Residence Life Core Purpose and Focus

Educational Priority & Mission

The SUNY Geneseo Department of Residence Life, in partnership with our residents, cultivates an inclusive living and learning environment that sparks engagement, encourages and fosters well being, and inspires a feeling of belonging for all students who live in our community.

Residence Life administers selected co-curricular educational and assessment initiatives within the residential experience. Opportunities for student engagement and learning within the department include the living-learning communities and residential college houses, as well as student leadership and applied learning opportunities. Our trained Residence Life team members pursue ways to collaborate with Geneseo faculty and staff to support our residents as they pursue their individual educational and personal goals.  By providing challenges to better themselves, demonstrating an ethic of individual care, and building a strong, vibrant campus community, we hope to make a long-lasting positive impact on the lives of our students.  

Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion  

All Residence Life staff will participate in critical dialogue around DEI, anti-racism, and cultural humility. All training, educational initiatives, and occupancy management will incorporate these commitments and staff will espouse these values in their roles through programmatic and engagement efforts.  

Commitment to Wellbeing

All Residence Life staff will work together to create a working and living environment that promotes individual agency and advocacy for all community members and empowers them to build a well-lived life.  All training, educational initiatives, and occupancy management will incorporate these commitments and staff will espouse these values in their roles through programmatic and engagement efforts.  

Residence Life Intention, Passion, and Vision

It is the intention of the Department of Residence Life to identify and provide opportunities for students to engage and learn that result in increased knowledge, greater self-awareness, and a clearer sense of purpose.

Our passion is the improvement of the human condition through the expansion of a caring community. (Campus Life: In Search of Community p. 47

Residence Life will be recognized for creating a premier residential experience by fostering well being, promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion, and implementing innovative opportunities for student learning and engagement.  Living on campus will become an integral part of our students' education experience and will be the catalyst in the preparation for making meaning in their lives and the lives of others.

Overarching Goals

• To provide opportunities for students to learn, interact, lead, reflect, program, question and have fun. (How College Affects Students p. 647)
• To provide safe and inviting places where our residents can gather to engage, live, and flourish.
• To provide commonly shared experiences that promote belonging and connectedness with a mutual respect for the unique contributions of each individual.

Departmental Curriculum

SUNY Geneseo is a residential curriculum campus.  This document guides our work in the residence halls and demonstrates how we contribute to the Mission, Vision, Values, and Geneseo Learning Outcomes for a Baccalaureate Education (GLOBE).  Our departmental curriculum is a living document that helps our staff move from theory to practice.