The names are being changed because the buildings’ namesakes, the founding families of the town, owned slaves prior to slavery’s abolition in New York State. The new building names pay homage to local geographic features. They will be assigned to the campus buildings to mirror their actual locations – for instance, Lefevre Hall, the eastern-most of the buildings, will become Shawangunk Hall, because the Shawangunk Ridge is the eastern-most of these features.

Six campus buildings that carried the name of the town’s original Huguenot settlers, who owned slaves, will be named for local places, Native American tribes and a bird.