Edwin Hernandez

156 College Hall

SUNY New Paltz

New Paltz, NY 12561

 

October 2, 2019

 

Donald P. Christian

SUNY New Paltz

President of New Paltz

HAB 901A2

 

Dear Mr. Christian,

 

Hello! My name is Edwin Hernandez and I am currently a first-year EOP student at SUNY New Paltz. In the short time I’ve been here, I’ve grown to love the campus and the people in it. But if one thing has remained in the back of my mind since I got here it’s the condition of College Hall. I am a resident of this hall and it saddens me to see the current state of it compared to the other halls. Now I am well aware of this hall’s history and what it may mean for the school, but it isn’t fair to the students and faculty that live there to have to bear with these conditions. 

 

I would like to start off with some of the main issues that I have noticed in my time here. One of the major issues that has affected me is the laundry room. For over a month, there has only been one washing machine that works on the first floor. This may not seem like a big deal but this makes laundry a way more time consuming task than it already it is with only two washing machines. Being a college student and having to go to class, see a teacher or advisor, meet with a club, or go eat often doesn’t allow for a student to have all the free time needed to do laundry, especially with only one machine. Then not only is it limited by time but it is also limited by availability. I am not the only resident in this hall who has to do laundry. This laundry room is for the whole floor; therefore, it’s almost always in use by someone. Another appliance in the hall that was out of service since I arrived here is the beverage vending machine. Now they did end up fixing this a few weeks into the semester, but it has never had beverages in it and still doesn’t have any to this day. Now these may seem like minor inconveniences but they lead me to question how much the school actually cares about College Hall.

 

If you make your way to the residence hall section of the SUNY New Paltz website, you are able to see some photos of each hall’s exterior and some of their surroundings. But what I 

find interesting is that when you get to College Hall’s photos and description, you don’t see the residence hall. You see the much nicer looking Music Hall that connects College and Shango Hall. Another thing I found interesting was that when speaking to some of my acquaintances, who would rather remain anonymous, who were helping give some tours during the school’s open house recently, they said “When they were telling me where to take people, they told me to show them all the halls except College and Shango” (Student Interview). I find this interesting because why would you choose to hide the most historically rich halls on campus from possible future students? Shouldn’t you want people to know about the school’s past? These are some questions that come to mind when I see or hear about my hall just blatantly ignored.

 

College Hall is mainly known for its history of housing a largely diverse group of students with it being one of the first halls to house students of African American descent. All around the halls you can see murals and quotes that were painted by the past inhabitants of College Hall. These murals symbolize the hardships the black community had gone through up until then. A lot of them show emotions towards slavery and towards the inequality going on in America at the time. There are also many inspirational quotes that promote black empowerment and self love during a time when blacks were being taught to hate themselves. Only the strong survived. In regards to the efforts of preserving the murals with a glass covering, is that really enough? These murals are monuments on this campus really and should be highlighted more but the problem is, they’re not in a very presentable environment. College Hall has a reputation on this campus as being one of the worst halls due to its conditions. It’s old, dingy, and seems to be forgotten about. If we allow the hall to keep getting worse and remain unattended, we will slowly allow the history to go along with it. The truth is, a lot of the student population is unaware of College Hall’s rich history because it’s masked by this unapproachable  exterior. Then there are halls like Ridgeview and Esopus that get most of the attention because they “look nice” or have food options. My point is, it feels like the school doesn’t want people to know about College Hall’s history and what this hall really used to be.

 

The solution to this could be to begin renovations to College Hall. Concerning its exterior, the hall itself looks very dirty, but this is nothing that can’t be fixed with a quick power wash. When it comes to the interior, adding better lighting and another coat of paint would create a fresher feeling to the hall. Many of the changes that could be made to College Hall are minimal but can make the hall a better living environment. I hope you consider making some of these changes in the near future so students will want to visit College Hall and learn more about the history within.

 

Sincerely,

Edwin Hernandez

 

Works Cited

SUNY New Paltz – Residence Life, newpaltz.edu, 

https://www.newpaltz.edu/reslife/shangocollege/index.php.

 

Student Interview. October 26, 2019.