Named after Frances Willard, the university’s first dean of women, Willard is the largest and one of the oldest residential colleges on campus. It’s one of two non-thematic Residential Colleges and is located on south campus.
Feel free to browse this site to learn more about Willard but this page isn’t updated as often as our student run page which you can visit at willardnu.com or check us out on Instagram @TheWooShack
Willard Residential College cherishes tradition, community, caring, intellect, and fun. The Willard world is diverse in all senses, including intellectually. It relishes change and challenges.
Founded in 1972, Willard Residential College (known as the Wooshack or the Woo) is one of the oldest and largest members of Northwestern University’s Residential College Board. Built in 1938, Willard Hall was originally a female dormitory until 1970, when it became the first undergraduate co-ed housing on campus. Willard Hall was named after Frances Willard, president of the Evanston College for Ladies and a founder in the late nineteenth century of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.
While some residential colleges are thematic and devote themselves to a particular area of study, Willard takes the opposite approach. It promotes mixing and interaction of students from many schools and disciplines. Music and theatre students create a significant group interested in performance, while economists and chemists remain available to help beginners in those fields.