I visited SUNY New Paltz recently and a lot of people have told me it’s a “hippie” school and town. What exactly does it mean that the school and town are “hippie”? I have no problem with that since i think it is a beautiful campus and I like the programs, just want more insight as to why its “hippie”
The town of New Paltz has a hippie vibe because in 1969 people were traveling to Woodstock for the music festival. but the throughway was dead stopped for days and people just got off. They were stranded in the towns before Woodstock. Many people liked the area and just stayed. Today the town has an artsy vibe. The school has a rep for being tolerant of everyone. NP has a ton of majors and a fairly new engineering department. I don’t think you can really call it a Hippie school.
It isn’t necessarily “hippie” but it is “artsy” and people sometimes equate artsy and hippie. I’d say artsy contrasts with corporate that you might find at schools that focus on finance or pre-professional that you might find at most SUNYs. Purchase and New Paltz are artsy but the area around New Paltz is known for the arts, something that predates SUNY. That reputation isn’t just about the concert called Woodstock or people being stranded in the towns. The adjacent towns have had vibrant art communities for at least two centuries. That is why Woodstock, the concert, was located near there not the other way around.
Part of the reputation is due to its location near the Hudson River. As an example, the art genre called the Hudson River School, paintings depicting realistic scenery of tamed/gentile wilderness, came out of the general area in the early to mid 1800s. It was a place for the wealthy to summer, thus it offered cheap living but gave access to wealthy people who could spend for the arts. Areas where wealthy spend leisure time are often ripe for the development of fine dining, performing arts, and fine arts. Art colonies tend to attract counter culture types. By the late 1950s and through the 1960s the town was already filled with progressive/liberal artsy people. Woodstock the concert, which did not take place until the summer of '69, was not in Woodstock (about 30 minutes from New Paltz) but Dylan owned a house there, something that predated the concert. Rhinebeck, Hyde Park, and Saugerties are all within about 30 minutes of New Paltz and each has a very artsy history and presence.
The concentration of arts, culture, nature and great food (due to proximity of the Culinary Institute of America/Hyde Park) makes for an energetic artsy vibe. That is probably why some people call it a hippie school.
When I visited schools with my kids, we visited Oneonta and New Paltz which are similar in size, admissions standards, and courses offered. It was really obvious the Oneonta kids kind of all looked alike (the girls all had same hair and clothes) and the New Paltz kids looked very individual, like each person’s hair and clothes were an expression of themself. And there were more flyers up at New Paltz for various left wing or vegetarian causes.
Nice Muffy333 
Bet the individuality was not confined to hair and dress. Bet that all the students are not left wing either. But it is probably a place that fosters self expression across all modalities. I like that in a college.