Guest Quarters: Home away from home for UB visitors

The idea behind the project is to provide visiting lecturers, researchers and scholars an affordable alternative to hotels and apartments. Presiding over the Guest Quarters are two resident staff, Janis Berzins, the manager, and Lauren Lombardo, the concierge, who assist the guests with such things as setting up bank accounts, understanding the transportation ­ basically providing information that makes a move to Buffalo easy.

Due to the success of the University Guest Quarters, a north wing was added which doubled the size of the facility ­ 32 rooms and two lounges. In this wing, (on a clear day) guests can iron clothes in the lounge as they watch the mist rise from Niagara Falls.

UB is not the only university to provide guest housing; many schools around the country have constructed guest buildings, including not only living quarters, but also conference rooms. The South Campus was the chosen site for the project because of its proximity to public transportation, its closeness to Buffalo plus the fact that many of the guests are associated with the medical facilities located on the South Campus.

There is no stipulation on the duration of the stay ­ a night, a week, a month, a year. Since 1994 the University Guest Quarters has been a temporary "home" to 270 guests from the U.S. and around the world. Timothy J. Rutenber, associate vice provost for International Education, remarked that there are more than 400 guests on the UB campus each year.

In the ninth-floor atrium, outside the elevator, Berzins, the manager and in-resident staff, took a visitor on a tour of the facility. He punched some numbers on a lock which opened a door into the west wing, revealing a carpeted hallway with a world map on the wall. To the left is the laundry room complete with washers and dryers and to the right is the lounge, which has a television and VCR, plants, and a kitchen with all the amenities to fix a meal (including a microwave).

Best feature of the lounge is the northeast wall of large windows which overlooks the Grover Cleveland golf course. Berzins noted that it is the perfect place to catch some morning sun. The lounge is an interesting place to be during mealtime, he said, with people from all over the world preparing foods and following many different customs.

A typical room has a double bed, linens, towels, a television, a desk and chair and a bathroom. All the necessities are there. The idea is to provide the visitor with a "hassle-free" move, Berzins said. Mads Strogaard Jensen, a philosophy scholar visiting from Denmark, commented "It is very nice. The room has everything I need. Very comfortable."

At the Guest Quarters recently, two Chinese research scholars, Yifu Deng and Lesley Zhang, were making plans for their New Year ­ the year of the Ox. Both work on the South Campus and find the living arrangements very convenient.

Zhang, a microbiology scholar from Beijing, China, has been here for three weeks, and plans to stay for a year. Deng, an assistant research scholar in pharmacology and toxicology, is the longest guest to date ­ a year and a few months. He had nothing but kudos for Berzins and Lombardo; as for his room, it is "clean, quiet. Quietest place I ever lived."