College welcomes 32 new full-time faculty

NEW PALTZ — The State University of New York at New Paltz welcomed 32 new full-time faculty members to its teaching roster for the fall 2006 semester. The new hires fill teaching positions in a variety of different departments throughout campus.

New faculty
Kristin Charles, 08/24/2006

The new faculty members include: Sandrine Dincki (Communication and Media), Ping Su (Business), Heather Morrison (History), Larry Carr (English), Penny Freel (English), Andrea Varga (Theatre Arts), Themina Kader (Art Education), Rena Leinberger (Art), Stuart Henley (Art), Joan Hollister (Business), Laura Phillips (Art History), Judith Halaz (Sociology), Andrew Higgins (English), Jonathan Rust (Psychology), Jane Sileo (Educational Studies), Terry Murray (Educational Studies), Kim Schwartzhoff (Art Education), Kenneth Nystrom (Anthropology), Michael Vargas (History), Salvatore Engle-DiMauro (Geography), Karanja Carroll (Black Studies), Alexander Bartholomew (Geology), Stephen Kitsakos (Theatre). New faculty not pictured are: Andrea Abramovich (Communication Disorders), Inge Anema (Communication Disorders), Robert Dillon (Educational Administration), Morgan Gwenwald (Library), Aaron Haselton (Biology), Min Ju (Psychology), Pierre Lacour (Economics), Mercedes Rooney (Foreign Languages) and Colleen Lougen (Library).

College President Steven Poskanzer has said that with the additional state funding approved by the legislature and the governor this year, the college’s number one priority for the 2006-07 academic year will be hiring even more full-time, tenure-track faculty.

To that end, Dr. David K. Lavallee, provost at SUNY New Paltz, has collaborated with the deans and department chairs to come up with a list of 38 faculty searches, which will get under way this fall. Those new hires will arrive on campus in fall 2007.

Lavallee said that the number needed for replacement of faculty who retire, resign or are not reappointed is typically 16-18 a year; thus, the college expects to add about 22-24 additional faculty lines for fall 2007.

“We were extremely pleased that this year the governor and the legislature provided SUNY with the funds to hire new full-time faculty to improve our full-time to part-time ratio,” said Lavallee. “We continue to attract faculty that are extremely talented and this fall’s cohort is no exception.”

Note to editors: A group photograph of the newly appointed SUNY New Paltz faculty may be downloaded from the SUNY New Paltz Web site at http://www.newpaltz.edu/news/images/newfaculty06.html.