SUNY New Paltz welcomes about 1,700 new students, 35 new faculty

NEW PALTZ — About 950 first-year students will move into their new homes on the campus of the State University of New York at New Paltz on Aug. 20, during the annual Moving In Day. They will be joined by about 725 new transfer students. Overall enrollment did not grow at the college. New Paltz is operating at or near capacity at the undergraduate level and, therefore, has seen no undergraduate enrollment growth.

Highly selective incoming class
With an acceptance rate of 32 percent for first-year students and 36 percent for transfers, New Paltz remains one of the most selective universities in the Northeast. From an applicant pool of almost 16,000, New Paltz received 12,545 freshman applications for this year’s incoming class, a 5 percent increase over last year, and 2,993 transfer applications. For the 17th consecutive year, New Paltz has led all SUNY colleges in total applications received. The number of freshman applications has risen 40 percent since 2000.

The college continues to attract qualified students from all backgrounds. Of the first-year students reporting their ethnicity, 27 percent come from traditionally underrepresented groups. There are 339 new international students from 35 countries who plan to attend New Paltz this fall. New Paltz has more students studying abroad and more international students combined than any other SUNY college.

New full-time faculty
With a healthy state budget, the college continues to focus on hiring more full-time, tenure-track faculty.
To that end, the college welcomes 35 new full-time faculty members to its teaching roster for the fall 2007 semester. Of the new cohort, 15 positions are new lines and the remaining hires fill teaching positions in a variety of different departments throughout campus. In previous years, the typical total number of new faculty arriving in the fall has been 16-20. The student-to-faculty ratio is 13-1.

New academic minor
Also this fall, New Paltz will begin teaching courses for its new 18-credit interdisciplinary evolutionary studies minor – the second such program in the nation. The new program includes classes from many departments and provides students with an education regarding evolution that is both deep and broad in scope.

In addition, the program offers a course, "Evolutionary Studies Seminar," that will feature expert speakers on varied topics tied to evolutionary principles and applications. The lectures, included as part of this course, will be free and open to the public.

For more information about the evolutionary studies minor, visit http://www.newpaltz.edu/evos.