rochester university
Residence Life
LIFE ON CAMPUS
Living on campus is an integral part of the total University life experience. The department of Residence Life wants living on campus to be positive, enabling residence to make connections and take advantage of the many great opportunities that Rochester Christian University has to offer. Residence Life is staffed and structured to assist students in making personal adjustments and a smooth transition into the Rochester Christian University community.
The goal of Residence Life is to holistically impact the lives of students by creating an environment that teaches valuable life skills, integrates academic knowledge with experiences outside of the classroom, and engages them in the Rochester Christian University community in order to instill a lifelong desire to mature intellectually and spiritually.
Community
Living on campus provides a great opportunity to grow and mature, teaching you how to live in community and share responsibility for your living space. It’s a chance to have more interactions with RCU students, faculty and staff, and to grow even closer to a tight-knit, vibrant community.
Accessibility
Living on campus makes it easier for you to attend campus events, engage with student groups and tap into leadership opportunities at RCU. As a residence student, you’ll find many on-campus resources more accessible, such as the ACE Lab, which offers free tutoring.
Academic Success
Research shows a strong correlation between living on campus and higher retention and graduation rates. As an on campus student (especially as a freshman) you can look forward to a higher GPA, taking more credit hours per semester, and graduating at a higher rate than your off-campus peers.
Spiritual Formation
In many ways, the most important aspect of the RCU experience is our ethos and mission. Students who live on campus have better access to opportunities for prayer, bible studies, accountability, late night conversations and opportunities to grow spiritually. RCU offers you many extracurricular activities for spiritual formation, including: Spring Break service opportunities, an in-depth chapel curriculum, service opportunities and worship nights and mentoring groups led by faculty and staff — all of these are easily accessible while living on campus.
Residence Life Team
At Rochester Christian University, you’ll find student support in every aspect of campus life, including Residence Life Professional staff. Our professional Resident Directors live in the residence halls, ready to encourage you in your development. Resident Directors work along with the Residence Life staff to help develop a positive community and are available to answer any questions you might have.
Residence Directors (RD) (left to right): Peighton Douglas (Ferndale/Hoggatt) and Kierstyn Oldenburg (Alma Gatewood)
Along with our professional staff members, Rochester Christian University employs Resident Assistants to assist in the Residence Life department. The RA lives, intentionally, with his/her/their residents to create and nurture a dynamic living community, monitor and maintain a safe living environment, promote and protect the well-being of residential students, and contribute positively to the work of the Residence Life team.
Academic Peer Mentors are integral members of the Residence Life team and serve a term of one academic year. APMs work closely with other Residence Life staff members to create and nurture an environment that supports the academic pursuits of students living in Rochester Christian University’s residence halls. APMs provide structured individual tutoring for fellow residents, host residential programs that contribute to student learning and the formation of positive academic habits and contribute to identifying and tracking academically high risk residential students.
Residence Halls & Rooms
Our campus has two residence halls on campus, Alma Gatewood and Ferndale-Hoggatt. Both residence halls house first through fourth-year students. The halls are divided by wings or floors, one assigned for women and one for men. The residence hall rooms are all suite-style, where you will live in a room with a roommate and share a bathroom with two other residence. Every room comes furnished with stackable furniture that can be arranged in many ways to create space for studying, sleeping, and placing extra furniture like a couch. Click to learn more about the Alma Gatewood & Ferndale-Hoggatt residence halls.
