Residence Life

Washburn House

Life on campus is an integral part of the Smith experience. Here, students don’t live in traditional dorms, but one of 40 unique, self-governing house communities. Smith houses are home to students of all four class years, and introduce residents to people from various socioeconomic, racial, and cultural backgrounds. The Office of Residence Life is here to make Smith feel like your home away from home.

Houses, Not Dorms

Wondering what a “house” looks like on a college campus? We’re happy to show you! Houses at Smith range in capacity from approximately 10 to 100 students, with a mixture of single-, double-, and occasionally triple-occupancy rooms. Bathrooms and laundry rooms are spacious and accommodate many students, and each house has a cozy living room where you can always find Smithies catching up with friends.

Living at Smith
Two students hug in a newly decorated dorm room

Residence Life Staff

It’s our mission to ensure each and every student is comfortable and content in their living space. You can come to the Residence Life staff for help with room or house changes, ideas for remedying conflicts, and much more. 

Your area director is a friendly, familiar face you can turn to for these issues and others that may arise. They supervise student Residence Life workers and help to reinforce the core values of community, learning, wellness, and social justice within the houses they oversee.

Meet the Residence Life Staff

Help Yourself

Every great college has its ghosts.

Smith lore is filled with spectral characters. Whether it’s the whispering woman who calls student houses in the middle of the night, the pair of doomed lovers who haunt the secret Sessions staircase, the crying infant in Chase, or the woman in white on the porch of Talbot, Smithies have plenty of reasons to leave the light on before turning in for the night.

More Reasons to Celebrate Smith
Sessions House

Mission and Values

The mission of the Office of Residence Life is to provide housing for students that encourages community and promotes inclusion.

Community Through Connections

Creating communities by fostering connections encourages students to reflect, explore and engage with the self and others. This should serve to develop strong and meaningful relationships in and outside the houses through common interests, shared identities and learning experiences.

Wellness

Wellness is a lifelong journey, valuing everything we are as living beings; in the full complexity of our positive and negative experiences. We are whole people moving through the world as the world moves around us; as such, these definitions must grow and change along with us. The Office of Residence Life provides opportunities for students to explore and grow in their wellness journey.

Learning

Learning is a continuous, active process of discovery that engages people in intentional inquiry and problem solving while seeking to understand in a collaborative context.

Equity and Inclusion

We are all multifaceted individuals with various and intersecting social identities. Healthy communities celebrate and honor differences and strive to be just and inclusive. Authentic inclusion requires us to challenge the systems of power and domination that keep us apart. We must learn to work across our differences to envision and create a better way of being in community together.

Adapted from Developing a Liberatory Consciousness by Dr. Barbara J. Love.

Contact Office of Residence Life

Clark Hall
Smith College
Northampton, MA 01063

Phone: 413-585-4940 Email: reslife@smith.edu

Office Hours
Monday–Friday, 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.