SUNY Orange Celebrates 75 Years
Save the Dates
April 22, 2025: Student and Staff Anniversary Picnic (Newburgh campus)
April 24, 2025: Student and Staff Anniversary Picnic (Middletown campus)
May 16, 2025: Alumni Reunion (Middletown campus)
May 17, 2025: Transforming Lives Gala (West Hills Country Club, Middletown)
May 18, 2025: Anniversary Breakfast (Newburgh campus)
June 9, 2025: SUNY Orange 75th Birthday Recognition (both campuses)
Share your SUNY Orange stories and memories!
As Orange County Community College (SUNY Orange) celebrates 75 years of transforming lives, we invite you to share your personal stories and memories. Whether you're a member of our alumni community, a past or current faculty/staff member, community member, friend or student, you are a part of our family and our history. Please join us in commemorating this important milestone by sharing your story with us through this video and being a part of our celebration.
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Founded in 1950 as the first county-sponsored community college in New York, Orange County Community College (SUNY Orange) will turn 75 years old in June 2025, and the College has announced it will spend the 2024-25 academic year celebrating its 75th anniversary.
Having influenced and educated countless residents since its early days, the College has selected “Transforming Lives for 75 Years” as its diamond anniversary theme, with an accompanying blue-and-orange-branded logo displaying that phrase. The theme connects nicely with SUNY Orange’s newly revised vision of “strengthening our community, transforming lives” that was unanimously approved by the College’s Board of Trustees at its recent April meeting.
What a special privilege that we have here in 2024 and 2025 to shine a light on the wisdom, foresight and commitment that our community leaders had in the late 1940s to embrace a new educational approach: the community college,” said Dr. Kristine Young, SUNY Orange president. “They wanted to bring education to Orange County, and they did it, aided by the wonderful generosity of Christine Morrison who donated her estate to make it happen. In their wildest dreams, I wonder if they thought we’d be here nearly 75 years later carrying the torch that they lit. ”