Residence Life and Housing

A Residential Learning Community

From its founding, Hampshire College has been designed as a residential learning community. To that end, staff strive to create residential environments which meet the needs of students while promoting a vibrant campus life.

Residence life staff strive to foster relationships and community among residents. We support students as they learn to balance their individual rights and needs with the responsibility of being part of the community and make our practices and policies as transparent and plainly reasonable as possible.

Campus Living

Learn about our campus housing options.

Staff in the residence life office include the assistant director of housing operations, three residence life coordinators, the senior director, and the student engagement staff. If you are locked out of your room during business hours (Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.) or have lost your keys, please come to the second floor of Dakin Student Life Center, to sign out a back-up key. Outside of these hours, please call campus safety and wellbeing at 413.559.5424.

Residence Life Coordinators

The living areas are overseen by live-in professional staff members called residence life coordinators, supported by student paraprofessional staff called resident advisors.

Our Vision

With compassion, we meet students where they are and guide them to be community-centered. 

Our Mission

We strive to enrich the educational experience by fostering a dynamic campus community where personal development is encouraged and all students feel welcomed and supported. Residence Life aims to provide an inclusive environment for all students to learn and connect within their community, while emphasizing personal growth. Student Engagement fosters learning by providing leadership training, administrative guidance, and opportunities for involvement, while creating social activities and supporting student-led programs.

Our Core Values

  • Centering Students: We keep students' needs and interests as the basis for our practice as we exercise pride in contributing to the mission of the College and mission of Division of Student Affairs. 
  • Inclusive Communities: We support opportunities for students to build connections and be involved in diverse, socially just, and inclusive communities.
  • Self-Advocacy: We encourage everyone to respectfully and directly communicate in the spirit of problem-solving and articulating boundaries, with consideration to the overall community.
  • Well-being: We are committed to supporting the well-being of our community through programming and resource referral.
  • Growth: We encourage personal development through experiential learning.