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State University of New York at Purchase

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Purchase College, State University of New York
Motto"Think Wide Open"
TypePublic
Established1967
PresidentThomas Schwarz
ProvostElizabeth Langland
Academic staff
300 [1]
Students4,000
Location
Purchase
,
NY
,
United States
CampusSuburban, 500 acres (2 km²) [2]
ColorsHeliotrope & Puce
MascotPurchase Panthers
Websitewww.purchase.edu

The State University of New York at Purchase, also known as Purchase College and SUNY Purchase, is a public liberal, visual, and performing arts college in Purchase, New York, United States, a part of the State University of New York system. It was founded in 1967 and was designed as a school that would combine conservatory training in the visual and performing arts with liberal arts and sciences programs. It has conservatory programs in Theater Arts & Film, Music, and Dance, and its School of Art + Design is well-respected.[citation needed] It has an enrollment of approximately 4,000 students, and is one of the Princeton Review's top 361 American Universities.

Academics

The programs of the School of Humanities are designed to help students develop the critical skills and substantive knowledge needed to participate fully and effectively in today's complex world. Humanities programs aim to help students in conceptualizing, interpreting, and imagining the worlds of human experience in words, in images, and through historical time are the central activities of students and scholars in the humanities. These activities define the core of our intellectual and moral selves.

Programs in the School of Natural and Social Sciences give students an appreciation for the complex relationships that exist among scientific systems of inquiry (economic, mathematical, physical, political, psychological, and social). The School also offers distinctive majors that explore the interfaces of media and the arts. Students learn to think independently, communicate effectively, do serious research, and use community resources. Our faculty members encourage learning by doing in both the lab and the field. This hands-on philosophy culminates in the senior year, when each student completes a year-long research project under the close supervision of a faculty mentor.

The Programs in Humanities, Natural and Social Sciences are increasingly selective, making up 60% of the College's student body.

The Purchase College School of the Arts contains four professional conservatory programs for those looking for a career in the performing or visual arts.

The buildings and open spaces of the campus are visually distinctive models of late modernist architecture. The plans and a scale model of the campus were exhibited at MOMA, New York's Museum of Modern Art.

The Visual Arts Building has 160,000 square feet (15,000 m2) of studios, exhibition spaces, workshops and labs.

The Dance Building was the first in America created specifically for the training of dancers.

The Music Building has two recital halls, 75 practice rooms, 80 Steinway pianos, and professional recording studios. The Studio Composition program was one of the first in the country, and the faculty and student showcase Purchase Records has earned 3 Grammy nominations for its 5 releases. The Film Conservatory is housed within the lower level of the Music Building.

The Conservatory of Theatre Arts & Film is comprised of four departments: Acting, Dramatic Writing, Film, and Theatre Design/Technology. Purchase College is one of four schools in the Consortium of Professional Theatre Training Programs, along with Carnegie Mellon, North Carolina School of the Arts and The Juilliard School. Purchase is one of a handful of colleges capable of training theatre and film students at this level and primarily as undergraduates. The programs are very selective: annually the film program receives 700 applications, Design/Technology 500, Dramatic Writing 200 and the Acting Program sees 1,200 auditions each year in nine cities across the country. Each year the Conservatory of Theatre Arts & Film accepts 20 filmmakers, 20, Dramatic Writing students, 40 Design/Technology students and 18-22 Acting majors. Collaboration among the four programs distinguish this unique training setting- at Purchase: Actors, filmmakers, writers and designers get to work together in faculty led curriculum as well as independently on student generated creative work. The four programs draw a faculty from the highest ranks of professional theatre and film.

Each conservatory program is highly selective and requires either a portfolio or audition for admission. Outside of the conservatory programs, the Lily Lieb School of Creative Writing within the Humanities and Liberal Arts program is the only one to require the submission of a portfolio from students for acceptance.

Purchase students in the humanities and sciences make up about 60% of the college's student body. The college emphasizes creativity and independent study that culminates in a senior project featuring the student's original research or creative project. Many Purchase grads use their senior project as a spring board to a job or to professional or graduate school.[citation needed]

In addition, the campus offers outstanding athletic facilities and cultural opportunities.

The Neuberger Museum of Art, the eighth largest university museum in the nation, houses a permanent collection of 6,000 works of art and features a full schedule of exhibitions, lectures, films and inter-media events.

The Performing Arts Center, a five-theater complex presents more than 100 professional and student performances each year.

Culture

Purchase College, with its proximity to the cultural mecca of Manhattan and the variety of arts programs offered to its students, is a well-spring of cultural and counter-cultural movements. Social activism plays a healthy part in shaping the scene at Purchase, and many students choose to participate in Student Government, and various clubs and organizations.

Dance, Music, Theater, Film, and the Visual Arts dominate Purchase culture. The Purchase Student Government and the college have provided spaces around campus for the display of student murals and a cornucopia of music can be heard bellowing from the campus' dormitory windows. Dance and theater productions are always an option for a "night out". The school is home to various performance venues, where Purchase bands and well-known touring artists take stage.

The student-funded and operated Student Center was opened in 2003 by the PSGA. Since its grand opening, the Student Center has featured free-use billiards tables, ping pong tables, a growing videogame arcade, air hockey, foosball, various board games, two concert venues (the main Student Center stage, and Whitson's Memorial Greeting Hall), and a film screening area. In later updates computers with wireless access and a student art gallery space were added. The school's devotion to the Student Center project was solidified by a major renovation done on the exterior of the building. It is known affectionately to many of its patrons as "The Stood" (sounds like "dude") [citation needed].

The students' musical tastes are celebrated at the school's annual Culture Shock festival, the most well-attended program at the school. The weekend festival, typically held in April (4/20 this year) showcases the talents of Purchase students as well as world renowned musical acts and performance artists. Recent Culture Shock headline performers include Ween, GWAR(rained out), Kool Keith, Animal Collective, GZA, Girl Talk, Man Man, Cat Power, Blonde Redhead, Bouncing Souls, Ghostface Killah, Saul Williams, Ted Leo, Biz Markie, Slick Rick and Dead Prez. Culture Shock is funded by the student's mandatory activity fee and put together by the Major Events Coordinator (MEC).

Purchase is known for its GLBT culture, which is celebrated during the annual "Fall Ball" - where Drag Queens and Kings compete on stage for the year's crown. Counter Culture and DIY sensibilities are very prominent as evidenced by the school's food co-op and student-run Student Center.

Students voice their opinions through a variety of campus media sources. Currently, there are two major student-run publications; The Independent (weekly news source), and The Submission (interdisciplinary journal of creativity).

Purchase has its own television station known as "PTV" (Purchase Television) which is cablecast on channel 69 on campus. The station is entirely funded and run by students. In addition to the TV station, the school also has a student-run radio station, WPSR, which broadcasts on 1610 am, and is simulcast on the internet.

Skateboarding has a unique presence at Purchase College due to its brick covered campus. The underground tunnels that connect the campus have smooth concrete and ramps. The campus has banned skateboarding on the mall and access to the tunnels is for the most part prohibited, making things difficult for the campus' skateboarding community. Previous classes have contributed to Purchase's skateboarding culture by publishing 5-0 Skate Zine and Thrash Compactor.

In 1992, Rama regularly held private meetings for his computer company "monks" at Purchase's Performing Arts Center. Christopher Beach, director of the Performing Arts Center at the time, told The New York Times ("Mentor to Some, Cult Leader to Others", Westchester edition, 6/20/93) that Rama was "no more than a Dale Carnegie of the 90's." Dr. Sheldon N. Grebstein, then-president of SUNY Purchase, also defended Rama in The Times article: "At SUNY Purchase we have directly witnessed none of the alleged cult activity."

Campus

The site chosen for the campus was a 500 acre (2 km²) estate, Strathglass Farm, in the middle of Westchester County, 40 minutes from Manhattan. It was originally the property of Thomas Thomas, a Revolutionary war soldier, whose family and slave cemetery still remains on the campus. In order to transform the former cattle farm into a college for thousands of students, SUNY engaged some of the most prominent American architects to design the campus. Edward Larrabee Barnes created the master plan, and nine distinguished architectural firms designed specific buildings. Buildings on the campus are located in the center of the property, and are isolated from the surrounding community by wooded areas around the perimeter of the property. The college is adjacent to the Westchester County Airport, and is across the street from PepsiCo's world headquarters. The campus is not within walking distance to any commercial area.

Various parts of the Campus are currently undergoing renovation. The new Student Services building opened in 2006, providing one-stop-shopping for most administrative services. The 'mall', or main campus plaza, is currently undergoing renovations to improve its aesthetics, create communal spaces, and to reduce flooding when it rains.


Notable alumni

Some of these and other alumni compose what has been called "The Purchase Mafia" by several different sources[who?], including Edie Falco and Hal Hartley [3], [4], [5]. The term originated in multiple biographical listings of Purchase alumni on The Internet Movie Database. It was later picked up by the press when actress and Purchase alumnae, Edie Falco, came to national attention as a result of her role on HBO's mob drama, The Sopranos.

Notable alumni and former students of Purchase include:

Actors

Theatrical Designers/Technicians

Playwrights and Screenwriters

Producers

Screenwriters

Directors

Musicians

Artists

Photojournalists

Journalists

Women's Rights activists

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