The president of SUNY New Paltz requested that the Diversity and Inclusion Council submit to him a report about whether the names of five dorms and a dining hall should be changed. This comes after complaints earlier this school year that the names on the building are of families who once owned slaves.

They are names of the Huguenot families who settled this area of Ulster County: LeFevre, Bevier, Crispell, Deyo, Dubois and Hasbrouck (the dining hall).

In a letter to the Diversity and Inclusion Council, President Donald Christian said he is asking the council to explore this issue because, "there is no question that each of these families owned slaves during the period of slavery in New York," and that "we must recognize that the legacy of the building names has a very different, painful impact for African-American members of our campus community than for others."

Junior Noah Holloway, who is black, said the names -- which have been posted since 1967 -- do not offend him.

"Everybody has their own shady histories," Holloway said.

He added, though, that he wonders if administrators might eventually regret not changing the names decades from now.

"It's 2018. You kind of want to change stuff and not be reminded of what your past was," Holloway said. "You kind of want to ... just keep moving forward. If we do change it, I guess it would be a smart move, and really cool."

Other students, like junior Ilya Kukovitskiy, said administrators here should be more worried about other issues, like a math department whose classes are held in small spaces.

"It's really easy to just change the name of a building," said Kukovitskiy, a math major. "But there are actual problems the students are complaining about."

The report requested by the president was due on April 16.

A spokesperson from SUNY New Paltz's media relations department said the report has been turned in, but the report must be reviewed first by the president before publicly releasing it.

The spokesperson said the college's plan is to keep discussions internal for now, and that the report may be released shortly.