SUNY New Paltz to celebrate the inauguration of ninth president Dr. Darrell P. Wheeler
Dr. Darrell P. Wheeler will be installed formally on April 20 as SUNY New Paltz’s ninth president — the first Black, openly gay president to lead the 195-year-old institution — in an investiture ceremony celebrating the university’s history, mission and potential.
The investiture will be held in the Athletic & Wellness Center on campus at 11 a.m. and will put the ceremonial stamp on Wheeler’s tenure, which began July 18, 2022, after his predecessor, Dr. Donald P. Christian, retired from the role.
“President Darrell Wheeler brings to this extraordinary institution precisely the skills and experiences that are needed in an environment of change,” said Alice Chandler, SUNY New Paltz President Emerita (1980-1996) and honorary co-chair of the inauguration planning committee. “He has been a faculty member and a provost and academic vice president. He believes not just in student access but in student success. Dr. Wheeler has also lived that engagement between the expertise of the academic world and the needs of society through his extraordinary accomplishments in combating the scourge of AIDS.”
The University has planned three days of inaugural festivities from April 19 through April 21 under the theme Our University, Our Future to celebrate its community of students, scholars, leaders, educators, alumni, community partners and friends. The festivities will be bookended by the sounding of the carillon at noon in the clock tower atop van den Berg Hall, which plays the Alma Mater.
Attendees include delegates from other public and private colleges and universities, local, county and state leaders, SUNY System Administration personnel, New Paltz administrators, faculty and staff. The procession, which begins at the Student Union Building and travels to the Athletic and Wellness Center, includes an ROTC student color guard, international students carrying flags of their nations, student leaders, local law enforcement and musicians.
The campus is invited to don their academic regalia and march in the formal investiture ceremony in April 20 followed by a community lunch reception. Special guests include SUNY Chancellor John B. King, Jr., State Senator Michelle Hinchey, State Assemblymember Sarahana Shrestha, Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger, City of Kingston Mayor Steve Noble, Town of New Paltz Supervisor Neil Bettez, Village of New Paltz Mayor Tim Rogers and Stockbridge Munsee Band of the Mohican Indians president Shannon Holsey.
Brush pickup in New Paltz to start April 24
Brush pickup in the Town of New Paltz will start on April 24. Brush should be placed on the shoulder of the road in a uniform pile. This will be for brush only, no construction and demolition, stumps or leaves. Brush must be no longer than 10 feet in length and 12 inches in diameter. All roads will be serviced once. Brush needs to placed out on the shoulder of the road by April 24 to ensure pick up.
Greg Warren named president of New York State Athletic Administrators Association
Greg Warren, the New Paltz Central School District’s Director of Health, Physical Education and Athletics, has been elected president of the New York State Athletic Administrators Association (NYSAAA). His one-year term started in March 2023.
The New York affiliate is dedicated to promoting the professional growth of interscholastic athletic administrators throughout New York State. The association also aims to preserve the educational nature of interscholastic athletics and the place these programs have in the curricula of every school in New York State.
Warren says that his goals for the 2023-2024 year include planning a robust annual conference and to continue moving the NYSAAA’s strategic plan goals forward. The theme for the conference, he said, will be “Building a Foundation for the Future.”
Warren has received a number of honors during his career as an athletic administrator. He won the 2020 Chapter 9 Athletic Administrator of the Year award, NYSAAA’s Apple Appreciation award in 2019 and the Dr. John Foley Professional Development Award in 2018. In addition, he was recently nominated for the Bruce D. Whitehead Distinguished Service award of the NIAAA for 2022-2023.
Warren looks forward to building on the work he has done for NYSAAA. “I am proud to be the president of the NYSAAA and to work with so many positive people whose goal is to promote interscholastic athletic administration,” he said.
Openings in the Town of Gardiner
The Town of Gardiner has vacancies on its Planning Board and Parks & Recreation Committee. If interested, please contact Supervisor Majestic at 845-255-9675 or supervisor.tog@gmail.com by April 30.
Memorial Day parade in New Paltz on May 30
The annual New Paltz Memorial Day parade and services will be held on Tuesday, May 30 at 6 p.m. Line up will be at 5:30 p.m. in the parking lot of the New Paltz Middle School and end with memorial services in front of the veteran’s memorial by the old New Paltz Fire Station.
All civic and fraternal organizations, which normally participate in the parade and services, are again invited to join with the VFW in observing this meaningful day.
Pogroms in Ukraine and Holocaust
The Resnick Institute’s annual Holocaust Commemoration on April 24 at 7:30 p.m. will be a virtual presentation by Jeffrey Veidlinger, the Joseph Brodsky Collegiate Professor of History and Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan. He will speak about pogroms in Ukraine, 1918-1919 as a “precursor” to the Holocaust.
His latest book, In the Midst of Civilized Europe: Jews and Ukraine in Times of War, was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award and a Kirkus Top Nonfiction Book of 2021. His other award-winning books include, The Moscow State Yiddish Theater: Jewish Culture on the Soviet Stage (2000), Jewish Public Culture in the Late Russian Empire (2009), and In the Shadow of the Shtetl: Small-Town Jewish Life in Soviet Ukraine (2013).
Professor Veidlinger is Chair of the Academic Advisory Council of the Center for Jewish History, and a member of the Academic Committee of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. His writing has appeared in Harper’s Magazine, The Forward, and the Smithsonian Magazine, He is currently writing about the Galveston Movement, an early 20th-century project to redirect Jewish immigration to the American Great Plains. For a flyer and a link for this program, contact professor Gerald Sorin at soring@newpaltz.edu.
Tour the Turtle Rock Ridge on April 23
Join Overlook Mountain Center DEC guide Glenn Kreisberg and site steward Dr. Ned Doucet for a tour of Turtle Rock Ridge on Marlboro Mountain on Sunday April 23, 10 a.m., at 610 Huckleberry Turnpike in Plattekill.
This is a rare opportunity to explore the Turtle Rock Ridge effigy site, which features a large rock shelter and Turtle effigies, multiple inscriptions and glyphs, water features and astronomically aligned stone portals. This site is most likely thousands of years old and utilized by the first peoples to populate the Hudson Valley region.
Bring lunch or a snack and water. Dress for the forecast and wear sturdy footwear. Plan for two miles on mixed, easy to moderate terrain. Call 845 417 8384 to confirm or for more details. This is a free event but donations are welcome.
Mohonk Consultations announces Earth Week “Peace with Nature” forum
Mohonk Consultations will host its annual Peace with Nature forum on Sunday, April 23, at 3 p.m., in the parlor at Mohonk Mountain House. “WORDS MATTER: Indigenous, Ecological and Legal Pathways for Healing Earth” will feature a dialogue with Tiokasin Ghosthorse, a member of the Cheyenne River Lakota Nation of South Dakota and founder, host and executive producer of First Voices Radio and Nicholas A. Robinson, Kerlin professor of Environmental Law Emeritus, Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University in White Plains.
Two deeply thoughtful people, representing two different cultures and languages, will share their lifelong efforts to illuminate and reconcile the relationship of people and nature. The conversation will reveal how intelligence drawn from Indigenous culture and grassroots legal campaigns are working together to reestablish a sustainable relationship with Earth. Audience members will have opportunities for Q&A and will be encouraged to participate in roundtable discussions, brainstorming and the expression of concerns, questions and feedback.
“Mohonk Consultations is honored to be hosting these two distinguished speakers, who offer compelling and provocative ideas about shifting our thinking and actions to heal Earth,” said Louisa Finn, chair of Mohonk Consultations.
Admission is $30 for the general public and $15 for students. Tickets are available online and must be purchased in advance at mohonk-consultations.org/wordsmatter.
Join the family! 
