TOWN OF WALLKILL – SUNY New Paltz is responsible for some $335 million in economic impact for the region as well as 230 jobs, college President Donald Christian told members of the Orange County Chamber of Commerce on Thursday.
Christian said they will be adding to that impact by improving the school’s infrastructure over the next few years. They are scheduled to add a new residence hall in the fall 2015 and a new science building in 2017.
Christian said that the university has entered in its first project labor agreement for the new science building and it is expected to create a number of construction jobs for locals in the region.
Christian highlighted 3-D printing technology in creating workable prosthetics as an example of
how SUNY New Paltz students excel at innovation
“Recognizing the great value that they have in a public university within ready reach of them and their sons and daughters, the sons and daughters of their friends and also recognizing the capabilities that we have in our interest in gauging and supporting the region,” is what Christian said he hopes the local business community will notice about SUNY New Paltz.
One of the new programs Christian was excited to tell the chamber about is the university’s 3-D printing program. The region gains a substantial amount of revenue from the arts, as well as technology/design and Christian sees this as an opportunity to merge facets of those areas together into educational programs for students entering those industries. For Instance, SUNY New Paltz students in the 3-D printing program have been developing printable prostheses for children. This has made it possible for Joseph, a young man with a missing hand, to have an affordable robotic prosthesis and even though he will continuously grow, the cost is low enough that he will have access to a new prosthesis when he needs one.
“Our 3-D printing is taking off as a collaboration between art, engineering, technology and we’re approaching this as an educational enterprise for our students but, also as a way that we can reach out to the area manufacturing business, entrepreneurial, artistic communities to make the use of this technology much more widely available in the Hudson Valley,” said Christian.
