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During my sophomore year, I lived in room 214 in a dorm called Robins Hall. I had lived on the other side of campus in Lora Robins my first year, and living on the lakeside was a completely different experience. I loved my dormitory, foremost because of the friendships I formed. Robins Hall is a pretty big dormitory, known as the athletes� dorm although any students can live there too. It holds 112 residents, and has been around since the 60s. The dormitory also served as an infirmary and that is why the doors on the first floor are huge, twice as wide as other rooms. Besides the quaint history of it, I liked my living situation because two of my friends roomed together at the other end of the hall, and another good friend lived two doors down, but I did not know anyone else. The amazing thing was that by the end of the semester, I knew almost everyone on my hall, several with whom I became really close.

The location was unfortunately the most inconvenient when I had to go to my chemistry classes because Robins Hall is the furthest dorm from Gottwald Center for the Sciences, but my Russian and journalism classes were very close. However, I actually liked the distance the dorms had from my academic life almost as if I could physically separate my personal life from my academic one. Plus, I enjoyed daily walks from my dorm to the library, the Commons which was a little farther, and finally the dining hall, counting those strolls as my physical activity on days I became too busy to make it to the gym. When I did go the gym, it took me 45 seconds to reach the doors of the gym. This close proximity made it easy for me in the mornings to workout or check out a yoga class or two when I felt like it.

My resident advisor lived right next to me, which most people may not consider the best situation but I couldn�t ask for a better one. If I had to borrow the vacuum to clean or locked myself out (which I�m proud to say happened twice only), or needed quick answers or advice, I gave a shout-out to my RA whose door was usually opened.

I loved living in Robins Hall and felt very comfortable with the people and location of the place. If you go to the library, gym, or have classes on the lakeside, Robins is a great place to live or if you have music or science classes and a handful of friends living on the other side of campus, situate yourself on the Westhampton side. Most importantly, besides looking for the most convenient situation (because sometimes you don�t get assigned the dorm you want), I�ve found it best to make my room my home, decorating surroundings with favorite things and people.

Current Richmond Student Housing Info

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The university provides 161 on-campus apartments spanning 21 blocks. These residents are reserved primarily for senior men and women. While it is not uncommon for there to be juniors in UFA, there are usually no more than four apartments inhabited exclusively by juniors.

The apartments themselves consist of two floors. The bottom floor contains a front room (usually used as a dining space and also a great place to play beer pong), a kitchen with a pantry, stove, and full-size fridge, and a back room which leads to the back porch. About half of the apartments have sliding glass doors in the back rooms, while the others have a large window and a door.

Upstairs, are two bedrooms (each housing two students), a bathroom, and a shower room. The sinks are placed outside of the bathroom hotel-style so several residents can be going through their morning routine at once.

Five apartments are also single-floored to be handicapped-accessible.

Laundry rooms and dumpsters are located close to every apartment block, providing easy access for all residents. The bathrooms are even professionally cleaned once a week by the university's facilities staff. Parking at the apartments is rarely an issue, but don't always expect to get a spot right in front of your house. UFA is a popular place to visit and you might find yourself having to walk a bit.

Parties are huge at the apartments. Many fraternities and student organizations have designated apartments where they hold weekly parties for beer pong, flip cup, dancing, etc. so naturally, the apartments are very active Friday and Saturday nights.

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Like most other college freshmen, I was a little nervous about leaving home and going to live somewhere completely different where I didn't know anybody. However, about a week before I left for Richmond, I got an upbeat, friendly letter in the mail from January Stewart, Moore Hall's head resident, and the residential advisor (RA) for my floor. She introduced herself, told us we could email/call her if we had any questions or problems, and gave us a long list about different things we would need for college that some of us who had never lived away from home before might have forgotten to bring with us. To a lot of the girls on my floor, we felt like we already had a friend at Richmond, and it made things a lot easier.

Throughout the year, our RAs have done so much to make us feel at home. They stop by randomly just to chat and see how things are going, make holiday decorations for our doors, and organize 'hall connections' where the girls in our hall would all get together in the lounge and hang out together. January and the other RAs really made the transition into college easier for most of us, and they're always available and ready to help...especially when you get locked out of your room on the way back from the shower.

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Marsh Hall switches who it houses yearly. As of Fall 2008, Marsh houses the Freshmen male students. Marsh Hall is far from the dining hall but it is right by the lake. The girls and guys are generally far apart as far as dorm placement goes which can be annoying as it is a long walk to meet the girls often. Marsh has the laundry room on the bottom floor and is easy to work, as all laundry rooms are in dorms. The system is electronic and you can check washer and dryer availability on your computer. There are eight washers and eight dryers and it is not too hard to find an available one. Marsh Hall does not give great cell phone service as of now. There are rumors of a new Verizon cell phone tower coming closer to campus in the future, but I am unsure. Some cell phone providers have decent service in the cinder block fortress, Marsh, but Verizon definitely does not. You have to hold a Verizon phone to the window or go outside which is annoying. All the rooms have air conditioning and heating which is awesome as Virginia is humid as sin in the summer. Every floor has a lounge and communal bathrooms.

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