on knowledge of law, quality of presentation, and their general role playing skills. Many students have joined the Mock Trial team because they have aspirations of attending law school, but all of our students enjoy the law and the courtroom experience as an intellectual exercise. Our team spends the fall semester preparing the case, developing our arguments, and rehearsing for the February competition.
The Mock Trial team consists of students of all class ranks, and come from a variety of majors. We encourage any student with an interest in law to join our team and participate in the competition regardless of your major or career interests. While the preparation is intense, you will learn the skills of developing an argument and oral presentation that will serve you well in whatever academic and career pursuits you undertake, while making new friends and having fun.
Mock Trial Team News Stories
Model United Nations
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Mehwish Sarwari
The United Nations is a student committee run under the auspices of the Student Political Society.
SUNY Model European Union
Faculty Advisors: Dr. Laurie Buonanno (buonanl@buffalostate.edu)
The Institute for European Union Studies at SUNY's SUNY Model European Union (SUNYMEU) was established in 1987. Buffalo State's Department of Political Science & Public Administration has been sending a delegation since 2007.
BREXIT? Migration Crisis? Eurozone? Data privacy? Transatlantic relations? What do these terms have in common? They are all issues facing the European Union, a regional association comprised of 27 European countries that has been the major force for European integration since 1957. Would you like to learn more about the European Union? To meet and work with students and faculty from European universities and other universities throughout the US?
If you answered yes to these questions, please contact BSC's SUNYMEU faculty advisers!
Pi Alpha Alpha- The Global Honor Society for Public Affairs & Public Administration
Induction into the public administration and affairs honor society takes place each April. Qualifying MPA students will receive an invitation during the spring semester by Dr. Atta Ceesay, Pi Alpha Alpha local chapter faculty adviser.
NASPAA Batten Annual Policy Simulation
The NASPAA-Batten Student Simulation Competition is a day-long event that allows graduate students in public administration, public policy, and related fields to test their skills on real-world data.
The 21st century has seen a shift in learning from traditional models of teacher-student engagement to more experiential learning using case studies, capstone experiences, internships, and simulations. The NASPAA Simulation Competition was first designed in 2015 to support and encourage more experiential learning in the classroom, especially in the realm of public policy and administration education (Source: NASPAA Batten 2020). Buffalo State's MPA program has been fielding a team since 2018. Our 2019 team, which traveled to Rutgers University's School of Public Affairs-Newark for the competition, tied with Columbia University as regional winners.
Please contact Dr. Ceesay for more information.