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About the House System

One of the core goals of the House system is to provide more continuity in the residential experience. 

  • South House A Dartmouth Welcome

    As Dartmouth creates more undergraduate housing in the coming years, the house community system will give students more options about where they might live in their junior and senior years.

  • New House Professors

    Three of Dartmouth’s house communities will be led by new house professors beginning in fall 2023. Christopher MacEvitt, a professor of religion who studies the history of medieval Christian communities in the Mediterranean, will be the professor in residence for East Wheelock House. Geographer Abigail Neely, an associate professor and political ecologist who studies health, healing, and the impacts of racial capitalism in South Africa, will join the School House community. And historian Naaborko Sackeyfio-Lenoch, an associate professor who specializes in modern West African history, will take on the leadership of West House.

  • 2024 Faculty Fellows

    Six faculty members have joined Dartmouth's residential house communities as inaugural faculty fellows. The fellows will collaborate with house leadership teams to expand program offerings geared toward intellectual engagement and deepening faculty-student connections.

    "One of the distinguishing elements of Dartmouth's house communities, when compared to peer institutions, is the broader and more inclusive involvement of faculty and staff affiliates," says Professor of Anthropology Sienna Craig, who serves as house professor at South House and as co-director, with Associate Professor of Sociology Janice McCabe, of house communities development.

Why the House System?

Houses promote intellectual engagement, community, and continuity. They increase student access to members of the faculty in residential spaces, build community by creating opportunities for enhanced social ties and shared experiences in the residential system, and respond to the long-standing call from students for more continuity in their residential experience.

For many years, students and young alums have expressed frustration with how many times they've moved across campus due to variations in their D-plan. They've told us they haven’t known anyone on their floors and have treated their room assignment as “just a place to sleep.” 

Older alumni have reflected how much they appreciated living in the same location from year to year. 

Everyone Has a House

Every student has a House membership, regardless of where you live. As a House member, you'll be eligible to participate in all House programs and activities, even if you live off-campus or in Greek housing or Living Learning Communities. You can choose for yourself how much you want to be involved. 

Faculty, Staff, and Graduate Students intersted in becoming affiliated please reach out to Residential.Education@Dartmouth.edu to be assigned to a house community.

House Leadership

Each of the six House Communities is co-lead by a live-in Residential Education professional staff member and a House Professor who lives nearby. Together with a Program Coordinator, each House Community team develops community building opportunities for and with students. In addition, each House Community leadership team includes four Resident Fellows and a team of Undergraduate Advisors (UGAs).

House Activities

You can participate in all House activities, including dinners and events at your House Professor’s residence. Being a member of a House doesn’t determine your schedule, and it doesn’t change any of the other ways in which you’re involved in campus life and student organizations.

First-Year House Assignments

First-year students will receive their randomly assigned house memberships in the summer when they receive their room assignments. First-year students live on first-year floors affiliated with their House Community unless they live in a Living Learning Community where roommates will have membership in the same House. All first-year students will be included in House Community activities, and then move into their House Community residences from their second year onward.

House Centers

House Centers increase currently available “living room space” for Allen House and School House on the west side of campus and North Park House and South House on the east side of campus. As with similar spaces within East Wheelock House and West House, these centers provide flexible, open living room space for House members to hang out, study, meet, or to use for House gatherings.