Retrospective: NAPCN at New Paltz
By Robert Hadden Mole
Vol. 4, Issue 2 (Fall 2000)

As constructivists across North America prepared for NAPCN 2000 conference, a single question was running through everyone’s head: Where the heck is New Paltz anyway? New Paltz, as it turns out, is nestled in the mid-Hudson valley, an idyllic place despite its mere 90 minutes in distance from the bustle of New York City.  New Paltz is a college town in the truest sense—one half of the town is the college.  In this place, on the campus of SUNY New Paltz, the NAPCN 2000 conference was hosted from July 12th to the 16th.  This year’s conference drew delegates from all over North America, as well as a handful from England and Australia.  The conference also drew some New York area scientists and psychologists, whose background lay outside of constructivism.  Some came to learn more, others to challenge constructivism, all of them came out of curiosity.

New Paltz 2000 had all the features of a good conference.  There were, of course the presentations given, covering topics on methods, education, practice, and the history of constructivism.  If the ensuing discussion from the presentations carried momentum, then the walk down to New Paltz main street taverns and restaurants was a mere five minutes, allowing delegates to continue their talks and debates over pitchers of their favorite beverage.  One gets the impression that this behavior was actually sanctioned by conference organizers.  Case in point: Franz Epting’s annual Philo-café was scheduled to take place in a microbrewery.

There was a Bar-B-Que held on the Friday night.  And again, this led to debates and discussions that continued on into the night on the main street.  Historically minded delegates were fascinated to take a bus tour to visit former president Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Hyde Park mansion, on the other side of the Hudson River.  The FDR mansion is a fascinating piece of history.  One delegate became so wrapped up with the presidential library that he missed the returning bus to New Paltz.

The Gala Banquet on the final night was indeed a gala event.  The evening’s roster of events included the swearing in of the new NAPCN president Dr. Jon Raskin (see article, this issue).  The Student Paper Competition, with its stipend of $200 was awarded to Caroline Stanley, of SUNY New Paltz.  Entertainment included items that might seem out of place at a conference of academics.  There was live guitar music.  A magic show by Jay Efran was hilarious.  My stomach muscles actually cramped up from laughing so hard.  Troy Seidl of Lehigh University presented a video retrospective of the conference.  There were also several clever and heartfelt presentations by former students of Franz Epting, as he was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award (see biography, this issue).

The conference theme was “Constructivist Psychology at the Millenium: Future Directions in Research and Practice”.  While this was reflected in many of the academic presentations, it also came through in the business of the organization.  All joking about the new millenium aside, this year’s conference did truly carry the mood that a new era for constructivism is about to dawn.  Delegates were eager to discuss a change to the name of the organization. Plans were also made to ally the organization with the APA’s Division 32, Humanistic Psychology (see article, this issue for further details).