The Residence Life Experience at SUNY Poly is based on the principles of providing students with a safe, healthy and attractive living environment that supports the academic mission of the college. The residence halls provide an opportunity for interaction among peers of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Many aspects of the residence hall living occur simply by the nature of the environment, however many are shaped by the goals of the institution. SUNY Poly places a high-priority on the concept of our halls serving as living-learning environments. The Residence Life office at SUNY Poly prides itself for being consistently ranked one of the safest campuses in the SUNY system.

Each residence hall is supervised by a residence director – a professional staff member who resides within the hall. Each building is also staffed with a number of trained resident assistants (RAs). There is a designated residence hall director, or their designee “on duty” at all times. Each residence hall has an RA “on duty” from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. each weekday and 5 p.m. to 5 p.m. (the following day) on weekends, adjusting to 8 a.m. on Mondays. All residence life staff members undergo thorough training in enforcing residence hall security policies. Off-campus housing includes apartments, individual homes and individual rooms in private homes. The college does not provide supervision for off-campus housing.

SUNY Poly built its residence halls with safety/security as a high priority. Some specific safety and security features include:

• Fire extinguishers in all common areas and buildings.
• Upholstered furniture that is self-extinguishing.
• Emergency Call Boxes – high visibility – blue lights.
• “Key-less Locks” on all outside doors – locked 24 hours a day.
• Door Bell System – all outside doors. (Adirondack and Mohawk)
• Vision panels on entry doors.
• Viewers in every suite entry door.
• Contact switch on all outside doors (alarms ring for door left ajar).
• Solid wood (bedroom floors); solid metal doors at suite entrances.
• 101 closed-circuit cameras monitor the residence halls as well as numerous areas of the campus.

Resident students and their guests are required to abide by SUNY Poly policies listed in the Student Handbook