Eleanor Roosevelt College

Developing world citizens through scholarship, leadership, and service.

Eleanor Roosevelt College (ERC) is named in honor of the former First Lady, humanitarian and civil rights advocate; known in her time as the “First Lady of the World” for her extensive travels and her tireless work within the United Nations for universal human rights. The defining theme of ERC is “Developing world citizens through scholarship, leadership, and service”. Complimenting ERC's core curriculum (Making of the Modern World) by creating and facilitating co-curricular activities focusing on intercultural experiences, RAs for ERC and I-House help their residents explore their identities and commitments as global citizens.

ERC RAs at the
Summer '23 End of Training Dinner

ERC RAs after hosting Nightmare on I-Walk

The Residence Life staff at ERC and I-House strive to:

Cultivate a Community of Care:
- Determining guidelines for successful group living
- Providing conflict mediation and confronting behavioral issues
- Ensuring a safe and secure second home for residents
- Initiating a desire to serve others
Establish a Community of Consent:
- Setting and gaining consensus on group living standards
- Facilitate making new social connections
- Demonstrating student leadership to their peers
- Generating personal communication and relationship expectations
Build a Community of Creativity:
- Supporting academic success
- Fostering personal identity development
- Encouraging education outside the classroom
- Advocating contributions to the community

Group photo before setting off for training day at the San Diego Zoo

RAs completing a scavenger hunt at the Zoo

Our Neighborhoods

Residence Halls
- About half of ERC first year students live in the ERC Residence Halls. Each suite has a common area lounge, community bathroom and triple, double, and single fully-furnished bedrooms. Emphasizing the all-important transition to the college experience, RAs in the residence halls enjoy the distinction of becoming the primary resource and referral for their residents.
- RAs in the ERC residence halls are housed in a private room with bathroom, adjacent to the second floor suites.
Apartments
- An additional community of first-year students and most ERC continuing students live in the ERC Apartments. Each apartment is fully furnished with kitchen, bathroom, living room, housing 2 – 6 persons in single and double bedrooms. RAs in the apartments help facilitate a more independent approach to group living; from the challenge of cooking for yourself to exploring job prospects.
- RAs in the ERC apartments (including I-House) are assigned a single bedroom in either a two-person or four-person flat.
Living Learning Communities (LLCs) - ERC is proud to host two of our campus-wide Living-Learning Communities (LLCs): International House and the Raza LLC. These two communities of residents share common objectives and interests, where RAs and residents are actively engaged in learning from each other in a common residential setting.
- International House
  - International House (I-House) is the oldest and largest LLC at UCSD. Created during the founding of ERC in 1988, I-House is a campus-wide living learning program, open to all residents of sophomore standing and above. I-House RAs help encourage a lively mix of International and American students to share their cultures and engage in intercultural exchange. They also partner with the I-House program interns in community-wide events such as language tables, cultural nights, intramural sports, shared meals and socials.
- Raza LLC
  - The Raza LLC program provides a space within International House and one of the ERC residence halls for new and continuing UCSD students from all seven colleges to live and contribute to a vibrant living-learning community. RAs and residents together commit to developing their understanding of and greater appreciation for the Chicanx and Latinx experience in San Diego and the United States and the histories and cultures of Latin America. RAs help their "Razadents" navigate the community's programmatic objectives of community building, mentorship, and education; enhanced by opportunities to partner with International House (I-House), Raza Resource Centro, and the campus student organizations for an exciting calendar of formal and informal collaborations.

RAs accompanying their residents to Convocation

ERC residents in line for "Taste of ERC", an annual collaboration of college council, student orgs, RAs and other student leaders