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State University of New York at New Paltz
Established	1828
Type:	Public
President:	Steven Poskanzer
Faculty:	294
Students:	8,000
Undergraduates:	6,000
Postgraduates:	1,600
Location	New Paltz, New York, USA ( 41°44′37″N, 74°05′02″W)
Campus:	small town
Colors:	blue and orange
Mascot:	Hawks
Website:	http://www.newpaltz.edu

The State University of New York at New Paltz, known as SUNY New Paltz for short, is a public university in New Paltz, New York. It was founded in 1828 as the School for teaching of classics^[1]. In 1885, the New Paltz Normal and Training School was established as a school to prepare teachers for the public schools of New York State. In the 1980s, it was called State University of New York College of Arts and Science New Paltz. It has been called the State University of New York at New Paltz since 1994.^[2]

Contents 1 History 2 Statistics 3 Campuses 4 Demographics 5 Rankings 6 Current Information 7 Sports, clubs, and traditions 8 Recent controversies 8.1 Controversies from the 1960s to 1980s 8.2 Sexually explicit conferences on campus 8.3 Same-sex marriage 8.4 2006 Student Leader Controversy 8.5 The PCB Contamination Controversy 9 Notable alumni 10 External links 11 Notes

The State University of New York at New Paltz is a blend of tradition and vision. At its educational core is the ever- present belief in the importance of a liberal arts education. This served as the guiding principle at the time the university was founded, in 1828, and continues to aid in the preparation of students for transition into the global community today.

In 1885, the academy offered their building if the State of New York would start a normal school. It was granted the ability to award baccalaureate degrees in 1942, when it was renamed the State Teachers College at New Paltz. A few years later, in 1947, a graduate program was established. When the State University of New York was established by legislative act in 1948, the Teachers College at New Paltz was one of 30 colleges associated under SUNY's umbrella. The school is well-known for many programs, including The Legislative Gazette, a journalism and political science internship in which students live/work in the state capitol and produce a weekly newspaper about state politics. The program launched in 1978 -- and was almost kicked out of Albany -- but somehow survived and grew into an influential newspaper read by nearly everyone involved in New York state government.

In 2006 New Paltz received 11,941 applications for the fall and accepted 4,141 (35%).The middle 50% of non-EOP incoming freshman had a high school GPA of 90.6 with an SAT of 1200. ^[3]

The SUNY New Paltz campus consists of about 350 acres in the small town of New Paltz, New York. There are thirteen residence halls, centered mostly in two quads. The main campus has two dozen academic buildings, including the Haggerty Administration Building, a lecture hall, Old Main, Sojourner Truth Library, three dining halls, a Student Union Building, and extensive gymnasium and sports areas.

There is a satellite campus at Ashokan, New York, consisting of another 400 acres, located near Woodstock, New York. Ashokan was made famous by the song Ashokan Farewell on the soundtrack of the PBS documentary, The Civil War by Ken Burns.

New Paltz boasts an extremely diverse student body comprised of African Americans (7.5%), Latinos 10.1% and Asian/Pacific Islanders 4.3%. The majority of the student body feeds from Long Island (28.6%), New York City (23.5%) and the Hudson Valley Area (15.9%). Out of state students make up 6% of the total student body, while international students make up 1%. There is a 3:1 female to male ratio.^[4]

In 2007, Newsweek magazine rated New Paltz "Hottest Small State School" in an article "25 Hottest Universities". A recent applicant interviewed stated she choose New Paltz because it was cheap, close to home and "had a step team".^[5]

The college was also recently ranked 7th among the best public universities and 38th among public and private universities in the North that offer bachelor's and master's degree programs, according to the U.S. News & World Report's rankings for America's Best Colleges 2008.^[6]

New Paltz was named one of the best 222 colleges in the northeast by the Princeton Review in 2006.^{[citation needed]}

Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine ranked New Paltz as one of the 100 best values among public colleges and universities in the nation.^[7]

The school was also ranked 7th Counterculture college by High Times Magazine. This has been attributed to the school's political activism, and the large NORML/SSDP chapter.^[8]

SUNY at New Paltz currently offers bachelor's and master's degrees, with over 100 undergraduate and 50 graduate degree programs. Currently, almost 8,000 students attend SUNY at New Paltz—over 6,200 undergraduates and over 1,600 graduate students. The College President is Steven Poskanzer, a law professor and former counsel with SUNY Central. The Student Body President is Jessica Coleman. The interim head of Faculty Governance on campus is Simin Mozayeni.

SUNY New Paltz has men's and women's intercollegiate sports. The mascot for the college's sports teams is the hawk.^[9]

The student governance is operated by the Student Association, which funds most student activities through a mandatory fee. There are many clubs and fraternities and sororities. In addition, there is also an on-campus government, the Residence Hall Student Association (R.H.S.A.). The college has an auxiliary services corporation common to many state campuses in New York, called College Auxiliary Services, Inc. (CAS). This on-campus company operates the dining halls, bookstore, and Ashokan Field Campus, as well as being the source of discretionary funds for spending by the college president and the R.H.S.A.^[10]

The college has a Foundation and an active Alumni Association.^[11]

Since it became SUNY at New Paltz, the school has had a fair share of controversy attached to it.

There were several student-led protests in the late 1960s and early 1970s, primarily against the Vietnam War. In the spring of 1967, a sit in protesting against army recruiting on campus blocked the entrance to the Student Union for two days. While there were scores of demonstrators the first day, all but 13 dispersed before State Troopers arrived and bodily carried the demonstrators to a waiting school bus for a trip to court.

In the Fall of 1968, students rallied in support of Craig Pastor (now Craig DeYong) who had been arrested by New Paltz Village Police for desecration of the American flag which he was wearing as a super-hero cape in a student film directed by Edward Falco. College President John J. Neumaier posted bail. Pastor was released and charges were dropped.

In the spring of 1970 there was a protest leading to the takeover of the Administration Building. Another group active during that period was The Student Action Movement (SAM), protesting on behalf of student rights: abolishing curfews in dorms, allowing members of the opposite sex beyond the lobby of dorms (which were not yet coed), and other issues. In 1981, the Student Government split in two, the main part staying as the Student Association, and an on-campus faction forming the Residence Hall Student Association. There were many protests in the early 1980s during the administration of college president Alice Chandler, including for the right to vote in local elections. An invitation to a South African diplomat during the Apartheid era, by the student group Model United Nations, sparked another controversy.^{[citation needed]}.^[12]

In November 1997, two events on campus attracted nationwide media attention. The first, a feminist conference on sex and sexuality sponsored by the women's studies department entitled "Revolting Behavior: The Challenges of Women's Sexual Freedom", featured instructional workshops on sex toys and sadomasochism. The second, "Subject to Desire: Refiguring the Body", was sponsored by the Fine and Performing Arts Department. One presenter, performance artist Carolee Schneemann, had been known for a piece where she slowly unrolled a scroll from her vagina and read it to the audience.

Political conservatives were outraged that a public university had hosted such events, and governor George Pataki and SUNY chancellor Robert King expressed their displeasure. The controversy escalated when the Theatre Arts Department staged The Vagina Monologues shortly afterwards (although the play has been widely staged, including at some nearby Catholic colleges). The college's then-president, Roger Bowen, defended freedom of expression on campus and refused to apologize, doing little to allay conservative ire. "The real issue," he said, "is whether some ideologues, however well-intentioned, have the right to dictate what we say and what we do on this campus." SUNY trustee Candace de Russy called for him to be dismissed.[5] Bowen resigned later.

While not directly related to the campus, the university community did play a supporting role in the 2004 same-sex weddings performed in the village. The officiant, Mayor Jason West's Green Party ticket had won election the year before largely with the help of the student population's vote, and since the village hall where the weddings took place is located across the street from campus many students turned up in support of West and the married couples. Some professors even canceled classes to allow students to attend events.^{[citation needed]}

In 2006, New Paltz became embroiled in a controversy involving Student Government President Justin Holmes, former President and current Executive-Vice President R.J. Partington III, and former New Paltz Student, current President of the SUNY Student Assembly and member of the SUNY Board of Trustees Dan Curtis. The three students were charged with harassment by the University's Director of Residence Life, Corinna Caracci. The three students were also charged with 'Failing to Comply with an Official Request' to leave their offices in the school's Student Union Building to proceed through a security check, and Holmes was arrested for possession of a stolen sleeping bag.

Holmes, Partington, and Curtis were suspended from the University for a year after a committee found that they had "seriously annoyed" [6] the Residence Life Director, despite the emergence of a video[7] showing that the claims made against them[8] were false[9]. Partington and Holmes have filed a lawsuit against the Administration and its President and Vice President of Student Affairs, Steven Poskanzer and David Rooney, claiming a bias and a lack of due process during their hearing. [10]

According to local newspapers, over 100 students protested the suspension and held a sit-in in the Administration building over the controversy, asking Administrators to explain why language in official documents had been changed from "seriously annoyed" to "threatened the health and safety of." [11]

Federal Judge Lawrence Kahn ordered Poskanzer and Rooney to reinstate Holmes and Partington on January 4, 2007 [12].

In 1991, the campus was the scene of a widely-reported PCB and dioxin incident that contaminated four dormitories (Bliss, Gage, Capen and Scudder residence halls), as well as the Coykendall Science Building and the Parker Theater. Under the direction of the county and state health departments, the university began a massive, thorough clean-up effort in the five buildings: Bliss, Gage and Scudder residence halls, Parker Theatre and Coykendall Science Building. As an additional precaution, 29 other buildings were thoroughly tested and, if necessary, cleaned.

The cleanup, led by the Ulster County Department of Health, also included the New York State Department of Health, Office of General Services, Department of Environmental Conservation, State University's Construction Fund and the Dormitory Authority. Six separate laboratories were involved in testing and re-testing campus buildings.

State officials maintain the buildings and dormitories were cleaned properly, but investigative research conducted as late as 2004 has demonstrated that significant levels of contamination are still present in the dormitories. This research was criticized by the Department of Health, as the tests did not follow normal protocols for evaluating health risks from environmental contamination. The Department of Health also said that even if the results were accurate, they did not suggest a health concern for people living, working or visiting the buildings that were sampled. The latest tests were initiated by the campus and completed in March 2005. The tests were performed by and evaluated by the New York State Department of Health. Air sample results from the recent testing, as well as those from previous tests in 1997, 1998 and 2001, are well below the air criterion established for the post-incident clean up^{[citation needed]}.

After varying degrees of cleanup, the dorms were re-opened between 1992 through 1994 using safety levels based on a 1985 risk assessment that was developed for a different disaster, the Binghamton State Office Building PCB fire of 1981. This risk assessment has been criticized for being grossly out of date, as contrasted with the findings of newer science developed through the 1980s and 1990s on the toxicity and mechanisms of action of dioxin-like compounds, particularly their effects on the endocrine system.^[13]

There is no danger of another PCB accident at New Paltz like the one that occurred in 1991. The college administration says there have been no PCB transformers or fixtures at New Paltz since 1995, though it is unclear whether the units not involved in the 1991 electrical event were replaced entirely, or retrofitted with silicone fluid. As of August 1994, the SUNY New Paltz administration says it became the first SUNY campus to be 100 percent PCB-transformer-free, though if units were retrofitted, they would need to be below 50 parts per million PCBs to qualify as non-PCB transformers.

Testing following the incident, including the latest testing conducted in 2005, has included sinks, walls, furniture, floors, transformer vaults, hallways and file cabinet interiors. To date, more than 12,000 wipe and air samples have been taken and analyzed. The program covered the five buildings primarily affected and 29 other buildings on campus. However, ventilation ducts in Capen and Gage halls have not been subjected to testing with the exception of one round of tests in 1994, covering Gage Hall's exhaust vents only.

The criteria used to clean the surfaces in buildings are 10 times more stringent than federal EPA standards for PCB cleanup, however, even the more stringent state standards have come under scrutiny because they were established in 1985, long before the endocrine effects of PCBs were understood by science. In 1994 Dr. Ellen Silbergeld of the Natural Resouerces Defense Council, wrote to the New York State Department of Health that the 1985 risk assessment used to establishs the state's safety limits was "severely out of date," according to the July 21, 1994 [Woodstock Times].

Until 1976, PCBs were widely used in roofing materials, fluorescent light ballasts, glue, carbonless paper, transformers and capacitors. They are sometimes found in buildings erected prior to the PCB ban due to leakages of florescent light ballasts and products such as window caulking. They were banned by the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) as an "immient threat to human health and the environment."

SUNY New Paltz boasts numerous alumni including:

• Maurice Hinchey '68, M.A. '70 - United States House of Representatives
• Roseann Runte, President of Old Dominion University
• Gary King - Professor of Government at Harvard University
• Rebecca Rotzler - Co-chair of the Green Party of the United States
• John Turturro - Actor
• Aida Turturro - Actress
• Michael Badalucco - Actor
• Joan Chen - Actress
• James M. Follo - CFO of New York Times Company
• Kenneth Pasternak - CEO and Co-Founder of Knight Capital Group
• Alex Storozynski - Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
• Denis Simon - political analyst, dean at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• Ed Carroll - President of Rainbow Media
• Daniel Gonzalez - FCC Chief of Staff
• Helen K. Garber - photographer
• Chauncey Shey - President and CEO of Softbank China Venture Capital
• Scott Cohen - Actor
• Andrea Peyser - New York Post columnist
• Fabrizio Moretti - Drummer of the Strokes
• Peter Meekin - Managing Director at Trident Capital, Director at Irobot Corporation
• Andy Shernoff - Rock Musician
• Kevin Cahill - New York State Assembly
• Anthony Denison - Actor
• Rich Bagala '88 - Emmy-award winning sports producer of WWOR-UPN 9 in New Jersey^[14]
• Edward Falco - American novelist and Professor of English at Virginia Tech (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University)^[15]

• SUNY New Paltz
• Wikipaltz - Wiki maintained by Student Senate covering the New Paltz community and SUNY New Paltz
• Student Assocation of New Paltz
• Residence Hall Student Association
• Dioxin Dorms - site dedicated to the contamination controversy.
• Greek Life Organizations

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Online Program	SUNY Learning Network

1. ^ SUNY New Paltz Facts at a Glance. Retrieved on 2007-11-12.
2. ^ About New Paltz. Retrieved on 2007-11-12.
3. ^ SUNY New Paltz welcomes nearly 1,800 new students (2006-08-16). Retrieved on 2007-11-12.
4. ^ Template:Cite web url=http://www.newpaltz.edu/admissions/infoforcounselors.html
5. ^ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20228437/site/newsweek/
6. ^ Template:Cite web url=http://www.newpaltz.edu/news/news.cfm?id=3488
7. ^ Template:Cite web url=http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/351125/the kiplinger 100 best values in public colleges kiplingers personal/index.html
8. ^ Template:Web cite url=http://www.hightimes.com/ht/entertainment/content.php?bid=976&aid=24
9. ^ See the College mascot list:[1]
10. ^ CAS official web site
11. ^ Official web pages for Alumni, friends, visitors, and SUNY New Paltz Foundation
12. ^ Cites are needed for this whole paragraph.
13. ^ Concerns about this incident have been covered in New York Times articles by Michael Winerip, as well as investigative reporting in Woodstock Times and Sierra magazine by Eric F. Coppolino.
14. ^ Note that is a LOCAL Emmy, not the kind seen on TV. Each big city has a local chapter of the National Academy Of Television Arts & Sciences that awards its OWN Emmies that are not the same as the Primetime National awards. This local Emmy was awarded (shared among 3 others) along with 71 others for that year for New York City metropolitan area. About 1400 LOCAL Emmys are awarded EVERY YEAR.[2][3]
15. ^ [4] Virginia Tech webpage