University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

As director of residence halls and apartments, Joe Krakowiak oversees the holdings of Western New York’s largest “landlord.” The latest entry in UB campus living, Greiner Hall, is under construction adjacent to Fargo Quad in the Ellicott Complex. Photo: NANCY J. PARISI

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• “It’s a fact that students who live on campus do better academically than those who don’t.”

  Joe Krakowiak

  Director of Residence Halls and Apartments

By JIM BISCO

Published: May 12, 2010

As director of residence halls and apartments for what he says is Western New York’s largest “landlord,” Joe Krakowiak oversees a vast amount of UB campus living: 111 buildings, a total of 2.4 million square feet across two campuses with 7,500 beds. There are 200 full-time employees and 500 students under his management.

The residents of this community range from freshmen to families with children. The oldest resident was a recent 72-year-old law student. Diversity in the residence halls is profound, he adds, with more than 60 nations represented. Maintaining a consistent standard of living that allows for the educational objective at hand is key.

“We have to have the kind of service that you would have in an apartment and residential environment,” says Krakowiak. “Not only do we have people who live with our students who we call our residence life staff, but we also have a residence education staff because we’re not a hotel. We’re here to help students graduate from the institution.”

The director notes that UB is unique to other SUNY schools in that “the housing operation covers the entire gamut of what I call mission-critical activities. Residents need assistance in a variety of ways, so we have first-responders. We have our own facility operation, taking care of everything inside of our buildings—the maintenance, upgrading and improvements of the systems. We have our own custodial operation and our own upholstery shops because of all the lounge furniture and the 5,300 sets of room furniture that we have in our residence halls.”

A Western New York native, Krakowiak has led this residential community for 20 years. During that time, he has seen the bed capacity rise by almost 2,200 with the building of five apartment complexes over the past decade to accommodate upperclassmen and graduate students. All 7,500 beds are at 100 percent capacity.

After serving in the military in the early ‘80s, Krakowiak first came to UB as a graduate student in college student personnel, working as a graduate assistant in what then was called foreign student affairs. He also worked in admissions, veterans affairs, orientation and student life before assuming his current position.

He relishes the significant role that campus living plays in the university panorama. “I believe that when you have a lot of people living on campus, you get a more vibrant life on campus, whether it’s for the arts, sports or any cultural activity.”

Krakowiak notes that such living access is conducive to education. “One of our functions in residence life is to enable people to become part of the academic enterprise as soon as possible,” he says. “It’s a fact that students who live on campus do better academically than those who don’t.”

In support of this educational enterprise, he points out that tutoring is provided to 900 students a year and that during the past academic year the residence life staff conducted almost 1,700 programming events that attracted more than 26,000 students.

Greiner Hall, the new 600-bed residence building set to open on the North Campus in August 2011, will be the first building to have an entire first floor dedicated to learning space. “This will offer all kinds of places to study with state-of-the-art technologies, such as flat-screens for development of student presentations, and cubbyhole study spaces to accommodate groups of students,” he relates.

Krakowiak notes that his job can change on a daily basis, from dealing with enterprising students (recalling one who broadcast his own dubious television programming to the South Campus area from a signal outside his Goodyear Hall window) to such events as last year’s outbreak of the H1N1 flu, for which a health support system immediately swung into place. Tragic events like 9/11 and an occasional death of a student shake the community, but a strong 24-hour support system is in place to readily attend to emergencies and resident concerns.

Krakowiak also is a long-time rowing coach, developing the men’s and women’s rowing club programming at UB in 1989 (a short-lived program existed here in the late ‘60s). Before the women attained Division I status, he led them to a national title: the novice four race at the Dad Vail Regatta, the country’s largest intercollegiate rowing competition. His men’s team won the lightweight novice eight race at the regatta in 1995. He led the women’s club until it became Division I, and continued to coach the men’s club until this past year when he took on an administrative role.

Krakowiak’s time as director of campus living is growing short—he is planning to take the voluntary separation incentive, a retirement notion that he had in mind even prior. His plans are to travel with Marlene, his wife of 42 years; spend more time with their three married daughters—a teacher, psychiatric social worker and veterinarian—and their families, including seven grandchildren; and step up his furniture-making interest, which has resulted in dining room sets and more made for his entire family.