About Us (Metro)

Mission

Housing and Residence Life strives to provide and sustain a safe, comfortable, secure and nurturing living and learning environment for our students that is conducive to their personal growth, supports their academic pursuits, encourages and fosters a sense of community and civic responsibility, and cultivates an appreciation of diversity.

Housing and Residence Life is responsible for the overall management, administration, and program development of all University residential facilities with a capacity for approximately 1,000 residents. Living in the residence halls affords and encourages each resident the opportunity to participate in the shaping of their community. This is accomplished through the following goals of Housing and Residence Life:

  1. To provide quality residential programs and services. 
  2. In partnership with all residents, to create a safe, secure, and comfortable living environment that promotes inclusiveness. 
  3. To create a nurturing environment in the residence halls that is conducive to and supports academic achievement and intellectual stimulation. 
  4. To create strong and supportive residential communities in the halls. 
  5. To encourage residents to individually and collectively help shape their environment and take mutual responsibility for their environment. 
  6. To promote diversity awareness, appreciation, and interaction.
  7. To enhance student development by offering activities, experiences, and opportunities congruent with the educational mission of the university and student’s educational aspirations. 
  8. To support programs, services, activities, and interventions that foster dialogue and interactions with students and their peers, staff, and faculty; thus, providing residents with an educational advantage. 
  9. To inform residents of the policies, procedures, and regulations required for successful group living. 
  10. To emphasize personal responsibility and accountability.

Meet Our Staff

Housing and Residence Life employs paraprofessional and full-time professional staff members. Professional staff members are responsible for facilities management, programming, discipline, conflict resolution, crisis intervention, and overall coordination of a comprehensive housing and residence life program. All professional and paraprofessional staff members live on or contiguous to the campus for accessibility and responsiveness.

  • Rebecca Valenzuela, rmiles@fdu.edu, Associate Director for Operations. Coordinates the day to day operations of Housing and Residence Life including assignments, room changes, meal plans, cancellations, billing, furniture inventory, openings and closings, health and safety inspections, duty scheduling, summer conference housing, room selection, and key control and inventory.
  • Allison Lydon, alydon@fdu.edu, Assistant to the Associate Dean of Students for Housing and Residence Life.
  • Kel Gilbert, kelgilbert@fdu.edu, Assistant Director for Programming and Development. Coordinates all programming and educational development opportunities for students and staff. Supervises all graduate hall directors; advises the Residence Hall Association and the National Residence Hall Honorary. Coordinates staff recruitment, selection, and training.