Students return to South Campus housing makeover

Residential life has returned to the South Campus with the re-opening of Clement and Goodyear halls.

Nearly 1,000 students began moving into Clement and Goodyear last Thursday after the two high-rise residence halls on Main Street were closed for a year while undergoing renovations as part of a $35 million investment on the South Campus.

While hauling suitcases and boxes into their new digs, students offered some thoughts on the renovations. Abdullah Azfar, first-year aerospace engineering major, and his roommate, Rudy Von Bartesch, a first-year biomedical science major, noticed the updates in their new room.

“It’s a lot nicer than my friends’ dorms, and other dorms I’ve seen,” said Azfar.

“I can see they’ve done some nice renovations in the hall,” Von Bartesch added. “It’s a lot nicer.”

Others, like first-year biomedical sciences major Sawyer Snowden, were simply “extremely excited to be here.”

Residence halls on the North and South campuses are at capacity, with 7,000 of UB’s approximately 30,000 students occupying the rooms. The students hail from 48 states and more than 100 countries. In addition to renovated residence halls, students will have expanded dining options, including a fully operational One World Café on the North Campus, said Brian F. Hamluk, vice president for student life.

“Whether it’s the facilities that are being enhanced, or life in the classroom, or the opportunities to learn from top faculty, or the investments that we’re making in the residence halls, it’s really a great time to be a student at UB,” Hamluk said.

The renovation of Clement and Goodyear is part of a larger investment happening on the South Campus over the next several years that calls for refurbishing not only the residence halls, but academic buildings and recreational spaces as well.

In Clement, the work included refinished bathrooms and new flooring in the bedrooms, new flooring and fresh paint in the hallways, and updates to the residence hall’s kitchenettes, lounge areas and first-floor lobby.

In Goodyear, the bathrooms also were refinished this summer, but the remainder of the work — painting, flooring, new furniture and appliances — will be completed during the summers of 2024 and 2025.

The project was the first real makeover in decades for the two residence halls and the first phase of renovations to be completed in Clement and Goodyear over the next three years. More than $35 million has been committed to renovating both Clement and Goodyear between 2021 and 2025.