As a residential college, Pomona takes great care in organizing, maintaining, and supervising residence hall life to ensure optimum enjoyment and safety for the students and community of the College. The residence halls staff consists of resident advisors, head sponsors, and the sponsors. Together they assist in ensuring a quality residential program.
Resident Advisors
The goal of the Residential Advisor (RA) is to assist in establishing a positive living environment in the residence halls. RAs serve as the first point of contact for the personal, educational, and social needs of hall residents. They are responsible for assisting with security, addressing emergencies, coordinating activities, working with Sponsors, and reporting damages and maintenance problems. RAs are charged with the enforcement of college policies.
Students are obliged to cooperate with the residence halls staff as they perform their duties. It is a serious offense to harass or intimidate an RA or to fail to comply with a request issued by an RA in the performance of their assigned responsibilities.
RAs are on call, generally, outside of regular business hours:
- Weekdays: Mondays to Thursdays, 7 p.m to 12 a.m. midnight
- Weekends: Fridays and Saturdays, 7 p.m., until 2 a.m.
Sponsor Program
One of the most significant experiences for first year students at Pomona is living in residence as part of a sponsor group. The Sponsor Program is a residential program through which all first-year students are housed with approximately 15 other first-years led by two or three sponsors. The sponsors live in the halls with their sponsors throughout the year, with the objective of easing the transition to college by creating a safe and welcoming living environment for all first-years and increasing first year interactions with older students.
The Sponsor Program is supervised by the residence life coordinators of the first-year halls. There are three head sponsors who help to select the sponsors, assist in housing and placement of the incoming class in their sponsor groups, and assist with sponsor training. The sponsor groups are created based on similar interests and lifestyles indicated by the first-year housing forms. All incoming Pomona College first-years are automatically put into the Sponsor Program. Sponsors are prepared for this responsibility during a training program just before the school year which addresses issues of mental heath, safety, and adjustment to college.