Identity-Based Housing

Residence Life is committed to offering identity-based housing.

We recognize that our society — through its laws, institutional structures, and customs — has privileged some social groups while systematically disadvantaging and disenfranchising others. Even as we struggle to end these practices, we recognize that day-to-day life for members of these disadvantaged groups can be hurtful and exhausting.

How does identity-based housing help counter oppression?

Identity-based housing is an institutional structure designed to assist members of historically oppressed groups in supporting each other. It helps to create an added level of psychological comfort and safety for those who choose to live in those spaces, often providing the foundation for those students to engage fully in the greater community.

Creating these safer spaces, in collaboration with centers on campus, benefits the entire community. We must have the full engagement of all our community members, especially those whose experiences, ideas, and perspectives are different from those of the College's mainstream population. It is through these means that we as a full community are most likely to challenge assumptions, craft new solutions to problems, and perform to our highest ability.

Identity-based mods

Jewish Mod

This mod is for Jewish students wanting to live in an affinity space based around the Jewish faith. This mod is equipped with a prayer room for students to do daily prayer.

Neurodiverse Mod

This is a deeply visionary and futurity-minded mod with the hopes of bringing neurodiverse, neurodivergent, and neuroqueer folks together with intentionality to challenge actively traditional concepts of normal, sane, and acceptable; and to serve as education for the wider Hampshire community in the process.

Asian Heritage Mod

The Asian Heritage Mod is for those who identify with having Asian heritage. What makes this mod unique is a shared culture, often shared languages, and shared experiences. It’s a space where people don’t have to explain who they are or where they’re coming from. The current residents of the Asian Heritage Mod are people who really want to live in a space based on this aspect of their identity.

Students of Color Mod

The Students of Color Mod is for students who identify as people of color. This mod values communication, respect, community, self-awareness, and cleanliness, and an overall love for people of color, their bodies, and their experiences. Students here have created a communal identity, with shared food, shared apartment items, and an overall sense of each other and their needs.

Women of Color Mod

The Women of Color Mod is one of the oldest identity-based housing communities on campus. Residents have remarked: “We believe in fostering a supportive body built on foundations of sisterhood and cultural values. As young women of color in a predominately white institution, we find value in our relationship within our ecosystem and our different cultural perspectives. It is one of our objectives to create a safe home for young women to speak, be heard, and have a meaningful presence on this campus. As sisters, we lean on each other throughout the tough times, and we take pride in taking care of each other.”

Black Femme Survivors Mod

The Black Femme Survivor Mod is a mod for those who are femme/womxn (including agender/genderqueer/non-binary) people and of African descent. It focuses on the healing of black femmes that have experienced misogyny/misogynoir in their lifespan and on campus.

Queer Identifying People of Color (QIPOC) Mod

This mod is for People of Color that identify as Queer wanting to live in an affinity space surrounded by other Queer students of color. This is separate from the QIPOC student organization, though there may be overlap in membership.

International Women Mod

This mod is an intentional mod designed to support international women in their college journey. All international women, but particularly international women of color, are encouraged to learn more about this living option.

Trans + Non-Binary Mod

This mod is designed to support transgender and non-binary students.

Queer Mod

The Queer Mod is for people who identify as Queer, however individually defined (usually under the umbrella of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Allies, Asexual, Pansexual - LGBTQQIAAP). It is a comfortable space that can serve as a break from the outside world, and has historically been a place for making art. Its colorful walls full of paintings and artwork attest to its history.

Students of Color Halls

In Merrill, there is a Students of Color community for new first-year students and one for continuing students. These living environments exist to counter oppression while supporting continuing students in developing healthy and liberatory ways of living on campus. There will be structured opportunities to connect to and learn from continuing students living in our identity-based mods. The resident advisors working with the residents of identity-based hall communities support students with programming and resource referral.

Programming Requirements

Students who accept spaces in identity-based housing communities (mods and the Students of Color Halls) will be required to attend a retreat in the fall and the spring. Additionally, residents of identity-based housing will be encouraged to plan and/or attend approximately one program per month during the academic year.