SUNY New Paltz history

In 1833, it was reorganized into an academy on Huguenot Street and the banks of the Wallkill River.

Following a decimating fire in 1884, the New Paltz Classical School offered their land to the state government of New York contingent upon the establishment of a normal school.

In 1885, the New Paltz Normal and Training School was established to prepare teachers to practice their professions in the public schools of New York.

Yet another fire destroyed the school in April 1906, and once again it was rebuilt, this time at a new location on a ten-acre hillside plot a mile away.

In 1947, a graduate program in education was established.

It was one of the founding schools in the State University of New York system, created in 1948.

A program in African American studies was established in 1968.

The Cambodian Campaign and concomitant Kent State shootings in May 1970 led to a protest that culminated in a five-day student occupation of the Administration Building, subsequently renamed Old Main after the opening of the Haggerty Administration Building two years later.

The Legislative Gazette, a journalism and political science internship in which students live and work in Albany and produce a weekly newspaper about state politics, was established in 1978.

In 1991, a power "spike" resulting from an off-campus traffic accident seriously damaged electrical transformers in five buildings on campus, contaminating them with PCBs.

In 1994, the school was renamed once again, as the State University of New York at New Paltz.

The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, which opened in 2001, is one of the largest museums in SUNY, with more than 9,000 square feet of exhibition space in six galleries.

Since launching the Hudson Valley Additive Manufacturing Center in spring 2013, the college’s groundbreaking 3D printing initiative has integrated the college’s strengths in engineering, computer science, technology, and the arts.

In partnership with MakerBot, the leading manufacturer of desktop 3D printers, the college opened the nation’s first MakerBot Innovation Center in 2014.

In 2015, the college received the Heiskell Award from the Institute for International Education, recognizing its success programming to create study-abroad opportunities for economically disadvantaged and historically underrepresented students.