为什么是学生宿舍?
为什么有居住要求?
为什么要制定膳食计划?
有时学生问:为什么我必须住在校园里? 为什么需要我[1] 住在宿舍或学生公寓，直到我21岁?[2] 为什么我要在自助餐厅付餐费? 这些都是合理的问题 值得深思熟虑的回答.
Since the Middle Ages, when universities were invented, scholars have known that living 在社区学习是非常有利的. In the English universities 特别是—Oxford and Cambridge—the ideal of living in “学院”是大学生活的中心特征. 牛桥的“学院”适应了 to academia the life of a monastery or priory: instead of monks or friars, the colleges feature students of various ages and “dons” (the professors) living together so that students and professors can have lively exchanges over a meal, a cup of tea, or during 在院子里散步. 牛桥学院的学生年龄各不相同，有新生， the somewhat older student, an older graduate student, the young Don, the older, more 经历了不. 这样一来，大学生活的陌生感也就来了 pulled out of one’s own city or town and its community and dropped into a new place, 是不是因为加入了新的知识界而有所缓解. 这里的每个人 community was, at least ideally, focused on the life of the mind, the world of encountering ideas and mastering new material, and of pushing the boundaries of what is known through 研究与实验. 每个人都在那里分享想法，介绍新的想法 from one’s own experience and reading and re搜索, challenge one another’s arguments, and push one another into higher achievement, both academically, personally, and spiritually—for, crucially, most medieval colleges retained some connection to a religious order, a 或者其他宗教基础.
On UD’s Due Santi campus in Rome, where professors and their families live on campus, we have perhaps the closest approximation to that experience to be found in academia. There, students eat, travel, play, and pray with their professors and families; many UD students cite this closeness and familiarity with their professors and their families as one of the most important, influential, and delightful parts of the Rome experience.
在19世纪th century, many European universities followed the German model of becoming re搜索-focused 机构、“学院”和宿舍开始消失. 当美国学生 visit most European universities today, they are surprised to find there is usually no real “campus”, no dormitories, but instead a scattering of buildings of the various 全市各部门. 欧洲学生在公寓里找到自己的住处 in the city where they study, or in attend the university closest to home and live 在家里. 我们自己的教务长，博士. 沃沃克在大学期间从未住过宿舍 德国的教育——因为没有人这样做.
American universities split between the English model and the German model—with some re搜索-based universities growing to huge sizes, while others became the “liberal 艺术学校”，保留了小型的、亲密的、以教学为基础的英语模式. 同时,有趣的是, kept dormitories, but the large schools ended up having larger and larger dorms to house their growing populations and often lost that English college ideal, turning 变成了数百个房间的庞大建筑群. 德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校有一个 据报道，这个宿舍有自己的邮政编码和选区!
Here in Irving, we are crucially a small liberal arts university that is focused on the small-class encounter in the classroom and the personal, supportive academic community. We believe in the Oxbridge ideal of an academic community where students come together with one another and their professors not just in the classroom but at every place on the campus--in the dormitory, on the Mall, in the cafeteria and the Rathskeller, 在运动场上，在卡布奇诺酒吧. 住在一起近距离地培养 these kinds of conversations, and pushes us all to learn about one another and to 成为更好的人. 学生们共享一个繁荣的社区，在那里有很好的对话 关于这些伟大的书籍和概念.他们分享社区活动，分享 their interests in clubs and organizations, share spiritual and liturgical life, share fun and silliness—share, ultimately, friendship, a friendship based in higher things, 因为他们经常彼此靠近. 一个只有班级的校园 发生的事情无法达到这个临界质量.
传统的礼堂是开始这种社区意识的最佳场所. Re搜索 across the country confirms what we at UD have known for years—that the traditional halls get students out of their rooms and give them those chance encounters 在那里他们遇到其他人，并开始成为UDers的过程. (相比之下， schools where freshmen are in suite-arranged dorms, they tend to meet only their suitemates 并且从整个宿舍社区中被切断.)当学生离开他们的门 open, wander into one another’s rooms, and share conversation, they often form life-long 友谊. 随着我们进入“分房制”，这些传统的宿舍将变得更加均衡 在大学生活中更为重要.
公务员事务局职员特别是 rc和ra，但所有的员工，他们的主要角色是帮助指导和构建 这是一个学术和个人社区. The RAs and RCs are mentors, facilitators, even big sisters and brothers, helping 学生们加入了特拉华大学社区，在那里过着美好的生活. 你可以这样想 the Oxford student, graduate student, or Don, further along in the intellectual life, 谁能告诉年轻的学生如何成为这一美妙体验的一部分. 他们 are chosen for their abilities in precisely these roles, and are extensively trained 帮助学生找到他们最好的生活. 宿舍里的其他学长也比我大 兄弟姐妹，非官方的导师，以及进入UD生活的向导.
在世界各地的文化中，社区发生在食物和崇拜之上. 所以礼拜堂和自助餐厅是我们在特拉华大学生活的中心. 打破 bread together—both the ordinary and the sacramental kind—brings people together in community, creates spaces of peace and joy and friendship with one another and with 我们的神. 因此，在自助餐厅用餐或喝杯卡布奇诺咖啡就变得至关重要 扩展大学学术和个人形成的场所.
最后，我们希望学生享受校园作为他们的休闲环境—to sing Irish songs by the fire pits, to have fun attending a basketball game, to 品尝星期天的圣代，都是新的 城邦 (or oikos)，他们的家. 研究表明，喜欢并参与的学生 campus life are more successful not just in their GPAs but in every other aspect of 他们的四年. 学生活动办公室和校园活动委员会 在这里扮演着重要的角色.
We want as many students as possible to partake in our Oxbridgean academic community—to share intellectual experiences, to grow in maturity and wisdom and virtue, to reach 超越自己，成就真正的卓越. 这就是为什么我们想要尽可能多的学生 尽可能住在校园里.
学生主任Gregory Roper博士.