Where You’ll Live

Live and Learn

Lewis & Clark is committed to residential education—the exploration of ideas, values, beliefs, and backgrounds; the discovery of lifelong friendships; and collaboration, both formal and informal. As you begin your journey, we encourage you to be purposeful and disciplined in your actions, open to new ideas, caring of those around you, and celebrative of who you are and your role in the greater community.

Where You’ll Live

As a rule, for your first two years at Lewis & Clark you’ll live on campus, which gives you the benefits of getting to know other students and becoming part of the Lewis & Clark community. You’ll have the option to request a specific type of residence hall (large or small, coed or single sex), and you may want to choose a theme floor within a hall (visual and performing arts, multicultural, outdoor pursuits, environmental action and service, wellness). All residence halls are smoke free and smoking is only allowed in designated smoking areas.

Residence halls at Lewis & Clark offer everything from the usual (kitchens, lounges, study rooms, Internet access) to the unusual (a student art center, including a photo lab and ceramics studio; a student-run co-op; a convenience store; a recreation room). As a member of the residential population, you’ll be part of a rich and diverse community. Because of the convenience of living on campus, many upperclass students remain in campus housing beyond their sophomore year. A significant number of juniors and seniors apply to live in our campus apartments.

Having a Life

Yes, you can be a student and still have a life—and a very rich one, at that. Social opportunities begin in the residence halls, where weekly events might include yoga and massage clinics, language conversation groups, stress-relief breaks, and live entertainment at the co-op. Students also can sign up for community service projects or College Outdoors trips, host a radio show, catch a performance at Fir Acres Theatre, play on an intramural team, perform in an ensemble—and that’s just on campus. Downtown Portland, center of a metropolitan area of 1.9 million people, offers another world of social and cultural opportunities only minutes away. And it’s easily accessible via Lewis & Clark’s free shuttle.