New Paltz is hotter than ever.

Beginning next week, the college will welcome 1,800 of the best and brightest students to campus, 1,300 of which are first-year students.

David Eaton, vice president for enrollment management, said the college continues to offer admission to the very best applicants and due to its rising reputation, many of them have accepted.

“We are becoming known as the quality institution that we really are and many more students are making us their first choice,” said Eaton. “It seems the distinction is accurate – we are the hottest small state school in America.”

This is reflected in this year’s exceptionally high yield rate of 24 percent for accepted first-year students, which is a 14 percent increase over last year’s 21-percent yield. In other words, more students than in previous years who were offered admission have accepted, Eaton said.

This year’s larger-than-normal class was selected from an applicant pool of 13,868, which represents the 18th consecutive year that New Paltz has received the most new student applications among all SUNY colleges.

The number of first-year student applications has risen 54 percent since 2000 and as a result, New Paltz remains one of the most selective universities in the Northeast, accepting only 35 percent of its applicants.

In addition, Eaton said that the quality of the students New Paltz attracts continues to rise. This year, 100 percent of New Paltz’s accepted first-year students came from the top two of five SUNY quality groups, up from 98 percent last year and 75 percent in 2001. First-year students from the top two groups have a mean SAT score of 1160 and a high school average of above 90.

First-year students will arrive on campus on Aug. 21 for Moving In Day. They will be joined a few days later by about 500 transfer students, the acceptance rate for which continues to be a selective 34 percent of this year’s total 2,566 applicants.

A new site for Convocation

The college will usher in the new academic semester with the annual Convocation ceremony on Aug. 22. This year’s program will take place in the Athletic and Wellness Center.

Professor Maureen Morrow (Biology)

Maureen Morrow (Biology) will be the convocation speaker. Morrow, who received the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Faculty Service at the 2008 May Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony, is director of the college’s Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities program.

“I am honored to be representing the outstanding faculty at New Paltz and am excited to meet the class of 2012,” she said. “I would like to encourage the students to take advantage of all the college has to offer, especially through getting to know individual faculty members.”

This year, the ceremony was organized by alumnus Michael Vanderbilt ’08 (Theatre Arts). Vanderbilt worked with special events coordinator Judy Albertson (Development), who retired in June, on convocation and commencement events for the past four years. Rachel Gande ’08 (English) also assisted in planning the event.

In order to provide a warm welcome to the 1,800 new students, faculty and staff are encouraged to attend the Convocation ceremony and the all-campus barbecue that will follow on the Athletic and Wellness Center lawn. Those who would like to participate must register on my.newpaltz.edu.

Faculty and staff are also encouraged to help students move into the residence halls. For more information on participating in Moving In Day on Aug. 21, contact Linda Knoth (Student Development) at x3088 or knothl@newpaltz.edu.

High-temperature, hot-water project on track

Steady progress has been made on the replacement of the campus’s high-temperature, hot-water lines over the summer. While the project is on schedule, when students and faculty arrive on campus next week, construction will still be visible.

John McEnrue, director of facilities design and construction, said while excavated areas will be located across campus, there will also be back-filled trenches that have been filled in. Fences surround all construction areas, and changes to normal routes of travel and entry will be evident, but all buildings affected by the construction have safe accessways. A special construction map was created this summer to guide staff, students and visitors. It will be updated as projects evolve. To view the map, visit www.newpaltz.edu/map/printable.html.

“Needless to say, the campus has been uprooted this summer, but thanks to prior planning, good communication and an incredibly accommodating campus community, we have not had a single complaint,” said McEnrue. “It’s wonderful to witness the cohesive and supportive spirit that has developed during this very busy summer.”

The installation of pipes in front of the Coykendall Science Building in August is part of Phase II of the project that will equip the campus with a new high-temperature, hot-water system.

Work on Phases II and III of the project that replaces the campus’s 30-year-old heating system began at the end of the spring 2008 semester. Phase II and half of Phase III will be complete by the end of September.

“The work will be noticeable, but not inconvenient,” said project manager Lyle Nolan (Facilities Design and Construction). “The end result will be a safe, reliable and invisible system, which will provide energy-efficient heat to all buildings on campus for the next 30 to 40 years.”

Nolan said the goal over the next few months is to proceed as quickly and as safely as possible with the project. He added that heat will be on for all buildings by the beginning of October.

Cooling system in place

Meanwhile, students and faculty in the Jacobson Faculty Tower, Lecture Center, Sojourner Truth Library and Humanities will feel the effects of a new cooling system this semester. The project to install air conditioning in Humanities and a new chiller to Humanities, Jacobson and the Lecture Center is nearing completion.

Project manager Garry Nack (Facilities Design and Construction) said administrative staff and faculty members began moving back into their offices this week after being relocated across campus to Humanities, Coykendall Science Building and van den Berg Hall.

For more information on these and other campus construction projects, visit
www.newpaltz.edu/construction.

All departments that have been granted a Work Study allocation for the 2008-2009 academic year are invited to participate in the fourth annual Work Study Job Fair from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Aug. 28 in the Student Union Building’s Multi-Purpose Room.

At the event, students who have been awarded Work Study will be able to meet with various departments looking to interview and hire students. Paperwork can be submitted now to the Work Study Coordinator Cynthia Harkins to get students on the payroll sooner.

There will also be giveaways, prizes and refreshments provided by Campus Auxiliary Services (CAS).

Department representatives should register to attend by Aug. 15 by contacting Harkins at harkinsc@newpaltz.edu or at x3247.

Periodically, the campus is allowed to confer honorary degrees upon distinguished individuals during college ceremonies, such as commencement. As part of that process, the college is soliciting names of potential recipients for future commencements from faculty and staff.

Send suggestions to publicaffairs@newpaltz.edu by Aug. 15. No supporting materials or information are required to submit a name, but it would be helpful to include a one-sentence rationale regarding the relevance and/or appropriateness of the nominee to New Paltz.

Suzanne Kelly (Women’s Studies) wrote an op-ed piece, titled “The Sensuous Classroom: Focusing on the Embodiment of Learning,” that appeared in the July 25 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Ann Minnick, dean of Academic Advising, will be leaving New Paltz at the end of August after almost 10 years. She is returning to the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis where she earned two degrees and began her advising career. Minnick will assume the role of one of three new assistant directors of advising for the College of Liberal Arts at the university. Mary Beth Collier, executive assistant to the provost, will serve as interim dean of academic advising until the search for a successor is concluded.

Erin Brady ’05 (Communication and Media) co-produced, shot and edited a story for Nightline on ABC, which aired on July 17. The story focused on unanswered questions and the apprehension that follow adoptees into adulthood. For more information on the story, visit http://tinyurl.com/5kdaj3.

by Lee Conell ’09 (English) Public Affairs intern

Telecommunications helps to keep New Paltz connected, both within the campus community and with the world outside.

Headed by director K.C. Stevens, the department, which has more than 11 staff members, performs a

Telecommunications decides what services to offer based on the needs of the campus community. The staff is (front row, l to r): Shen Shields and K.C. Stevens; (back row, l-r): Lou Eberhardt, Will White, Ray Dangerfield, Bob Murphy, Jay Palen, Dominic DeCarlo and Lora Palmateer. Missing from the photo are Nancy Sleight and Christine Wilkins. Photo by Lee Conell

myriad of services for the college. These include providing network connections and wireless access points; wiring and cabling; running the voice-messaging system and offering phone service to on-campus students.

Although they have a large staff, the department stays unified. Stevens said, “We all have a common goal and that is to provide good service.”

In order to keep New Paltz connected internally and externally, the Telecom staff must stay in touch not only as a department, but also with the entire campus.

“We’re one of the few departments that has had contact with every faculty and staff member on campus,” said Stevens. That’s because Telecom handles the online faculty/staff directory, a responsibility that has become especially important during renovations to the Old Main Building.

“With all the moves, we’re updating the directory every couple of weeks with new locations,” said Stevens.

The department also moved and rewired all the phones of the relocated faculty and staff.

Safety matters

Along with keeping the campus connected, they help keep it safe, providing more than 200 courtesy phones, which can be used to dial a campus extension, and 50 Blue Light phones, which connect to University Police.

“Our goal is that if you stand anywhere on campus, you should be able to see a blue light,” said Stevens.

Telecom also offers free phone service to on-campus students. Stevens has seen increased traffic in the service in recent months, which she attributes to a tighter economy and a decrease in cell phone plans for students.

To remind students of the available service, Telecom provides online access to phone bills.

Although putting students’ phone bills online instead of on paper may seem like a fairly simple action, it’s indicative of the larger technological developments Stevens has seen unfold in her 10 years with Telecom. Before, she said, phone services were limited to picking up the receiver and making a call. Now, the department has an option-filled voice message system. Plans are in the works for a service that would allow voice messages to be checked online and emails to be checked via telephone.

The fast pace of technology has helped Telecom make many positive changes, but it also demands that the department keep up with constant new developments.

“In our cabling alone, we’re using the industry standard, which changes every couple of years,” said Stevens.

Still, Stevens enjoys being immersed in cutting-edge technology. “I’m learning something new every day,” she said.

For more information, visit www.newpaltz.edu/telecom.