SUNY New Paltz History Club
Our student-led history club provides you with a way to enjoy history beyond your coursework. It is open to all students interested in history, regardless of major. Joining is a great way to meet other students in our community. The club also does both fun and practical events for history students. Weekly gatherings often involve historically-oriented games or discussions on a theme. More formal past activities have included career advice panels, alumni visits, and graduate school preparation. They are now looking to expand into museum trips for club members. Finally, the history club works with the department to plan events and celebrations for all history students.
Meetings take place on Tuesdays at 7:00 p.m. in the Honors Center. Feel free to just show up and introduce yourself. Or, you can find out about the planned events or officially join by emailing the club at nphistoryclub@gmail.com.
You can reach out to the club’s president, Dan Hulseapple, at hulseapd1@hawkmail.newpaltz.edu. They have a Facebook group for you to join called the SUNY New Paltz History Club—they post events and updates there. The faculty advisor of the history club is Dr. Hamilton Stapell, who can be reached with questions as well at stappellh@newpaltz.edu.
Phi Alpha Theta, the History Honor Society
Students at any stage, regardless of background in history can join the history club. The International Honor Society in History, Phi Alpha Theta, is another matter. Phi Alpha Theta is one of the oldest, largest, and most prestigious academic honor societies active on college campuses. The society is active in organizing regional and national conferences, where many of our students have presented their undergraduate research.
Students who have taken a significant number of history classes at New Paltz and done well in them, are eligible to join Alpha Theta Xi, the New Paltz chapter of Phi Alpha Theta. Membership has a few privileges: it builds your resume and draws attention to the quality of your academic work; you are eligible to apply to present at their conferences or even publish your advanced research papers in their history journal; you can wear graduation cords in the pale blue and red colors of the honors society (they can be bought through phialphatheta.org); and you get a certificate and a year’s subscription to the organization’s history journal. Yearly inductions for the New Paltz chapter are held in the spring. If you wish to join, contact the faculty advisor at the beginning of that semester. To be eligible for membership, you must have completed at least 12 credit hours in history at New Paltz and have a minimum GPA of 3.1 in your history classes and 3.0 overall. The national dues are $50 to join. Both the application form and the dues should be submitted to a faculty advisor by the deadline in the spring, announced in advance every year in emails and classes. If you have any questions, contact Professors Albi, Gatzke, or O’Sullivan.
