The Residence Experience

Make This Place Your Home

Living in residence is so much more than a room with a bed. Our Residence Life department strives to support all students in creating their home away from home. We do this by planning events and initiatives, hiring a team of 150+ Residence Life Staff to support you and by offering the appropriate academic, wellness and programming resources to allow you to thrive during your time at the University of Guelph.

About Residence Life

Residence Life is an operational unit under Student Housing Services (SHS). Other operational units under SHS include housing admissions, facilities and desk services, business operations, information systems (IT) and research. Residence Life is overseen by the Associate Director Residence Life who reports to the Director of Student Housing Services.

We believe that working to establish strong communities that consist of shared experiences, lasting connections and an appreciation for individual diversity and identity is key to the success of our students. While our staff and student leaders provide a myriad of opportunities and activities we encourage you to be an active participant in your experience and engaged within your residence and campus community. There are so many benefits to gain from a well-rounded experience, and learning can be just as impactful in a non-academic environment as inside the classroom. So make the most of your experience and take advantage of our amazing Gryphon community!

Our Commitment

To help you get the most out of living on campus, our Residence Life Team works to create a residence experience that focuses on six key indicators of success:

Residence Values: Safety, Sense of Belonging, Relationships & Connections, Well-Being, Academic Success, Identity & Purpose

How Do We Create This Environment?

To create this residence experience, where you feel safe and secure, where you have consistent opportunities to form connections, and where you learn more about what you need to succeed academically and more about yourself, we have close to 200 Residence Life Staff (RLS) living in communities or working at the building- and residence-wide level.

These staff create our Residence Life program each year and each residence student can expect to experience:

Shared community meetings and experiences
1-on-1 check-ins and chats with your community Residence Life member
Collaborations with campus partners that bring learning and involvement opportunities right into residence
Exciting and diverse residence- and campus-wide events/initiatives
Residence environments where community standards are upheld, through Community and Roommate Agreements; nightly RLS “On-Call” shifts, facilitated mediations, and more.

Get Involved

Why get involved with your residence community? Lots of reasons!

You’ll build useful skills for the future
You’ll have some extras to add to your resume that help you stand out when looking for a job
You’ll have a more balanced life: there is such a thing as too much studying
You’ll have a chance to try new things – and isn’t that what university is all about?
You’ll get to know new people and make new friends
You’ll have fun!