Nearly 1,200 first-year students and 850 transfer students will join the SUNY New Paltz community this fall.
For the third consecutive fall semester, New Paltz will exceed the 2,000 new incoming undergraduate student threshold, the largest numbers in the institution’s history.
This year’s incoming class extends the increasing racial and ethnic diversification of the student population at SUNY New Paltz. About 48 percent of incoming first-year students are from traditionally underrepresented demographic groups, as are about 35 percent of incoming transfers.
For the second year in a row, the college will also see increases in the number of enrolled graduate students. About 400 new full- and part-time graduate students will begin taking the next step in their academic and professional journeys at New Paltz this fall.
The SUNY New Paltz Welcome Week tradition returns with Moving-In Day on August 22 and the Convocation Ceremony and Picnic on August 23. Returning students will continue to arrive through the weekend before classes begin on August 26.
New this fall:
Engineering Innovation Hub opening
SUNY New Paltz will open a new, state-of-the-art engineering building to students, faculty, staff, public officials and campus visitors at a ribbon-cutting ceremony this fall.
The Engineering Innovation Hub, a 20,000-square-foot building located near Resnick Engineering Hall, was made possible by Governor Andrew Cuomo’s NYSUNY2020 grant competition, in which SUNY New Paltz was awarded $10 million for its plans to improve economic development in New York State.
The building will serve as home to the college’s growing mechanical engineering program and will also house the Hudson Valley Advanced Manufacturing Center, one of the most technologically advanced 3D printing labs in the nation.
Campus buildings renamed
In early 2019, the SUNY New Paltz College Council and the SUNY Board of Trustees voted to change the names of five residence halls and the campus dining hall because they were previously named for the town’s founding families, who were slaveholders. The following new building names took effect on August 5:
- Hasbrouck Dining Hall is now Peregrine Dining Hall
- Bevier Hall is now Minnewaska Hall
- Crispell Hall is now Ashokan Hall
- Deyo Hall is now Awosting Hall
- Dubois Hall is now Mohonk Hall
- Lefevre Hall is now Shawangunk Hall
The class of 2023 “Mindset”
Here are some facts about the generation now entering college, according to the 2019 Marist Mindset Study. The summary was released under the title “Smart, Cautious, Diverse, and Comfortable With Their Sexuality, Generation Z Arrives on Campus.”
- Like Pearl Harbor for their grandparents, and the Kennedy assassination for their parents, 9/11 is an historical event.
- The primary use of a phone has always been to take pictures.
- The Tech Big Four–Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Google — are to them what the Big Three automakers were to their grandparents.
- Nearly half of their generation is composed of people of color.
- Because of Richard Reid’s explosive footwear at 30,000 feet, passengers have always had to take off their shoes to slide through security on the ground.
- Only two-thirds of this generation identify as exclusively heterosexual.
- They are as non-judgmental about sexual orientation as their parents were about smoking pot.
- Snapchat has become their social media app of choice, thus relieving them of the dilemma of whether or not to friend Mom.
- They may well not have a younger sibling, as the birth rate in the U.S. has been dropping since they were in grammar school.
- With flyovers, honor guards, and “God Bless America,” sporting events have always been marked by emphatic patriotism.
- Except for when he celebrated Jeopardy’s 35th anniversary, Alex Trebek has never had a mustache.
- Face recognition technology has always been used at public events.
- Most of them will rent, not buy, their textbooks.
- Apple iPods have always been nostalgic.
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