Editor’s Letter

At Proof , we occasionally make up the rules as we go—in pure Purchase fashion.

We gave this issue, the follow-up to our magazine redesign, the extra time it deserved to gel.

We hope you find it worth the wait.

Is It The People or The Place?

Purchase has long been a place that opens minds to new and novel ways of thinking, spinning people in directions they never imagined. But the people who find themselves here tend to be open to considering those new and novel ways of thinking.

It’s Both

It might just be the people and the place. The place changes people, and people change the place, adding their own spice and spirit for the next cohort to do the same.

Whether you majored in economics, worked on publications in the School of Humanities, or honed your visual arts skills, like those featured, you’ve internalized invaluable lessons and experiences, leaving unique Purchase imprints wherever you’ve landed.

Pioneers of Purchase

As 2026 opens, we look forward to honoring the Class of 1976—our first four-year graduates. It’s their spirit that lingers to this day. Those intrepid students who took a chance on a new and novel school, who trekked through mountains of mud, and who DIY’d their college experiences, essentially making things up as they went along. Together with those first transfers who arrived at the same time, you lit the fire.

Five decades later, those embers still burn, sparking every graduate who dares to make it up as they go.

Kristi McKee
Editor
Associate Director of Communications
Purchase College, SUNY