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Residence Life

Updated 7/6/2021

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Required talking points

  • On-campus housing requirement

    • All students are required to live on-campus for the first two years; however, 70% of juniors and seniors decide to live off-campus. Housing is available all 4 years if a student wants it. (Available, NOT guaranteed)

  • Residential Learning Communities (RLCs)

    • RLCs are themes that unite all the residents of a building around some sort of common interest.

    • In some RLCs students are required to take a 1-3 credit course based on the theme. In other RLCs, students can choose to take a class based on the Learning Community theme.

    • Learning Community staff plan all sorts of events and activities based on that theme, which can range from movie nights to outdoor exploration to service opportunities.

    • RLCs help students transition to college and build community. Research has also shown that students who participate in RLCs perform better in the classroom and persist in college at a higher rate.

    • There are many different options to choose from...everything from Arts & Creativity to Entrepreneurship, Outdoor Experience to Sustainability, and more.

  • Residence Life Staff

    • Student staff (such as Resident Advisors [RAs] and Learning Community Leaders [LCLs]) & full-time professional staff are there to BUILD COMMUNITY, provide developmental support, and deliver timely response for difficult student situations.

  • Housing options & furniture

    • There are many different types of housing options and every hall has unique common areas for students to use.

    • UVM will provide you with the furniture seen in showroom

    • Students can bring microwaves and mini-fridges

    • Students cannot bring items that may put the health, safety, security of others at risk - including candles, cooking appliances, extra furniture that may create a fire hazard, etc.

  • Room and Roommate Selection for both first years

    • ​Incoming students can either request a preferred roommate or opt for an assigned roommate. Most incoming students opt for an assigned roommate, which has a high success rate. The Residential Life roommate survey asks students about their living and sleeping habits/preferences to facilitate a strategic roommate match.

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Additional optional talking points

  • 100% of Fall 2021 incoming students who submitted their housing contract by the deadline were placed in one of their top three Learning Community choices!

  • 5,800 students live on-campus

  • Bike garage

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AdvoCat Stories

  • Residential Learning Communities​

    • I am a part of the sustainability learning community and we have so many really interesting things that we get to take part in. My first year in the fall we had a "Harvest Fest" where we took school busses and drove out to a really cool farm where there was a bunch of different activities set up and everything we harvested went to the local food shelf. There was a gorgeous barn where we had the most delicious dinner while a live band played. We went out and harvested veggies, and apples, and were able to make art, or go for a walk, or press our own apple cider, or play different games. It was really cool, but my favorite part was that there was a slip and slide. And my friends and I didn't know there was going to be, otherwise we would have brought our bathing suits. And this is during the fall, its not necessarily cold but definitely not the perfect slip and slide weather. But my amazingly crazy roommate decided she was going to go in her jeans and sweatshirt. And so the entire way back in the bus she was just dripping, completely soaked. But she never once stopped smiling. We scream sang songs the whole way back and then all were given a gallon of cider that we had pressed there. It was the most amazing fall day ever.  -Kat Edelmann

    • After taking 2 classes together for a semester, the 20 students in my LASP were super close with each other and with our professors so one of our professors brought us all on a grand adventure at the end of the semester. We went to a pumpkin patch and did a corn maze and then brought pumpkins back to her house where we carved them and she made us dinner! -Jack Mitchell

    • I loved living in WE. I was really nervous coming from a very rural part of VT that UVM and Burlington would be a loud, overwhelming place. I chose to be in WE because I wanted to have a safe and quiet place to be, and really find a community with the same values as myself. Being in WE definitely made my transition from high school to college much smoother!  -Emilie Begin

  • Community in the Residence Halls

    • During my first year one of the people on my hall cooked dinner every Sunday night in our kitchen! He would send the menu out on Friday and if you wanted to be included you could pay him $5 and he would make enough for everyone! Great way to build community on my hall. -Jack Mitchell

  • Resident Advisors

    • As an Resident Advisor, my primary goal is to facilitate the community building that happens on the floor. One thing that has made me super happy as an RA is seeing my residents sitting out in the hall near my door nearly every night, doing random activities and laughing and chatting. With precautions around COVID-19, it's sometimes hard to find a way to build that community but it makes me super excited that my residents are still following guidelines and making memories with friends on their floor. UVM inspires this sense of community in our learning community system and encourages safe social interaction even in these uncertain times! -Romaney Granizo-Mackenzie​

    • During my first year at UVM my RA did a great job of building community on my floor through creating intramural sports teams, having small activities such as gingerbread house making competitions, and having a superbowl watch party. As a result of this, people from the start where able to build community and making really great memories/relationships with the people around them. My hall my first year really set me up for the rest of college as it gave me so many of my closest friends.  -Julianne Lesch

  • Moving in/out

    • Freshman Year: I moved from Colorado to Vermont for school which was a huge & (at times difficult transition) for me. On move out day, I was overwhelmed and not at all ready to deal with the transition back and had been procrastinating packing. 12pm roles around (the time we officially HAD to be out of the dorms by) and I had packed almost nothing. I began to sit on my floor sobbing because I was so stressed and had no idea what to do with all my stuff or how to get myself and everything I owned out of the dorms and back across the country alone. I head a knock at my door and "RA! Please open up!" and I began to sob even more knowing I was about to be fined for not having my stuff out. The first thing my RA did was hug me and I started to blabber through tears "I am so sorry! I will finish packing as soon as I can! I am doing my best! Please don't fine me" and she said "hush hush I'll be right back". She came back with every RA on the floor and before I knew it, I had my own CCRH move-out crew as I sat on the floor trying to recover from my mental breakdown. Sophomore Year: I lived in WDW with my best friend Gabby and our two best friends lived across the hall. We spent all our time hanging out in their room on their couch that they found on the side of the road in August. In denial that it was time to move out, I found myself, again, in a situation of extreme procrastination, but this time with the three people who had essentially become my immediate family over the course of the year. At exactly 12pm, we had moved everything out of our two dorms and into two cars, except the couch. When we finally got the couch out of the building, the parking lot was ENTIRELY empty. Realizing there was no method of transporting it (since both cars were full), we gave up, plopped the couch down in the parking lot, and plopped ourselves down on it and began to reminisce on the year. My friend Cam turns to my friend Gabby and says "This is like that episode of Friends where they all move out of the apartment and sit on their couch in the parking lot?" and Gabby says "That happened in Friends???" and Cam laughs and responds "I don't know I've never actually seen Friends". Always makes me smile.  -Natalie Platt

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