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What does a residence hall director do?

Updated January 8, 2025
6 min read

A Residence Hall Director spearheads and oversees campus residential areas' daily operations to ensure students' safety and welfare. They are responsible for managing staff, setting goals and guidelines, establishing budgets and timelines, delegating duties among managers, implementing programs and protocols, and monitoring all procedures, resolving issues and concerns if any arise. Moreover, a Residence Hall Director encourages staff to reach goals while implementing policies and regulations to help maintain a healthy and safe community for the students.

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Residence hall director responsibilities

Here are examples of responsibilities from real residence hall director resumes:

  • Motivate, train and lead a team of nine ministry coordinators.
  • Develop nightly social programs and weekly educational programs to encourage healthy lifestyle choices and embracement of multicultural diversity.
  • Direct resident relations by providing oversight of resident retention, leasing and marketing programs.
  • Cultivate, coordinate, and assist in the development of student leadership and responsibility through programming and direct involvement with students.

Residence hall director skills and personality traits

We calculated that 12% of Residence Hall Directors are proficient in Residence Life, Desk Assistants, and Student Development. They’re also known for soft skills such as Interpersonal skills, Organizational skills, and Problem-solving skills.

We break down the percentage of Residence Hall Directors that have these skills listed on their resume here:

  • Residence Life, 12%

    Recruited, interviewed, and selected residence life paraprofessional staff utilizing series of traditional, behavioral, and role play interview techniques

  • Desk Assistants, 7%

    Supervised paraprofessional staff of 6 undergraduate students and co-supervised 20 student desk assistants.

  • Student Development, 6%

    Coordinate and administer the overall Residential Life Education Program, including student development, tutoring services and operations components.

  • Community Development, 6%

    Supervised and evaluated fourteen resident assistants and two graduate assistants in areas of programming, community development and conflict resolution.

  • Student Conduct, 4%

    Served as hearing officer for student conduct cases; established and maintained community expectations.

  • Professional Development, 3%

    Participated in professional development workshops/seminars, and actively participated on housing committees.

"residence life," "desk assistants," and "student development" are among the most common skills that residence hall directors use at work. You can find even more residence hall director responsibilities below, including:

Interpersonal skills. The most essential soft skill for a residence hall director to carry out their responsibilities is interpersonal skills. This skill is important for the role because "postsecondary education administrators need to build good relationships with colleagues, students, and parents." Additionally, a residence hall director resume shows how their duties depend on interpersonal skills: "exercise interpersonal skills through the practices of roommate mediation and conflict resolution while maintaining confidentiality to sensitive situations. "

Organizational skills. Many residence hall director duties rely on organizational skills. "administrators need to be organized so they can manage records, prioritize tasks, and coordinate activities with their staff.," so a residence hall director will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways residence hall director responsibilities rely on organizational skills: "assisted student leaders and student organizations with leadership training and organizational development. "

Problem-solving skills. residence hall directors are also known for problem-solving skills, which are critical to their duties. You can see how this skill relates to residence hall director responsibilities, because "administrators need to react calmly when a difficult situation arises and develop creative solutions." A residence hall director resume example shows how problem-solving skills is used in the workplace: "conduct informal resolution conferences and administrative hearings with students involved in alleged policy violations. "

See the full list of residence hall director skills

The three companies that hire the most residence hall directors are:

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Compare different residence hall directors

Residence hall director vs. Dean

A dean is responsible for overseeing the educational operations of the assigned department, enforcing school policies, and monitoring the students' progress by coordinating with the teachers and setting up procedures to improve teaching methods. Deans administer educational training and programs for the students, as well as extra-curricular activities to develop the students' social behavior, maximize their potentials, and increase their self-confidence. They also handle the department's budget, accurately allocating resources and funds to different activities and educational materials.

We looked at the average residence hall director salary and compared it with the wages of a dean. Generally speaking, deans are paid $39,125 higher than residence hall directors per year.While their salaries may differ, the common ground between residence hall directors and deans are a few of the skills required in each roleacirc;euro;trade;s responsibilities. In both careers, employee duties involve skills like learning environment, student life, and staff training.

These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a residence hall director are more likely to require skills like "residence life," "desk assistants," "student development," and "community development." On the other hand, a job as a dean requires skills like "curriculum development," "oversight," "scholarship," and "human resources." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.

The education levels that deans earn slightly differ from residence hall directors. In particular, deans are 2.1% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a residence hall director. Additionally, they're 7.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Residence hall director vs. Co-chair

A co-chair is responsible for supporting the duties and responsibilities under the supervision of a chair. Co-chairs help with the implementation of effective plans and programs that would benefit the organization. They handle fundraising events, marketing campaigns for promotional programs, audit reports, and evaluating the committee's suggestions and recommendations for its success. A co-chair must have excellent communication and leadership skills and critical-thinking on developing strategies to supervise meetings and events alongside the chair.

On average, co-chairs earn a $42,181 higher salary than residence hall directors a year.Only some things about these jobs are the same. Take their skills, for example. Residence hall directors and co-chairs both require similar skills like "professional development," "mental health," and "student organizations" to carry out their responsibilities.

While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that residence hall director responsibilities requires skills like "residence life," "desk assistants," "student development," and "community development." But a co-chair might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "community outreach," "alumni," "plan events," and "facebook."

In general, co-chairs achieve similar levels of education than residence hall directors. They're 3.7% less likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 7.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Residence hall director vs. Admissions officer

An admissions officer is responsible for recruiting new students from various venues and channels. You will connect with students and answer their questions about the college or university, and conduct interviews to better understand the students' objectives and background. As an admissions officer, it is your duty to evaluate potential applicants, and advise and guide students about the admission procedure, programs offered, costs, and eligibility. Other duties include reviewing and evaluating student applications, arranging orientation programs for new students, and developing innovative recruitment and communication strategies.

On average scale, admissions officers bring in lower salaries than residence hall directors. In fact, they earn a $13,360 lower salary per year.

The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, residence hall directors are more likely to have skills like "residence life," "desk assistants," "student development," and "community development." But a admissions officer is more likely to have skills like "admissions process," "recruitment efforts," "student recruitment," and "powerpoint."

When it comes to education, admissions officers tend to earn similar degree levels compared to residence hall directors. In fact, they're 0.4% less likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.4% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Residence hall director vs. Chairperson

A chairperson is responsible for managing the overall business team, ensuring everyone's compliance with the company's strategies and processes to reach the highest business goals and objectives. A chairperson's duties also include monitoring the staff's performance, analyzing the committee's performance and decisions, providing reports and updates during meetings, improving the current policies and procedures as necessary, and facilitating committee's programs and special events. A chairperson must have excellent leadership and communication skills to lead the team towards its organizational success.

Chairpeople tend to earn a higher pay than residence hall directors by an average of $78,751 per year.While both residence hall directors and chairpeople complete day-to-day tasks using similar skills like professional development, executive board, and student organizations, the two careers vary in some skills.Each job also requires different skills to carry out their responsibilities. A residence hall director uses "residence life," "desk assistants," "student development," and "community development." Chairpeople are more likely to have duties that require skills in "curriculum development," "alumni," "scholarship," and "strategic plan. "chairpeople reach similar levels of education compared to residence hall directors, in general. The difference is that they're 5.0% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 4.2% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Types of residence hall director

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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