Mission & Learning Model

Our Mission


The Department of Residence Life and Housing fosters a safe and inclusive residential community for students to enhance their interpersonal skills. Through a holistic approach to student development, staff engage, support, and challenge students to be contributing scholars in the world around them.  The staff strive to equip students with the knowledge, abilities and resources to become their true selves while creating a meaningful and memorable residential experience.

Student Life Educational Priority


As a result of their experience at RWU, students will meaningfully contribute to thriving and diverse communities.

Student Life Divisional Learning Goals


Students will gain increased self-awareness.
The ability for students to understand themselves, their social group identities, their core identities and how their behaviors impact others. The development of their emotional intelligence, strategies for self-care, and a better understanding of themselves will support students’ overall well-being, their ability to be effective community members, and provides the foundation for them to achieve a purposeful and fulfilling life. 

Students will be able to develop and maintain healthy relationships.
Relationships play a critical role in our overall well-being. Understanding the components of respectful, supportive and mutually satisfying relationships serves as the foundation for building meaningful connections. Developing communication skills that include conflict resolution, effective listening, compassion, and empathy will help students successfully navigate relationships with others.

Students will develop cultural humility.
Cultural humility is a process of self-reflection and discovery to build authentic relationships with people different from ourselves and serves as a basis for building a more equitable society. Developing cultural humility requires a life-long commitment to understanding one’s own assumptions, biases, and values; a willingness to admit mistakes; a desire to understand historical and current inequalities; and aspiring to develop partnerships with people and organizations who advocate for remedying inequity.

Students will develop a commitment to foster thriving communities through engagement.
People who live in a thriving community feel cared for, acknowledged, and committed to giving back to their community and the people within it. We encourage students to make connections, foster a sense of shared purpose, work toward equity in community, and celebrate successes. A thriving community generates a sense of meaningful engagement and commitment to the greater good.