University officials and local entrepreneurs got together in the muddy courtyard outside Jacobs on Thursday to break ground on the new Alfiero Center - the first UB building to be constructed mainly by support from private donors.
The Alfiero Center will be a three-story addition to the School of Management in Jacobs Hall. The center is named after Sal Alfiero, chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Protective Industries, who donated $2 million for the project.
Construction is set to begin sometime in May, and completion is expected in 18 to 24 months.
"I thought it was time to give something back to the community, and UB is a great institution that gives a lot to the community and our kids," said Alfiero.
The 23,000-square-foot glass facility will house academic and career development offices for students who enroll in the School of Management. Other features include an Internet caf?(c), three high-tech classrooms, an entrepreneurship suite and an undergraduate mezzanine that overlooks the center's multistory atrium.
According to UB News Services, "wireless computer technologies will be integrated throughout the building," allowing students around-the-clock access to online business data. The center's interior design includes space for student meetings and group projects.
The main convening area will be named for UB alumnus J. Grant Hauber, graduate of the class of 1948, who contributed $500,000 to the project.
Hauber said the architecture of the building must give students "a view of the outside world."
"They came to me with plans to renovate a basement room, and I said, 'We're going to do this right or not at all,'" Hauber said. "Instead of holing them up like rabbits, why not let them see the sky?"
According to UB President William Greiner, the total price tag on the Alfiero Center was $7 million.
"We managed to get aid from the SUNY match program, the same program that helped us add on to Ketter Hall, but the rest was all corporate and alumni support," said Greiner.
Nine people turned the earth on the site where the center will be built, including Julia Novelli, president of the Graduate Management Association.
"It's just about classes and faculty, it's really a gift to the students," said Novelli.
According to Greiner, the center is the tip of the iceberg for using private donations to help pay for future structural expansion on campus.
"As far as the physical planning, and expansion, we're moving toward a place where blending state funds with private philanthropy will be more and more common," he said.
Hauber said he is wary of this trend and said alumni involvement is what keeps the university going.
"Without a dedicated alumni, nowadays, a university will rot on the vine," Hauber said. "I wanted to look out to the future. We have to make the students feel like they had something, learned something, that deserves giving back, too."
Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki
