Dean's Welcome

Welcome to the Westhampton College website! Although I could devote pages and pages to the history, traditions, and significance of Westhampton College, I will opt instead to explain briefly what it means to be a Westhampton student and why it is important.

At the University of Richmond, women students are Westhampton College students; men students are Richmond College students.  Women and men attend class together, eat together, and live on the same sides of the University’s lake together.  Yet as members of Westhampton College and Richmond College, our students benefit from a distinctive system of gender-based living and learning that allows us to focus more specifically on each student as he or she grows and develops through his or her time at the University of Richmond.

Westhampton College exists to foster our students’ intellectual and personal development.  Opportunities for formal leadership abound in Westhampton College governance, the residence life system, and the Women Involved in Living and Learning (WILL) program.  Less formally, programs produced out of the College and interactions with the Westhampton College staff illustrate the benefits of a women’s college within a coeducational setting:  we confront problems that young women sometimes face, including eating disorders and depression; and we provide our students with their own community to share concerns and to develop friendships.  Voluminous research shows that students who experience women college communities develop a greater sense of autonomy and are more successful in their post-college careers than women coming out of strictly coeducational institutions, a finding that appears to bear itself out with each graduating Westhampton class.

Students at the University soon learn that life outside the classroom is as important as what occurs inside the classroom; in fact, they complement each other in interesting and important ways.  Whether a student is a government leader, a Resident Assistant, or a member of the WILL program, she will make connections between coursework and co-curricular life that prepare her for life and leadership after college in her family, career, and community.

Upon enrolling at the University, Westhampton College students join a long tradition of progressive women who understand and appreciate that gender education makes them better thinkers and stronger people; in turn, we expect they will create new opportunities to be handed down to future generations of Westhampton women. 

Thank you for visiting this site, and do not hesitate to contact me or any member of my staff.