Housing

One of the first things you should do after you decide to come to UH Hilo is find a place to live. Living on campus is a lot of fun, and it’s a great way to meet and get to know other students. You will make life-long friends with other students in the dorms.

UH Hilo has five residence halls, or dorms, on campus. One of the dorms, Hale ‘Alahonua, just opened in 2013. The name of each dorm starts with “hale,” which means “house” in Hawaiian.

There are several dining halls–or cafeterias–on campus. At each meal, there is a variety of food to choose from, including vegetarian options. If you live on campus, you will be required to be on a meal plan, except if you live in Hale ‘Ikena – which is the on-campus dorms that has its own kitchen in each apartment.

To live on-campus, you have to submit a housing application. Apply early, because spaces are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis. Unfortunately, there is usually not enough space in the residence halls for everybody who wants to live on campus.

Some students prefer to live off-campus. There are several apartments within walking distance to campus. You will find out more about these options in this section of your online orientation.

The Housing staff at UH Hilo looks forward to welcoming you and meeting you when you come to campus! Aloha!

Aloha, my name is Hang Sang Lee and I am from South Korea. Today let me introduce Hale Kauanoe, which means, “ house of misty rain” in Hawaiian. Hale Kauanoe consists of three buildings. That building behind the tree is girls’ Kauanoe and this building right here is where Hale Kauanoe office is in. You can use TV and a kitchen. This building is where boys live. So now let’s see where I live.

So here we go. As you can see I live in by myself. I don’t have any roommate, which is great and I have a nice bed, cozy bed and two closets, which is this and this. And of course I have a desk so I can study and do whatever I want. I hope you guys enjoy the time while you’re staying in Hale Kauanoe or other hale. Thank you.

Let’s take a look. So here we have our kitchen, we have our refrigerator, it’s pretty old looking but it still works so that’s what matters. We have our stove right here, four burners, we also have an oven. We have a counter and two sinks and this is where we put/wash our dishes, put it in here and our cabinets. And this is our kitchen table, where we sit to eat.

This is what the living room looks like. So that’s the couch, and you have the coffee table and outside there’s a balcony, where you can see the cars, and the library, solar panels and the sidewalk.

The moment you’ve been waiting for, the bedroom. So let’s go inside. This is the bed. We have a window over there. This is our dresser, one for another person and one for your roommate. Over here is the study table, where I do most of my studying. And we also have light, so you can study anytime at night.

That’s the closet, where you can put a lot of stuff up on top. As you can see, I have my books there, some papers and where you put the hangers and put your clothes on.

Here’s the bathroom, that’s the toilet and that’s the shower room and that door is connected to the other side, so your roommates from the other side will be coming from there.