UB’s places of the heart — and mind

Sabrina Swenson and Leah Fairbanks get it. There are places on the UB campuses — for reasons as individual as the actual locations — that hold special emotions, memories and good karma for these students and others in the university community.

Swenson’s favorite is a surprisingly remote place in the midst of the Ellicott Complex sprawl. Fairbanks found a spot perfect for studying that also connects with the university’s tradition and history, a place she and her friends call the Harry Potter Room.

And then there is a sprawling, unabashed monument to the power of love in another unexpected site, this one surrounded by UB’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

All have a presence to inspire, comfort and lighten the load for students, faculty and others. And what college student — at UB or beyond — can’t name a place that has held special meaning in his or her personal story.

UB has its own honor roll of meaningful and fun favorite places. It’s just there are those who think they’re not enough.

“We need more of these places,” says Liesl Folks,” dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, who has championed the development of Grace Plaza. “Because we have loads and loads of students and not nearly enough places for them to commune. We need 30 of them.”

In this weekly series, the UB Reporter will take a look at some of those special places.

When Sabrina Swenson lived at Greiner Hall with three other girls, she needed some space. She liked her roommates and she liked Greiner — a lot. But Sabrina is an only child and she grew up a short drive away from water on Long Island.

Sabrina would look out the window from her fourth-floor Wing C Greiner dorm room and get a good view of what would become her favorite spot. It’s a tiny, almost perfectly round island in that small arm of Lake LaSalle across the Audubon Parkway. It’s connected to the Ellicott Complex mainland by a small footbridge. And when Sabrina walked behind Greiner, down the winding path past the lake — and crossed over the footbridge — she found the vibe she was looking for.

“I do like my alone time,” she says. “I need time by myself, and to be surrounded by water.

“It’s a little further away from the hustle and bustle of campus,” says Sabrina, a biology-psychology major who enters her senior year this fall. “And you can turn your back on campus, which was definitely nice because I don’t have a car.”

Sabrina, who now lives off campus, has welcomed a new player to her frequent visits to her favorite spot. A little over a month ago, she found a dog on Craig’s List rescued from who-knows-what by a single mother. The woman listed the dog for adoption online because she found she didn’t have time to take care of it. “Freyja,” named after a Norse goddess (the dog’s new owner is Norwegian and Swedish and pronounces it “Fray ya”) now shares Sabrina’s attachment to Ellicott island. While Sabrina basks in the pensive, contemplative mood, Freyja likes to pick out favorite sticks, carry around her beloved rubber toy and find shade where she can proceed with the “lump” part of her walk, which means lying down and interrupting all forward progress.

Drivers on Frontier Road coming from Audubon Parkway can see parts of the island — identified as Kanazawa Island on North Campus maps, but which is largely unidentified at the site. The footbridge is a short walk from the Spaulding and Wilkeson quads, and a longer, but pleasant walk from Sabrina’s former foothold in Greiner.

Today, a Thursday in mid-July, Sabrina and Freyja make their way down the path and across the footbridge, stopping along the way to investigate various sticks. A stiff wind blows in, giving a welcome break from what has been a stiflingly humid week. Geese fly noisily overhead, catching Freyja’s attention. And Sabrina and Freyja sit near three shady, sheltering trees in the middle of the island, elevated in a near-perfect mound above the edges where the ground meets water.

“It is an island,” Sabrina says. “And it’s a pretty nice view from here.”

A couple of benches are near the water, but Sabrina and Freyja sit at what is clearly the prime spot. The wind is blowing Sabrina’s long hair above her head, and Freyja’s strikingly long ears extend straight up. Walking together sometimes seems a mismatch, with Freyja’s focus and size pulling the slight Sabrina around. But now they look at peace, both sitting still looking out over the water, backs to the campus, flanked by the three trees.

The interview is over. But instead of turning to go back over the footbridge, Sabrina holds her ground, petting Freyja, who looks as calm and content as she has since she started her walk.

“I’m going to stay, if you don’t mind,” Sabrina says as the wind picks up a little. “I’m going to chill for a while.”