Residence Life
Residence Life is one of four functional units within University Residences. Other units consist of Business and Information Systems, Facilities, and Occupancy, Communication and Administrative Services.
Learn more about each of our residential areas through Explore the Buildings.
Supervising Resident Director
As a Supervising Resident Director, you will have the opportunity to create a unique residential experience for students and staff members in a residential community of 550-700 students. In this role, you will:
- Have a higher level of decision-making authority
- Supervise 1 full-time professional staff member (Assistant Resident Director)
- Chair committees within the unit
- Serve in the senior staff on call rotation
- Represent the unit on departmental committees and campus initiatives
- Serve as a leader and educator who promotes equity and inclusion in the community
- Help students develop consciousness regarding principles of equality, respect, and individual and collective responsibility.
- Opportunity to work with affinity housing (i.e. Black Affinity Housing, Pride Housing, Honors and Substance-Free Housing)
Resident Director
As a Resident Director, you will have the opportunity to create a unique residential experience for students and staff members in a residential community of 300-600 students. In this role, you will:
- Serve as a leader and educator who promotes equity and inclusion in the community
- Help students develop consciousness regarding principles of equality, respect, and individual and collective responsibility
- Build and refine your skills in providing academic support, crisis response and management, student conduct, and student development
- Mentor student staff and student leaders in building their capacity as leaders that will directly support them in their future careers.
- Have the opportunity to engage in professional development such as joining departmental committees, working on innovative initiatives, and attending conferences that will help you achieve your professional career goals.
Assistant Resident Director
As an Assistant Resident Director, you will have the opportunity to grow your skillset in Residence Life and gain valuable experience through assisting in providing educational and administrative leadership in developing diverse and inclusive communities enhancing student learning and development in a residential community of 550-700 students. You will:
- Work closely with the Supervising Resident Director to promote equity and inclusion within the community
- Help students develop consciousness regarding principles of equality, respect, and individual and collective responsibility.
- Have the opportunity to enhance student learning through serving as a conduct officer and advising our hall or community councils in their leadership journey.
- Opportunity to work with affinity housing (i.e. Black Affinity Housing, Pride Housing, Honors and Substance-Free Housing)
Reasons to Work With Us
Our Values
Sudent centered, respect, accountability, learning & development, inclusive community.
Location of Bellingham
Located off the shores on Bellingham Bay, we are about 50 miles to Vancouver, BC and about 90 miles to Seattle.
Professional Development
As a member of our team, you will grow professionally through your work on committees inside and outside of our department by attending a conference through the support of office funding, in addition to engagement and lead training opportunities.
We Have Fun
We often say, “we take our work seriously, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously.”
Commitment to Equity and Inclusion
We use critical race theory as one of our frameworks for our curriculum. We constantly work to ensure that equity and inclusion is in the forefront of our decisions and practices.
Vibrant Campus Partnerships
Residence Life strives to maintain strong partnerships with offices on campus to foster stronger program development and policy decisions.
High Student Contact
With just over, 4,000 students in housing, we have a focus on high student contact while also gaining skills as a member of a large housing operation.
More About Us
Meet the Staff
Central Staff
David Ruble
He/Him
Assistant Director for Residence Life/Care and Conduct
rubled@wwu.edu
Office: EH 113
North Campus Professional Live-In Staff
Ridgeway Professional Live-In Staff
South Campus Professional Live-In Staff
University Residences Initiative for Student Engagement (URISE)
Educational Priority
Students will utilize their strengths and learn from others to further their sense of belonging and personal development.
Goal 1: Inclusive Community Building
Narrative: Residential communities are composed of people from different backgrounds who have diverse identities, values, and life experiences. By engaging with people who are different than themselves, students will understand and appreciate individual and collective identities while taking personal responsibility in co-creating a shared living environment focused on academic achievement and belonging.
Mattering & Marginality: Co-creating norms of respect, being noticed, mutual care, identity-based recognition.
Outcome 1.1: Students will be active participants in their communities.
Outcome 1.2: Students will demonstrate respectful engagement across multiple different identities to increase collaborative community-building efforts.
Outcome 1.3: Students will develop a shared responsibility for a positive living community.
Goal 2: Academic Success
Narrative: Residential communities are spaces where students learn how to support one another’s academic goals through collaboration, accountability, and shared growth. By living in a community that values both individual effort and collective success, students will develop habits of learning, seek support, and contribute to a culture where academic resilience, curiosity, and personal achievement are celebrated. Academic success is redefined not just as personal performance, but as a community norm built on encouragement, shared resources, and reflective practice.
Mattering & Marginality: Feeling depended on, appreciated, and supported by peers; being proud of others’ achievements.
Outcome 2.1: Students will set and reflect on personal academic goals, identifying strategies and resources that support their progress.
Outcome 2.2: Students will make positive changes in alignment with their goals.
Outcome 2.3: Students will actively contribute to a community culture that supports academic success by engaging and upholding academically supportive norms.
Goal 3: Personal Wellness
Narrative: In residential communities personal wellness is centered on aligning personal choices with current and future goals while developing healthy relationships that promote the well-being of self, others, and the community. Strategies for managing holistic health may impact individual and collective wellness. Prioritizing personal wellness increases the potential for academic success at Western.
Mattering & Marginality: Personal Wellness is supported when students feel that their presence matters, their needs are acknowledged, and they are empowered to take action on their own behalf.
Outcome 3.1: Students will determine the level of support and environment they need to be successful.
Outcome 3.2: Students will self-advocate for positive change.
Outcome 3.3: Students will develop skills to form healthy behaviors and relationships.
URISE Theoretical Frameworks for Community Development
Mattering and Marginality
5 Aspects of Mattering
- Attention: Feeling noticed
- Importance: The belief that one is cared about
- Ego-Extension: Feeling that someone will be proud of what one does or will sympathize with one’s failures
- Dependence: The feeling of being needed
- Appreciation: The feeling that one’s efforts are appreciated by others
| 5 Aspects of Mattering | URISE Connection |
|---|---|
| Attention (Feeling noticed) | Goal 1.1: Students are active participants. Initiatives that give each student visibility and voice. |
| Importance (Feeling cared about) | Goal 3.1: Students determine what they need to be well. Personalized check-ins, intentional outreach and support . |
| Ego-extension | Goal 2.1: Academic goal reflection. Community recognition of milestones and struggles. |
| Dependence | Goal 2.3: Culture of academic collaboration. Study groups, peer-led tutoring. |
| Appreciation | Goal 1.3 / 3.3: Shared community and positive habits. Recognition boards, shout-outs, restorative circles. |
Recent Research Supporting Mattering:
- Flett, G. L. et al. (2019) – Mattering and psychological well-being: Linked to increased motivation, resilience, and engagement in academic and residential settings.
- Strayhorn, T. L. (2018) – Integrated Mattering into his Sense of Belonging Theory, showing its predictive power for student success and retention, especially among underrepresented populations.
- Manning, K. (2013) – Recommends mattering be built into campus ecology through intentional physical, social, and symbolic structures.
Community Responsibility Principles
- Residents are Active participants: Community development is an active, not passive process
- Reciprocal responsibility: Resident has responsibility to others, others have a responsibility to them
- Reciprocal Learning: individual can learn from the community and community can learn from the individual
- Accountability: – behaviors, interactions (positive and negative)
- Restorative justice