Connections

The Office of Residence Life & Housing utilizes programming to create connections among peers, faculty, and staff to provide learning opportunities beyond the classroom to broaden the pursuit of knowledge.

To help facilitate learning and growth in each residential community, Resident Assistants create and implement programs throughout the year that address each of the areas of the Spider Residential Experience that helps guide personal growth for their residents.

About the Spider Residential Experience

In the summer of 2021, the Office of Residence Life & Housing proposed the following question: What do we want students to learn as a result of living on campus at The University of Richmond? Using this question as our foundation, we focused with a learning perspective on becoming proactive by creating the Spider Residential Experience. The Spider Residential Experience will use a curricular approach. Curricular approaches are focused on student learning with all educational strategies and engagement opportunities designed to promote cumulative and successive learning towards a defined set of learning goals.

The Office of Residence Life and Housing has an educational priority to foster community by empowering the individual student through personal growth and development that embraces inclusion, encourages responsible leadership, and promotes an intellectual community. In implementation of the Spider Residential Experience, Residence Life and Housing will foster a holistic environment where each resident will have the opportunity to engage with the following five designated residential learning goals: Holistic Self-Exploration, Cultural Competency & Inclusivity, Leadership Development, Academic Excellence, and Community Engagement & Social Responsibility.

Programming Themes

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  • Holistic Self Exploration

    RLH thrives on celebrating the individual student through the encouragement of personal growth.

    Residents will develop a greater knowledge and pride of self, pursue holistic development through the eight dimensions of well-being, and become more proficient in identifying and verbalizing needs, ideas, and values through self-advocacy

  • Cultural Exploration & Inclusivity

    RLH is committed to cultivating inclusive residential environments where we embrace diversity and encourage continuous growth through education and awareness surrounding equity and social justice.

    Residents will gain understanding and an appreciation for all dimensions of diversity, learn how privilege, oppression, and bias function in society, practice advocacy and allyship, and develop understanding of bias, discrimination, and social justice in order to foster inclusive environments.

  • Leadership Development

    RLH encourages responsible leadership within the Spider Community. One must approach leadership through development that maximizes the understanding of one’s purpose, self-awareness, and their ability to engage with others.

    Residents will gain a greater understanding of their personal identities, establish how to be actively engaged citizens, and learn how to communicate effectively amongst their peers, faculty, and staff.

  • Academic Excellence

    RLH promotes an intellectual community and encourages creating connections among peers, faculty, and staff to provide learning opportunities beyond the classroom to broaden the pursuit of knowledge.

    Residents will be able to define personal academic and professional success, effectively employ skills and practices, and will be exposed to a variery of resources for academic and professional growth for holistic learning.

  • Community Engagement & Social Responsibility

    RLH supports the development of authentic residential environments which aid residents in creating a sense of belonging and personal investment in both their individual residential communities and the great Spider community.

    Residents will demonstrate living responsibly, pride, and affinity to community through active participation in adherence to community standards and active relationship building. Additionally, residents will learn and practice respectful confrontation.