Services | Residential Life

All residents living in residence halls are required to have a mimimum of a 10-meal plan with the college Dining Services per the Dining Services and Board Policy. Students living in on-campus cottages, apartments or off-campus residences often choose to have a meal plan, but it is not required. An enchanced meal plan, called the 7+ meal plan, is available for these students. Find more information about meal plans.

Meal plans can be change through the first week of classes for each semester. If you wish to make a change to your meal plan you can do so by following the steps below:

Enter your Hope Housing Portal
Select “Forms”
Housing Forms are term specific, so be sure to select the correct term
Click “Meal Plan" from drop down menu
Be sure to click "Submit" to confirm your meal plan selection

Hope College has a centralized mailroom (Print and Mail Services) that accepts all mail and packages and distributes them to students. An email will be sent the day you receive any type of mail. You may stop by Print and Mail Services during business hours with your Hope ID to claim mail and packages.

The Print and Mail Services website has specific address information to use when sending items to Hope (and sending mail to Hope students). Your student mailing address including your mailfile number will also appear in your Hope Housing Portal on the home page under Mailing Address.

You can connect to wireless internet in every residential unit and every bedroom (residence hall, cottage and apartment). You can even pick up Wi-Fi in the Pine Grove! Information on the wireless internet can be found through CIT.

Learn more about campus Wi-Fi information

There are laundry facilities in every residence hall and most other on-campus residential units (cottages and apartments).

Find detailed information about on-campus laundry

Hope College offers limited on-campus storage for actively enrolled students who live outside of the Midwest (no students from Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio or Wisconsin will be approved) that are extraordinarily burdened by bringing all of their belongings with them when leaving campus. Due to the limited availability of storage, larger furniture items such as futons, couches, living room chairs, desk chairs, bed/mattresses, dressers or outdoor furniture, etc., cannot be stored on campus.

On-Campus Storage
There are a variety of different storage periods to meet student needs. All storage requests are for the entirety of the period you are asking for. Once an item is stored, it is locked away and cannot be accessed until the date indicated on your confirmation email. The different storage periods are:

Spring 2026 – for those who are studying off campus for that semester.
May Transitional Storage – for those who are living on campus for the summer but need to temporarily store a few items that are not needed while living in transitional housing before going to their summer placement.
Term Storage – for those who are studying abroad for May/June/July terms.
Summer 2026 – for those who will not be on campus all summer and need to store their things until fall 2026 semester.
August Transitional Storage – for those whose on-campus summer housing is ending but need to temporarily store a few items that are not needed during the transitional period before going to their Fall housing placement.

Summer Storage Note: We will be unable to let you into storage until the first week of classes, as we will NOT have the staff available to let students in as soon as they move in for the next academic year. So we ask that you do not pack essential items that you will need immediately when you arrive to campus (e.g., bedding, personal items, etc).

When storing items in the residence hall, you must have your belongings in a box or tote that can be sealed. You are not able to store furniture or carpets, including but not limited to futons, couches, desk chairs, reclining chairs, rugs larger than 3' x 5' or outdoor furniture.

We will be providing you 5–7 labels, meaning you will only be able to store 5–7 items, and they all must have their appropriate label attached. If you have more than 5–7 items, you will need to find alternative storage for your remaining items.

You will be given specific dates that you can pick up your items. After that, we will give you two notices to pick up your items. Failure to retrieve your items will result in donation of all belongings left in storage to Holland Community Action House (unless previous arrangements have been made with the Residence Life office). Instructions will be provided in your confirmation email about how to retrieve your belongings during your set dates.

All items are stored at your own risk. Hope College is not responsible for any damaged or missing items. Storage is not climate controlled. By filling out this form, you acknowledge that Hope College is not responsible for any damaged or missing items. Due to the limited availability of on-campus storage, Hope has connected with a variety of off-campus storage options to provide a discount for Hope students. Below is information about both options.

Off-Campus Storage
Each off-campus storage facility provides different storage options and costs. Learn more about off-campus storage options. Pricing is established by the storage company and subject to change.

Area storage facilities we are connected to include:

Boers Transfer Storage (units and vault)
M40 Self Storage
Village Self Storage
Cross Creek Storage

On-Campus Storage Application

Procedure to store belongings on campus
Once it has been decided that a student’s application meets the qualifications for on-campus storage and it has been determined space is available, the student will receive an approval email with further storage instructions.

When storing items in the residence hall, students must have their belongings in a box or tote that can be sealed. Each box or tote must be labeled and include the following:

Students first and last name clearly printed
Date of storage
Students cell phone number

We will be providing you 5–7 labels, meaning you will only be able to store 5–7 items, and they all must have their appropriate label attached. If you have more than 5–7 items, you will need to find alternative storage for your remaining items.

How and When to Retrieve Belongings from Storage
You will be given specific dates that you can pick up your items between. After that we will give you two notices to pick up your items. Failure to retrieve your items will result in donation of all belongings left in storage to Holland Community Action House (unless previous arrangements have been made with the Residence Life office). Instructions will be provided in your confirmation email about how to retrieve your belongings during your set dates.

All items are stored at your own risk. Hope College is not responsible for any damaged or missing items. Storage is not climate controlled.

What happens if a student does not return to Hope College?
For students who graduate or make the decision to not return to Hope College, but still have items in storage, the following procedure for notification will take place.

For items left behind, a student will be contacted by the Housing Office (housing@hope.edu) via their provided cell phone number and/or Hope email (if active). They will be given seven days to respond to arrange a time that must be within 30 calendar days to collect their belongings.
If the student fails to respond within seven days after the initial contact a second attempt will be made via cell phone and/or Hope email (if active). They will be given an additional seven days to respond to arrange a time that must be within 30 calendar days to collect their belongings.
For students that fail to respond within 14 days after the first attempt to contact to arrange a time to collect their belongings, the college will donate all belongings to Holland Community Action House or dispose of the item(s) that are not able to be donated.

All students are eligible for requesting parking permits to park in Hope College parking lots. However, parking on campus is administered through Campus Safety. You can find all the information you need on Campus Safety’s website.

Students are welcome to bring bikes to campus. There a number of bike racks throughout campus and most residence halls have a bike room that residents can choose to use for inside storage. Space is limited in the bike rooms, so we suggest, if you are able, to bring your bike home for the winter months. The City of Holland requires that all bikes be registered and have a identification tag. Use the online bicycle form, and pick up stickers at Campus Safety after submitting the form.

Each residential hall community has a lounge equipped with a large-screen TV and cable. However, cable is not provided in individual student rooms, cottages or apartments. Our wireless internet system supports online TV and movie streaming. Many students access TV through independent subscriptions to online sources (Sling TV, Hulu, Netflix, etc.).

Learn more about streaming media on campus