Town & Gown-SUNY New Paltz

This is a planned regular column that explores a teach-out school in greater detail, providing students with information and insights on schools you may be considering. Visiting a prospective school is of course strongly recommended, but this column may help you decide if a school may be a good fit for you or not.

SUNY New Paltz is one of the schools that has extended a hand toward Saint Rose students and believes that it can provide a good option for transfers and teach outs. 

New Paltz’s undergraduate teach-out programs that have been approved so far are accounting, biochemistry, biology, business administration, communication sciences and disorders, communications, computer science, early childhood and childhood education B-6, English, finance, management, marketing and political science. Graduate teach-out programs include business administration, clinical mental health counseling, communication sciences and disorders, computer science, and school counseling. 

Town

If you’re unfamiliar with the mid-Hudson Valley region, the Shawangunk Mountains can be seen from New Paltz’s campus and are a popular rock climbing destination. The town of New Paltz is known for its rock climbing, hiking and biking trails, arts culture, farmer’s markets, and its newly established mountain climbing via ladder rungs and suspended bridges. It is about 75 minutes south of Albany.

The town has bakeries, clothing stores, cafes (one cat cafe!), book stores, a wide variety of places to grab a bite, plant shops, mystical stores, and almost anything you would need. You can easily spend hours roaming the surprisingly busy street and window shopping. The town mostly consisted of younger people, giving it a lively energy that also feels very safe.

Mountains, as is typical of upstate New York, surround the campus and town. If you get tired of the beautiful, natural views, Trailways or the nearby thruway can take you from the center of town to NYC in about 90 minutes. There are many nearby historical and cultural towns and cities such as Kingston, Newburgh, and Poughkeepsie. 

“If finding things to do is worrisome because you leave an urban area, that’s not the case here. There’s always activities planned on campus and there’s always plenty to do outside,” said Andrew Mantell, executive director of admission at SUNY New Paltz. 

Campus is about a 15-minute walk from town yet still manages to feel separate from the hustle and bustle of New Paltz.  The New Paltz Loop bus travels from campus to the Village and Town of New Paltz in 30 minute loops from 7 a.m until 10 p.m.. The bus is free with your student ID.

Gown

The campus is much larger than Saint Rose’s yet has a similar appreciation for open, green spaces where students can be seen lying in the grass, relaxing in hammocks, or playing frisbee. 

The campus is less urban than Saint Rose’s and consists of several athletics fields, a campus garden, a greenhouse where you can leave dying plants to be replenished, ponds, and several open quads on 216-acres.

Despite the larger campus size, students don’t feel the need to have a car on campus., “It mostly helps with grocery trips or heading to Poughkeepsie for a weekend trip if that’s an interest but otherwise it’s not needed and I’ve never found myself ever needing one,” said Allie Shoen, a sophomore and RA at SUNY New Paltz. 

Dorms

In contrast to Saint Rose’s many single-room options, SUNY New Paltz primarily offers double rooms, and most single rooms are reserved for resident assistants. The dorms are average-sized and housing costs roughly $10,000 a year with a required meal plan of roughly $5,000 a year for graduate and undergraduate students, although it varies depending on which meal plan you choose. 

A mini fridge, microwave, and laundry are included in tuition and there is a kitchen in every residence hall. AC is not offered in every building but Shoen said that opening a window can fix any overheating issues.  

There are many options for off campus housing and it is fairly popular to rent nearby. Saint Rose students will be eligible for housing and while it isn’t guaranteed, Mantell said that most students are offered housing. SUNY New Paltz also offers inclusive housing to LGBTQ+ students that allow a person of any gender identity to live with someone of any gender identity, or designated housing. 

“I don’t want to speak for everyone but from what I’ve found, a majority of the students on campus are some part of the LGBTQ+ community,” said Shoen. 

Dining

SUNY New Paltz offers an on-campus nutritionist to help with dietary restrictions. At each food station within the dining hall there is a list of what food is offered alongside possible allergens that may be present. Similar to Saint Rose, SUNY New Paltz’s dining hall operates through Sodexo, or Simple Servings. Food allergies such as gluten intolerance, tree nut or peanut, shellfish, soy, milk, wheat, egg, and cross-contamination are accounted for. 

Size

There are roughly 7,000 students enrolled at SUNY New Paltz with a student to faculty ratio of 16:1. “We’re not a huge school, we have middle-sized numbers, but you feel like it’s a small school when you walk around and just get to know everyone,” said Mantell. The average class size is between 25-30 students while lectures get around 50-100, said Shoen. 

Clubs

There are over 237 clubs available at SUNY New Paltz that can satisfy most of a student’s academic and social needs. Clubs include sports such as rugby and field hockey, photography, LGBTQ+, dungeons and dragons, anime, outing or outdoor activities, dance, religion, academics, and many more. Shoen said that there is even a club where students come out during the night once a week to shoot each other with Nerf Guns on the Quad, called human versus zombies. Students can browse clubs at the club fair at the beginning of the semester that spans the Quad. 

“There’s a lot of data that shows involvement on campus outside the academics positively impacts your academics,” said Mantell. The most popular campus events include concerts or shows ranging from a cappella groups, music or theater performances, drag shows, or dance. 

There are also street fairs on campus where students can sell items they’ve made alongside local businesses such as bakeries and comic book stores. Mantell said that small markets can typically be seen on campus.

Greek life is present on campus but not enough to feel obligated to join, said Shoen. 

Sports

SUNY New Paltz is a Division III school that offers basketball, volleyball, soccer, cross country, lacrosse, and swimming for men and women. Field hockey, tennis, and softball are also offered for women and baseball for men. Shoen said that field hockey, baseball, and rugby are among New Paltz’s more popular sports; her personal favorite teams are the intramural ones. 

Intramural sports like pickleball, indoor soccer, badminton doubles and singles, softball, tennis, volleybal, basketball, and more are offered. 

Academics

Early childhood and childhood education B-6 is SUNY New Paltz’s second most popular undergraduate program, right behind psychology. “Education is probably one of our most popular majors on campus. It was our original major, we were just an education school,” said Shoen. Communication disorders, communications, sociology, digital media production, and biology are among some of the other top programs. 

The music program offers a few different avenues but classical and jazz are two of the most popular options. You can major or minor in music and music therapy is offered as a graduate program. Clubs also provide an outlet for a student’s musical needs, “There’s a ton of people who want to start a band and they’ll be like ‘we’re looking for a drummer, or a guitarist’,” said Shoen. 

Communications majors can look forward to the student-run newspaper called The Oracle, the student-run site called The Little Rebellion, and an educational project centered around legislation called The Legislative Gazette. Digital media production is offered as a major and film and video studies is offered as a minor, and clubs and events can be found for both. 

Special Programs and Services 

Veteran services include assistance with benefits, military tuition assistance, veteran scholarships, free parking permits for military or veteran students, and general questions can be directed to The Office of Veteran and Military Services.

SUNY New Paltz has international programs that can be long or short-term, graduate or undergraduate. There are dual diplomas, exchange or visiting, English language, and internship programs that are available.

Most buildings at SUNY New Paltz have accessible entrances or elevators for those with disabilities and the Disability Resource Center at the Haggerty Administration Building can be contacted for further accommodation.

Christianity and Judaism are the most popular religions on campus and there is a meditation room in the Student Union Building for Muslim students, as well as clubs available. 

For Saint Rose Students…

Mantell advises any interested students to visit the campus or take a look at the virtual tour offered on SUNY New Paltz’s website. There is currently no limit in place for the amount of students the school can take and they have already received roughly 70 applications, “We absolutely invite these students to come and take advantage of everything we have here,” said Mantell, “we bring in over 900 transfer students a year so this is something that we do. It’s something that we do well.”

To all of the students worried about the switch from that Saint Rose feel, Shoen said “The biggest thing to get used to with that is that you have the opportunity now to not meet everyone just because you go to school together, you have the opportunity to be more selective with your friends and really choose the people you want.”