Students hold leadership roles in each house. They work for the Office of Residential Life and are trained to develop residential programming, respond to roommate disagreements and help ensure the safety and security of all students. In all, we employ 17 Housefellows, 42 Floor Governors, and 8 Independent Living Coordinators across the residential communities on campus.
Housefellows
Housefellows are undergraduate residence hall directors. They are juniors or seniors selected in the spring semester to serve as paid paraprofessionals. Housefellows are supervised by the Office of Residential Life and report to one of the Assistant Directors. They help create, in conjunction with their floor governors, the community development of their particular residence house. They attend weekly meetings, receive extensive training and work with a large group of other student leaders. Housefellows also have the unique role of leading the floor governors who also reside and work in the house.
What Housefellows do
Housefellows host community-building events, help with roommate mediation, call in maintenance concerns, work with Campus Safety to ensure policy adherence, open/close the residence halls during each semester, help run Orientation and assist in the transition of first-year students. They also promote community in their houses through educational and social means that challenge and support the personal development of each resident. They work closely with the Offices of Student Life, Campus Safety, Facilities Management, academic deans, counselors, the Student Government Association, Honor Council, and other members of the Connecticut College community.
Floor Governors
A Floor Governor is a sophomore, junior, or senior student whose primary role in the residence hall is to develop a positive residential community. Floor Governors develop and coordinate the social and educational programming that occurs in the houses, including everything from pizza parties to study breaks to dialogues with faculty and staff. Input from residents is always encouraged and invited.
The number of Floor Governors in each residence hall depends on the size of the house. A typical house has between one and three Floor Governors. In addition to programming, Floor Governors also assist the Housefellow with the opening and closing of the residence halls, on-call responsibilities, lock-outs and the oversight of house council.
Independent Living Coordinators
Independent Living Coordinators are typically junior or senior students who have spent a year on staff and are interested in leading a unique area of campus. Each Independent Living Coordinator is assigned to oversee one of the areas in the Village. They create community events, provide on-call presence and serve as a liaison between the independent living areas and the Office of Residential Life.