“It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast…”
— "Through the Looking Glass” by Lewis Carroll, 1871
Go ahead. Clear your mind. Imagine you’re a drone flying over campus in the year 2040. What do you see? Are there new buildings? Fewer? What do you recognize? What technology is being used? Who are the professors? How are they teaching? Are the students engaged in learning?
![group of students from the 50s](/media/magazine/spring-2020/groupofstudents-cropped.jpg)
Hang on to those images. Now, slowly return to the present day. What do we find on campus in 2020? How has it changed since 1828? How will the decisions we make, or do not make, influence the outcome in the next 20 years as we think about our immediate challenges, opportunities and our long-term future?
Come as You Are
Students meet outside of College Hall, ca. 1950s.
![girls by college hall in the 50s](/media/magazine/spring-2020/girlsbycollegehall50s_cropped.jpg)
Students meet on campus to socialize and engage. Here, members of the Outing Club are photographed in the early 1960s. Two students stand outside the Sojourner Truth Library in the 1980s.
![Outing Club of 1962](/media/magazine/spring-2020/1962 - outing club.jpg)
![Students on campus in 1992](/media/magazine/spring-2020/1992 - students outdoors.jpg)
Today, two students find a quiet place to study on the Parker Quad.
![girls studying outside today](/media/magazine/spring-2020/Lester_092018_1400_cropped.jpg)
SUNY New Paltz students from the Class of 2019 join together on campus for the fall Convocation tradition.
![students at orientation](/media/magazine/spring-2020/students at orientation.jpg)
![students on campus today](/media/magazine/spring-2020/20150720-1_Students On Campus_0203.jpg)
MODERN SPACES
Students in the Old Library building on campus, which now houses classrooms for the Department of Art.
![Old Library then](/media/magazine/spring-2020/1958 Old Library.jpg)
Wooster Science Building was originally built in 1968 to house classrooms and labs for the Geology and Physics Departments.
![wooster outside before](/media/magazine/spring-2020/wooster-outside-before.jpg)
![wooster inside before](/media/magazine/spring-2020/wooster-inside-before.jpg)
An extensive $14.3 million project to upgrade the Sojourner Truth Library was completed in 2016. The new main floor is equipped with state-of-the-art technologies and expanded learning and collaboration spaces, as well as aesthetic improvements that enhance natural light and views of the nearby Shawangunk Ridge.
![Sojourner truth library now](/media/magazine/spring-2020/20180501-2_Sojourner Truth Library_127-cropped.jpg)
The Wooster Hall renovation in 2016 was neither a demolition nor a preservation. The building was completely transformed from a 1960s era building of Brutalist architecture, to a spacious, modern layout with centralized student services and enhanced spaces for academic programs in the liberal arts and engineering disciplines.
View more photos of Wooster before and after the renovation here.
![wooster hall outside now](/media/magazine/spring-2020/20160815_Wooster Hall_011.jpg)
![wooster classroom now](/media/magazine/spring-2020/20160914_2_Wooster Hall Engineering Classroom_13.jpg)
A SENSE OF BELONGING
Members of the 1988 Women’s Softball team, pictured here, were the College's first state champion softball team and were inducted into the 2018 SUNY New Paltz Athletics Hall of Fame.
![](/media/2015_06_02_12_17_22-1746x2597.jpg)
![Softball](/media/2015_06_02_12_17_34.jpg)
The SUNY New Paltz's men's lacrosse team had its first official season in 2020, playing four games before its inaugural campaign was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
![Lacrosse game](/media/222222220200228-1_Mens Lacrosse Inaugural Home Game_259 (1).jpg)
ENGAGED STUDENTS &
IMPASSIONED TEACHING
Students participate in class ca. 1970s.
![students in class 1983](/media/magazine/spring-2020/1983 - Page 110 0001-cropped.jpg)
Students take their final exams ca. 1960s and a student participates in a painting class in the 1970s.
![final exams 1957](/media/magazine/spring-2020/Final exams 1957 YB Page 139-resized.jpg)
![art student 1992](/media/magazine/spring-2020/1992 - art student.jpg)
Students participate in The AC2 program, 2019. The program combines the SUNY-wide Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (AMP) and the New York State Department of Education-funded Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program (C-STEP) and is dedicated to supporting and preparing historically underrepresented and income-eligible students for careers in STEM fields.
![summer biology research students](/media/magazine/spring-2020/20180613-2_AC2 Summer Research Biology_169-resized.jpg)
Here, students participate in a drawing class in 2017 and Sun Hee Kil, assistant professor in the Department of Theatre Arts works with students in a sound lab on campus in 2018.
![painting class today](/media/magazine/spring-2020/20150330-1_Cheng Amy Painting Class_0059.jpg)
![audio engineering class today](/media/magazine/spring-2020/20171006-1_Kil Sunny Audio Engineering_0004.jpg)
Looking back, we are given a sense of our capacity for change. And so, we ask ourselves: what university have we created? What one will our future students inherit? View more historical campus photos here.