SUNY Brockport hosted the first edition of Transfer Tuesdays on Tuesday, Feb. 4. This new series of transfer student-oriented events are designed to give those who transferred to Brockport an opportunity to connect with one another.

For this event, a group of 20-30 transfer students were treated to free food and a night of trivia, held in the Seymour Union ballroom, kicking off a successful first week of this new initiative.

SUNY Brockport Transfer and Veteran Programs Coordinator Matt Wilson is at the forefront of these new events.

“In the past, a lot of transfer students have said that there’s not a lot of programming for them,” Wilson said. “They believe the programming is geared towards incoming freshmen which isn’t necessarily true. So, we thought that we would make sure that we had programming that mentioned transfer students and that is geared towards them.”

Wilson plans to keep events like these a weekly occurrence so students can always get involved.

“I want to have something at least every week,” Wilson said. “It doesn’t mean it’s going to be a big event like this, it might just be as simple as a table in the union but at least once a month I want it to be large. I want to keep them engaged and ensure that they can see a regular occurrence of transfer events,” Wilson said.

A large goal of Wilson’s is that all transfer students feel included and have an opportunity to participate.

“Some of our students are also commuters,” Wilson said. “Some of them don’t live on campus so what can I do to make them want to stay here and be engaged.”

The free meal attracted students to the ballroom and many stayed for the group trivia, where winners had an opportunity to win various pieces of Brockport merchandise. Participating students were quick to make new friends and make sure everyone was included. Students also expressed their excitement and interest in attending future events with hopes of bonding with their friends and easing the stress of their busy semester.

Wilson hopes that future events will continue to grab students’ interest and foster an environment that will keep them coming back.

Transfer students can refer to the Brockport events webpage every Tuesday for more information on future events.