William Paterson University is on a hilly, wooded campus in northern New Jersey in the suburban township of Wayne. The campus is located on
County Route 504, along the eastern town line of Wayne, and small parts of the campus are in the boroughs of
Haledon and
North Haledon, It borders on High Mountain Preserve, a forested area, nearly of wetlands and woodlands, and is 3 miles (4.8 km) west of the historic
Great Falls in
Paterson.
New York City is to the east, the
Jersey Shore is an hour's drive south, skiing is north, and the
Meadowlands Sports Complex is a half-hour drive away.
Facilities William Paterson University's buildings include: •
University Hall, an 80,000 square-foot academic building which opened in January 2016 and was funded in part by the Building Our Future Bond Act, is a mix of general-use classrooms, dedicated laboratories, and clinical spaces for programs in nursing, communication disorders, and public health. • The
David and Lorraine Cheng Library is the academic knowledge center of William Paterson University. • The expanded and renovated 232,000-square-foot
Science Complex features nearly 100 research labs and 50 teaching labs. • The
1600 Valley Road Building, which includes interactive classrooms, the Russ Berrie Institute for Professional Sales with its professional sales laboratory, and the Financial Learning Center (a simulated trading floor). • The University Galleries at the
Ben Shahn Center for the Visual Arts presents exhibitions of contemporary art, oversees the university's art collections and offers educational programs. • The
Power Art Center accommodates an array of studio arts, including three-dimensional design, photography, sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, woodworking, and painting. • The
Nel Bolger, RN Nursing Laboratory is a patient simulation laboratory suite in
University Hall. The lab features computerized patient simulation mannequins, a control station for operating the mannequins, robotic digital cameras to record students practicing patient care techniques, television screens to display the lab sessions, one-way mirrors to allow viewing by professors, and editing facilities for creative electronic DVDs for evaluations of student progress. •
Hamilton Hall, the communication building, houses TV broadcast studios, the
WPSC radio station and sound engineering arts facilities. Hamilton Hall, originally Hobart Hall, had its name changed in summer of 2019. The reasoning behind the name change was due to the fact that students, particularly first-year freshmen, were confusing Hobart Manor and Hobart Hall for one another. The new name is in reference to
Alexander Hamilton, one of the
Founding Fathers of the United States and first
United States Secretary of the Treasury. •
The University Commons, including the John Victor Machuga Student Center with its food court and the Speert Hall dining facility, is the hub of campus life, providing a venue for the entire University community to gather and interact. ==Student life==