Waves of Change
Sweeping Across Newburgh Campus Metamorphosis Visible in Areas Beyond Bricks and Mortar approach not only to their life, but their schoolwork and what they might want to do with their life after high school.”
There was much fanfare in Newburgh this past spring as Kaplan Hall, the sparkling and innovative centerpiece of SUNY Orange’s expanding Newburgh campus, enjoyed its much-anticipated opening, welcoming its first students in January and celebrating a dignified dedication in March. And while the physical transformation of the campus’ one-block footprint was noticeable and distinct—an 87,000-square-foot steel and brick building rising three stories into the sky alongside a beautifully designed and landscaped inner campus plaza—a more impressive metamorphosis occurred inside Kaplan Hall in the days and weeks immediately following the building’s opening. From the very first moments students walked the building’s immaculate hallways, the atmosphere was different. They freely admitted to feeling as if they’d transferred to a new and larger college. They felt as if they had a greater sense of campus life. No S umme r 2 0 1 1
A state-of-the-art nursing simulation lab in Kaplan Hall now allows students to complete their entire nursing degree program in Newburgh.
longer were they shoehorned into a former bank building retrofitted to accommodate classrooms. Kaplan Hall provided them space to grow, room to spread their wings and the incentive to tackle their academics with a renewed vigor. “The new campus encourages current students and future students, and gives them more hope for the possibilities of their future,” says recent graduate Jarrett Price. “When students see this campus, they have a different
“Kaplan Hall has changed me academically because I am more motivated. I think a lot of the students are more motivated because we have greater resources, we are in a bigger building and the community is expecting more from us now,” says Daija Russell, another recent graduate. Instructors and staff members have noticed the change as well. More class work and research is being done inside Kaplan Hall because students have places to gather in groups or work quietly on their own. Everyone who enters the building immediately develops a heightened awareness of having infiltrated an environment where learning is priority one. “Students are utilizing the academic spaces provided to them (in Kaplan Hall). They are forming study groups on their own. They are using the library. They are using the tutoring
13