SUNY Orange chooses Key Bank Site

(Middletown) - SUNY Orange officials are preparing to move into the concept and archiectural design phase for their planned Newburgh campus following the Orange County Legislature's decision last Thurday to place the branch campus in the city's Lower Broadway region, at the intersection of Broadway and Colden St., current home of the college's Newburgh Extenion Center.

Before moving foward with plans to expand its presence in Newburgh, the college needed the legislature to select and approve a suitable site, a requirement the county's governing body completed during last Thursday's session. now that a site has been selected, SUNY Orange Presiden Dr. William Richards is eager to continue the process as it moves into the concept and architectural design stages.

"We would have been happy settling into any of the sites that were considered, but now that the Lower Broadway property has been chosen, we are prepared to move further into the details of designing a campus in Newburgh," Richards said, " All along, we told the members of the Orange County Legislature, ' You find us a site and we'll build the greater Newburgh community the best branch campus we can."

Additionally, the college has begun the necessary application process, working the State University of New York and the State Education Department staffs, to earn "branch campus " certification for the future Newburgh campus. That distinction will allow the Newburgh branch campus of SUNY Orange to be a degree-granting institution in its own right.

"That means students will be able to start and finish their studies right there in Newburgh. They won't have to come to the Middletown campus, unless they wish to," Richards explained. "We think it is very important for our students to have a degree-granting campus in Newburgh, and we expect to have the certification process completed before the doorsto the new branch are open."

Richards stressed his desire for the concept and architectural design phase (considered Phase 2 of the project) to be completed quickly, but added no timetable has been established.