For the first 30 years of university history, students lived with willing local families, until in 1905 the first two residence halls opened, Albert Hall for men and Leming Hall for women, on the south side of Normal Avenue. Cheney Hall, a product of the Public Works Administration, was built in 1939 on the east side of Henderson Avenue as a men’s residence hall. In 1948, another men’s residence hall, known as Myers Hall, was constructed behind Leming, and Albert Hall was subsequently converted for women. Albert was eventually razed to accommodate a new women’s residence hall, the Dearmont Quadrangle, which opened in 1958.

In 1963, five buildings opened on the north side of campus for fraternities and sororities, known as the Group Housing Complex. By 1970, a twelve-story tower opened as four new residence halls: Towers North, Towers South, Towers East, and Towers West. In the early 1970’s, Leming Hall was demolished to make way for the construction of the University Center; during this decade, Southeast also purchased the old Saint Francis Hospital, situated on the corner of Good Hope and Pacific, and turned it into another dormitory named University Hall; it closed in 1986.

Initially, all residence halls had practically the same community style setup, but that started to change starting with the 1989 renovation of Myers into suite style dormitories, followed by Towers North and West in the 1990’s. The early decades of the 21st century saw the creation of five new suite style residence halls.

In 2002, Vandiver Hall was erected south of the University Center, although it was not named until 2007. That same year, the university acquired an apartment complex on Henderson Avenue and turned it into Henderson Hall; it closed in 2018 due to decreasing enrollment. Merick Hall, constructed in 2009 east of Vandiver, contains both a dining hall and a computer lab. In 2013, another residence hall, this time on the north side of campus, opened as LaFerla Hall. The next academic year, Southeast’s River Campus debuted its own residence hall exclusively for performing arts students, known as the Dobbins River Campus Center. This hall features apartment-style dormitories, as well as a cafeteria, fitness center, rehearsal spaces, practice rooms, black box studio, and faculty offices.

For most of their history, residence halls were self-governed by hall councils. Each hall council consisted of an executive board and elected representatives from each floor, as well as a residential faculty member. Hall councils planned events such as intra-hall sports, seasonal dances, and homecoming activities. They also set rules for both the entire building and individual floors, such as quiet hours, visitation, and designated smoking areas. Participation in hall councils varied among decades, ranging from the entire hall to just a handful of executive board members attending council meetings. The structure also varied among residence halls; instead of four individual hall councils, Towers had a co-council that governed the entire complex. At one point, there was an Independent Resident’s Association, which represented students living in the Group Housing Complex who were not affiliated with any Greek organization.

In the early 1980’s, an organization known as the Residence Hall Association (RHA) established a chapter on campus. RHA consisted of an executive board, faculty advisors, and proportional voting representation from each of the residence halls. Additionally, there are four liaison positions for other on-campus organizations, such as the Student Government Association, Student Activities Council, and RHA’s sister organization, the National Residence Hall Honorary. Voting Representatives oversee programming within their residence halls using funds obtained from yearly room and board fees.

Along with hosting two campus-wide events a year, the organization serves as an advocate for residential environments, lobbying for changes to housing arrangements as well as new learning communities. RHA is affiliated with the National Association of College and University Residence Halls, which has into eight regional sections: both the national body and the regional affiliations host annual conferences.

Around the turn of the millennium, RHA became more popular, individual hall council participation declined due to lack of funding and lack of tangible issues to decide on. In 2012, hall councils were officially disbanded.

During the first few decades of their existence, residence halls were monitored by an older woman who would live within the hall, known as the house mother. This role went away during the 1960's and was replaced with student staff known as Personal Assistants. By the 1980's, the Office of Residence Life formed; each residence hall had a hall director with a staff of student resident assistants to montior individual floors.