An architectural masterpiece of glass, brick, space and light, the three-story, 23,000-square-foot Alfiero Center is entirely student-focused.
“This building will stand as a beacon of opportunity. All the students, faculty and friends who walk the corridors will have the feeling that this is their home on campus.”
— J. Grant Hauber ’48, Benefactor
Adjoining the Jacobs Management Center on UB’s North Campus, the Alfiero Center is the hub of student life at the School of Management. The center serves a wide variety of undergraduate and graduate student needs, and houses the academic and career development offices that assist the nearly 3,000 students who enroll each year in the School of Management. It also features three high-tech lecture halls, a café, a suite of offices for student organizations, and multiple breakout rooms for student team meetings and group projects.
The Alfiero Center is the first academic facility at UB, and one of only a few in the State University of New York system, to be funded primarily through private donations. Gifts from more than 150 alumni, friends, foundations and corporations provided the majority of the funding for the $7 million center.
The first funding commitment for the center was made in 1999 by J. Grant Hauber, and his wife, Marcia. Hauber, who passed away in 2009, was a retired vice president with Harold C. Brown Co. and a 1948 graduate of the School of Management undergraduate program. The stately convening area and atrium in the center has been named the J. Grant and Marcia S. Hauber Commons in their honor.
The center itself is named for the chair and CEO of Protective Industries, Sal H. Alfiero, and his wife, Jeanne, who made a $2 million gift to the school. “This is the community where I started my business and where I benefited from the tremendous support of many people,” he said. “This gift is simply my family’s way of acknowledging and thanking Western New York for its years of support; it’s our way of giving back some of the goodwill we’ve enjoyed and experienced.”
There are more than 30 named spaces and major amenities within the Alfiero Center, likely making it the most broadly supported facility on campus.
The names of donors who made gifts of $10,000 or more to the School of Management can be found on the Frank J. Colantuono Donor Recognition Wall, a striking mural in the J. Grant and Marcia S. Hauber Commons, handcrafted of ceramic tile and tempered glass.