Parents & Families

The partnership between the University, our students, and their families is one of complexity and essence.  In Residential Life and Housing, we believe that families play a key role in assisting our students before, during, and after their residential experience at Clark University.

The skills necessary for a successful collegiate residential experience begins long before our students arrive in the fall.  The freedom of college living means that students need to be able to take care of themselves before they arrive.  If an incoming student has never washed and dried their own laundry, made their own food, cleaned their own rooms, bought their own things, woken up for school on their own, or scheduled their own appointments… it is very likely they will struggle with these tasks when they arrive.  It is so important that families prepare their students through challenge and support to have some advanced life skills before they arrive at Clark University.

We know that after arriving at Clark, even the most well prepared students are going to have challenges, and while our student and professional staff members work closely with our students on a variety of matters, their families also play a vital role in their ability to persevere through their struggles.  It is not uncommon for students to call their families and vent their frustrations about their day, or their roommate frustrations, or how they are struggling in a class.  It is so important that you not only let them vent, but also help them to navigate their own solutions.  While RLH, like everyone here at Clark, certainly welcome calls from parents, we consider our students our primary customers, and we want to hear from them when things are not going so well, so that we can assist them directly.  While calling to get something fixed in your student room, or to find out when your student needs to be out of the residence halls for the summer may seem like a helpful gesture, we believe that encouraging students to confront and find these answers on their own may be a better strategy.

In these pages you will find valuable resources to help you understand Residential Life and Housing, as well as other aspects of student life at Clark.  We encourage you to contact us with questions you have, and to also be sure that your students are reading the information on our website as well.

Our communication with students:

It is important that families understand that our primary relationship is with our students, and therefore we will hold students responsible for reading and paying attention to the information delivered to them through various means. Some of the ways we deliver information to students include but are not limited to:

• Emails sent to student clarku.edu email addresses
• Information placed on our website
• ClarkYou Portal
• Posters/flyers in the residence halls
• RA hall programs (advertised in the halls and through various social media outlets)
• Paper mailings
• Through RAs – door to door or through informal interactions.