Flint Village, the third housing complex erected on the North Campus since 1999 and part of an ambitious, ongoing initiative to cultivate a thriving living—as well as learning—community at the university, is open for business and filled to capacity.

	President William R. Greiner (right) chats with Dennis Black, vice president for student affairs, and Alyson Wutz, a first-year law student and resident of Flint Village's special living and learning environment for law students, at an entrance to the new Flint Village student housing complex. The complex is the fourth housinf project undertaken by UB since 1998 and the third on the North Campus.
	Photo: Tom Mineo

The $22.65 million complex situated on 20 acres of land off Augspurger Road is home this semester to more than 500 upper-division undergraduate and graduate students in 236 fully furnished units, with two of its nine buildings dedicated to new and continuing students enrolled in the Law School.

Alyson Wutz, a first-year law student and resident of Flint Village's special living and learning environment, told those attending a dedication ceremony on Aug. 17 that the complex helps make UB's size more manageable. As both a former resident and former resident advisor in UB's residence halls for three years while earning her bachelor's degree in history, Wutz said she realizes just how important it is to provide a nourishing living space.

"They've broken down the size, and given us a great sense of community," she said.

Dennis R. Black, vice president for student affairs, said UB continues to follow in the footsteps of its founders with such worthy endeavors as the construction of Flint Village, named for Austin Flint, one of seven founding physicians of the University of Buffalo in 1846.

Helping garner the necessary manpower and finances to build a medical school on Virginia Street in November 1849, Flint called the finished facility "a success worthy of a noble undertaking," Black said. More than 150 years later, he pointed out, Flint's words ring true for yet another "sure success."

President William R. Greiner emphasized the determination and desire apparent with the builders, planners and designers who pool their talent for a project like Flint Village.

"Everybody puts their courage together and says, 'We've got to start in August to open in August.' This is a total team effort," Greiner said.

"Wait till you see what we roll out next," he added, alluding to the announcement that the university will break ground this fall on a fifth project for graduate housing along Skinnersville Road. As well, plans for housing and commercial development along Lee Road, which intersects with John James Audubon Parkway, are under way.

Addressing the public perception that UB's appearance is aesthetically lacking, if not uninviting, Greiner said the addition of apartment-style housing at three of the North Campus' major entrances has served to eliminate feeling as if one has entered the "land of foreboding."

He noted that the campus—once perceived as "distant and forbidding"—now offers a warmer presentation with the addition of residences such as Flint Village.

"It changes the feel of the campus," he said. "This is a community within a community."

With more places for students to live, the plight of commuter culture—in at 8 a.m. and out at 5 p.m.—is fading from view, he said. As well, he noted, UB's new housing is changing the way the university recruits students.

"We are able to retain Western New Yorkers," he said, noting that students who look to "go away" to school now have more options with which to do so—right at UB. "Students that we think would have left—and the risk, then, of never coming back—are staying here."

With a waiting list longer now than it ever has been, living on campus seems to be a popular choice.

"It's clear that's what students want," Greiner said.

UB's president proudly pointed out that of $100 million spent on new capital construction on campus, not one dollar has come from New York State taxpayer dollars. Revenues generated through rental fees— comparable to the cost of living in the residence halls—will pay off the financing. As well, Greiner noted, 95 percent of the money invested in the project has been spent in Western New York with Western New York contractors.

"It's part of a big economic engine for Western New York," Greiner said.

The project was sponsored by the UB Foundation Inc. and the UB Alumni Association. It was designed by Lauer-Manguso & Associates of Amherst and built by ADF Construction Corp., also of Amherst.

James W. Manguso, a senior partner with Lauer-Manguso & Associates, said he wished he could turn back the clock to when he was in school, but with Flint Village in the picture.

"What I see, I really love," he said, noting that continued building leads to "continued refinement."

Robert A. Savarino, president of ADF Construction Corp. also spoke briefly, as did Thomas Trubiana, president and CEO of the Texas-based American Campus Communities, which served as the project's developer.

Additional remarks were made by Jeremy M. Jacobs, chair of the UB Council; Reginald B. Newman II, chair of the UB Foundation's Board of Trustees; David J. Saleh, president of the UB Alumni Association, and James A. Allen, executive director of the Amherst Industrial Development Agency.

Greiner thanked state Sen. Mary Lou Rath, who was on hand for the occasion, and Assembly Majority Leader Paul Tokasz—whom he called, respectively, the "godmother" and "godfather" of student housing at UB—for their initial push for the necessary provision to begin building Hadley Village.

"We are a community that can work together and succeed as a community," he said.

Flint Village is the fourth housing project undertaken by UB since 1998. Flickinger Court, located at Chestnut Ridge and Sweet Home roads near the North Campus, opened in Fall 1998 and houses graduate and professional students. Hadley Village followed in 1999, providing apartment-style housing on the North Campus. South Lake Village, along the south shore of Lake LaSalle, opened last August.

Skinnersville Village is expected to open in August 2002.