When Friday night rolls around, Iowa State students head out to bars, clubs and restaurants to kick back and have fun. For many international students, that means going to Boheme, 2900 West St.

Tiffany Spears, manager at Boheme, said the cafe plays an important role in the international student community.

“Iowa and Ames are fairly conservative, and they cater to a certain group. Most sports bars only play American music,” said Spears, junior in psychology and criminal justice. “[Without Boheme], there’s no place really for foreign students to go to … where they can feel welcome.”

Teresa Fong, senior in graphic design from Hong Kong, said Boheme is a great place for international students to socialize.

“It’s fun; [it’s] a good chance to meet more people and learn more about people and cultures that you’re not real familiar with,” she said.

Spears, who is from Kirsic, Turkey, said many international students have told her they feel comfortable at Boheme because of the variety of music played, from Middle Eastern to reggae and ska.

She said they also enjoy the events held at Boheme, such as open mic nights, tango and swing dance lessons and the World’s Feet dance nights held every weekend.

Hayati Koknaroglu, graduate student in animal science from Erzican, Turkey, said the cafe is a good outlet to learn about other cultures and communities.

“I like the diversity of music, friends and the spaciousness,” he said. “Another good thing about Boheme is that you can take your CD and have it played, thus you can show your traditional or local dance to other people.”

Despite the popularity of the cafe in the international community, Spears said Boheme is facing some financial difficulty.

“It’s not a problem on the weekends, but during the week it’s not very busy,” she said.

Spears said there may be a number of reasons for Boheme’s lack of business, such as location, lack of advertising and the fact that students don’t have as much money to spend toward the end of the semester.

Spears said it would be detrimental to the ISU international community if Boheme were to close.

“[International] students would be pushed out of social life,” she said. “People would once again feel alienated.”

Koknaroglu also believes the international community would be at a loss if the cafe went out of business.

“I feel that international students feel more comfortable at Boheme; it is becoming a place to meet people and hang around,” he said.