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 41 unique, self-governing house communities. Ranging in size from 10 to over 100 students, 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

Smith’s housing system is unique. Here, most students live on campus throughout their college career (though off-campus housing is available after your first year) in house communities, not standard dormitories. Students from all four class years reside in the houses, introducing you to people from a wide range of backgrounds. For many Smithies, their house becomes like their second family, with lifelong friendships often formed with the people who live just down the hall from you.

Undergraduate Housing
Graduate Housing

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 Staff

Help Yourself

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.

No Place Like Home

Sophia Eastman ’26

Hubbard House

“The community at Smith is so supportive! The housing system offers close residential communities. I love attending House Tea and movie nights, a tradition at Hubbard House.”

Sophia Eastman ’26 standing in front of a waterfall

Saturn Johnson ’25

Tyler House

”I remember making the conscious decision to start sitting in the Tyler House living room during mealtimes because I wanted to run for HONS (Head of New Students). Through doing that I was able to be Tyler House HONS for the 2022–23 school year and I was able to make a lot of close connections in my house that I still have today.“

Saturn Johnson

Juliette Hampton ’27

Baldwin House

“Community is the core of Smith College. To be surrounded by brilliant minds and kind hearts that inspire you to become better, to always have someone that looks up to you and that you look up to. [Community is] a warm mug of tea waiting for you to debrief the week with your friend in their dorm room.”

Juliette Hampton

Contact Office of Residence Life

Clark Hall
Smith College
Northampton, MA 01063