Department of Student Life

Geneseo achieves its educational mission by combining a strong curriculum with a rich co-curricular life. The student life experience at Geneseo is intentionally educational, and fosters widespread, substantive student engagement in carefully designed, developmentally based programs and services.

Student Life is a department within the Division of Student and Campus Life. The Department of Student Life manages the operations of the MacVittie College Union and select co-curricular educational and assessment initiatives. Opportunities for student engagement and learning within the department include New Student Orientation, Weeks of Welcome, Geneseo Late Knight, student organizations, Upstate Escapes, and the Victor E. Knight mascot program as well as a number of student leadership and applied learning experiences.

We pursue ways to collaborate with Geneseo students, faculty and staff to support our students as they pursue their individual educational goals by challenging students to better themselves, demonstrating an ethic of individual care, and building a strong, vibrant campus community.

Student Life Guiding Principles

It is the mission of the Geneseo Department of Student Life to contribute to a rich, meaningful, supportive, and fulfilling individual experience for Geneseo students by creating, promoting, assessing, and strengthening learning opportunities.

It is the intention of the Department of Student Life to provide and to identify opportunities for students that result in increased learning, greater self-awareness and a clearer sense of purpose.

Our passion is the improvement of the human condition through the expansion of a caring community, a community that is equitable and inclusive of all. (Campus Life: In Search of Community p. 47)

Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging:

Student Life at Geneseo works to provide opportunities that allow all members of our college community can gather to engage and interact by creating and promoting experiences and events that advance belonging, connectedness, and mutual respect for every individual.

Educational Priority:

The Department of Student Life develops socially responsible citizens who build positive, inclusive relationships as engaged learners.

Overarching Goals:

To provide opportunities for students to learn, interact, lead, reflect, program, question and have fun. (How College Affects Students p. 647)
To provide safe and inviting places where the college community can gather to engage, live, and flourish.
To provide commonly shared experiences that promote belonging and connectedness with a mutual respect for the unique contributions of each individual.