Housing and Residential Education Department

The history of housing and residential life at the University of Denver is documented in institutional records dating back to the early twentieth century. Early university bulletins mention supervised residential accommodations for women, such as Wycliffe Cottage, which was overseen by the Chancellor and later by the Dean of Women. By the 1920s and 1930s, the Dean of Women and, eventually, the Dean of Men primarily handled student housing and boarding conditions. Faculty and Board of Trustees’ standing committees, focused on dormitories and fraternity houses, also played active roles during this period.

In the 1940s, housing responsibilities were incorporated into the Office of Student Personnel. By the late 1940s and 1950s, housing services became a distinct unit, called either Student Housing Service or Housing Office, reporting to the Dean of Students. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, housing and residence hall operations stayed within student affairs or student services, reporting to the Office of Student Affairs or the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs.

Amid administrative reorganizations in the late 1970s and early 1980s, housing functions shifted among student life, auxiliary services, and campus life units. These changes are reflected in university organizational charts and profiles. By the mid-1980s, the Division of Student Affairs had formally assumed housing administration. Oversight was often under the Dean of Students or a Director of Residence. In the 1990s and early 2000s, housing functions became part of undergraduate studies and the administrative structures of campus life. By the early twenty-first century, housing and residential operations were managed as Housing and Residential Education within the Student Life Division. This is documented in university profiles and strategic planning materials.