Upcoming Events

Faculty & Seniors Wine and Cheese Event|Lightner Tea Room | Thursday, November 19th at 4:30 PM

Trinity University. Always Home. Since 1869 Trinity migrated three times before settling in San Antonio. With a beautiful campus, engaging peers, caring faculty and staff, and a dynamic educational environment, students quickly feel the spirit of this place - its enduring sense of home. As the University found roots here, so do students.

Our mission is to share and promote the value of living on campus as an integral component of the Trinity educational experience, embracing the benefits of a caring, diverse, and dynamic community.

Living on campus is integral to the educational experience at Trinity University. After all, nearly 80% of the student body resides here as a result of the three-year residency requirement. The Residential Life Office knows that college is a time of incredible personal growth, deep friendships and lasting life lessons. Living at Trinity gives you the opportunity to be fully engaged in all that college has to offer and to exercise your adult freedoms responsibly. The Residential Life Office, through its enthusiastic staff and intentional programs, exists to support...

• academic diligence and success

• a respectful community among students

• an emotionally safe, challenging, and stimulating campus environment

• the independence, responsibility and accountability of young adults

• opportunities for residents to be active citizens of a larger community

• significant student leadership opportunities

• safe, well-maintained and effectively administered living accommodations.

Because being a residential campus is central to the mission of Trinity University, all unmarried undergraduate students are required to live on campus for three years (six fall and spring semesters).  Students who study abroad, transfer in, or who stop attending the University and then re-enroll may qualify for certain exceptions.  Requests for exceptions should be directed to the associate director of Residential Life.

Trinity believes in living on campus because...

• When you choose Trinity University, you choose to be active members of the Trinity University community.

• You learn outside of the classroom — to be independent, to develop healthy relationships, to experiment with who you are — all in a safe environment.

• You are surrounded by others dealing with similar issues, creating a supportive campus environment.

• You enjoy a diverse community, where roommates and others have various viewpoints, goals and styles, preparing you for future relationships in a shrinking world, in careers and in your personal relationships.

• You learn that you have responsibilities as members of a larger community.

• You remain connected. Seniors off campus often report that it is more difficult to come to campus to socialize, study, and attend University events.

• You are more likely to stay in school than those who reside off campus, according to national research.

• Some of that same research shows that there are academic benefits to living on-campus versus off-campus.

• The extreme personal growth, challenges and new relationships generate memories that last a lifetime!

• You have a once in a lifetime opportunity to live the college experience on campus!

• First year students will live in the first year area and be participants in the very successful REAL LIFE and Resident Mentor program.

• In the second year students will graduate into the Sophomore College.

• The third year of the residency requirement will afford students more autonomy. This process prepares students who will soon transition to life outside of our residence halls.

Recent Programs

The Trinity University Residential Life educational programming model incorporates Chickering’s Theory of Student Development (7 vectors) as well as the Social Change Model of Leadership.  The Residential Life Office at Trinity utilizes this hybrid model to assist in the development of students in a phased process which begins with an intensive first year curriculum and ends with an autonomous senior year experience.  The model is designed to offer purposeful programs and services specific to three major classifications of students who are all housed together: The First Year Area, Sophomore College, and the Upper-class Area.  Click on the logos to learn more about these unique programs.    

The REAL LIFE model utilizes an intensive series of programs designed to assist first year students with their transition into college.  Students will have fun, build relationships, and actively reflect on the process of entering adulthood.  Our specially trained staff will offer programs about living away from home, roommate success, healthy eating habits and lifestyles, alcohol and drugs, educational success, freedom and citizenship, love lessons, and identity exploration.

The Sophomore College program model was designed to ensure that our sophomore students continue to engage in the community and are provided services and support specific to their developmental needs.  Sophomore College events also help students establish a greater sense of class identity.    Upper-class student staff members working with sophomores will focus on social connections, service, social awareness, study abroad, selecting a major, and overall student success. 

The Residential Life Office collaborates with the Senior Year Experience Team and Career Services to offer programs to support students with their transition to life off campus and after Trinity University.  In their final semesters at Trinity, students can expect to learn about internships, job placement, networking, interviewing, and graduate school programs and will also be given opportunities to attend apartment fairs, cooking classes, personal finance presentations and more.

The Community Initiatives Program offers upper-class students the opportunity to submit proposals for communal living.  Community floors allow students with a common interest to live together in a self-governed environment.  Members participate in small floor programs but will also offer large scale programs to the general student body. Students who are selected to live in a community floor will still be sent promotional items targeted to their class year. 

Our Current Community Initiative Floors:

SPURS Floor (focus on women's issues)

Sustainable Solutions (promote environmentally friendly lifestyles)

Swashbucklers (promote substance free living)
THOLP (Trinity House of Liberal Politics)

 Questions & Comments

  Email us at    reslife@trinity.edu

    Residential Life Office

    Phone: 210.999.7219 | Fax: 210.999.7251

    One Trinity Place #94 | San Antonio, Texas, 78212