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Gonzaga University

Gonzaga is about 5,300 undergraduates on a compact campus along the Spokane River, a short walk north of downtown Spokane. It's a Jesuit university, and that shows up less as required piety than as a service culture and a set of expectations about how people treat each other. The thing everyone knows about Gonzaga is the basketball, and it genuinely is a structural fact of student life — the Kennel Club, the ticket process, and a winter organized partly around a schedule. The thing most families get wrong is the weather: Spokane sits east of the Cascades and is nothing like Seattle, with hot dry summers, real snowy winters, and far more sun. Students are required to live on campus for four full semesters.

Move-inLate August

BedsTwin XL

A/CVaries by hall

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The one thing generic lists get wrong

What to wear in Spokane, month by month

This region runs from a humid late summer to a hard winter in about ten weeks. The mistake out-of-region families make is packing the whole year in August.

Move-in (Aug 28)	56–84°F	Hot, bright, and very dry for move-in — high-desert heat that drops into the fifties overnight. The older halls have no air conditioning, but the dry air makes a fan sufficient.
Sept–Oct	37–74°F	A beautiful, crisp fall with cold mornings and warm afternoons. The Centennial Trail along the river is at its best, and the first snow usually holds off until November.
Nov–Dec	25–43°F	Gray, cold, and snowy — this is when Spokane's roughly four feet of annual snowfall starts arriving in earnest, and when the basketball season takes over the social calendar.
Jan–Feb	25–40°F	The heart of an inland-northwest winter: consistent snow cover, hard mornings, and ski areas within an hour running full tilt. A real coat and boots are not optional.
Mar–Apr	32–58°F	A slow melt into a bright dry spring. By April the river is high with snowmelt and campus moves back outdoors.

Pack for eastern Washington, not for Seattle. This is the single most common mistake Gonzaga families make from out of region: Spokane is east of the Cascades, semi-arid, sunnier than most of the country, and it gets about four feet of snow a winter. Your student needs a genuine coat, boots, and gloves — not a rain shell. The good news on the shopping list is that Gonzaga is permissive where many schools are not: microwaves are allowed in the residence halls and refrigerators up to 4 cubic feet are fine, so the standard combination works, as long as the fridge draws under half an amp and sits outside the closet. Two logistical notes: nothing is delivered to the halls, so your student must request a mailbox before arriving, and lower-division students need twin XL sheets while upper-division apartments take full-size — don't buy four years of bedding at once.

Straight from the housing office

What Gonzaga University lets you bring

✓ Bring it

A desk lamp and a floor lamp — both are on Gonzaga's own packing list, and overhead lighting in the older halls is what it is
Under-bed and hanging storage, since the traditional halls are corridor-style rooms without much built-in space
A real winter coat, snow boots, and gloves: Spokane averages around four feet of snow a season, and this is not the mild, rainy Washington people picture
Sun protection and a water bottle for the first weeks — late August here is hot, dry, and high desert rather than humid
Ski or snowboard gear if it's your student's thing; Mount Spokane is under an hour and several bigger mountains are within a weekend's reach
Shower shoes and a caddy — every first-year hall uses communal bathrooms
Twin XL bedding (confirm your specific hall)
UL/ETL power strip with a built-in circuit breaker — not a bare extension cord
Damage-free wall hangings like Command strips — no nails or screws
Low-draw LED desk and task lamps
A fan, a reusable water bottle, and UL-listed electronics

✕ Leave it home

Open-coil / open-flame cooking: toasters, toaster ovens, air fryers, hot plates, electric grills, sandwich makers
Candles, incense, wax warmers, and anything with an open flame
Halogen lamps
Extension cords without a breaker; outlet splitters and multi-plug adapters
Space heaters and personal A/C units (unless your school provides/approves them)
Hoverboards, e-scooters, e-bikes, and other e-mobility devices
Weapons of any kind — including decorative — and fireworks
Personal air conditioning units, except where the University provides or approves one
Refrigerators over 4 cubic feet, drawing more than 0.5 amps, or tucked inside a closet
Extra furniture — Gonzaga lists it explicitly as something not to bring to a residence hall room

These come from Gonzaga University's official housing pages and cover the essentials plus the genuinely local rules. Double-check the current official guidance before you buy — policies and renovations change every year.

Before you can move in

Getting your room at Gonzaga University

01
Spring–summer
Housing application and roommate matching
Gonzaga's housing process runs through Housing & Residence Life over the spring and summer. Because all five first-year halls are traditional corridor buildings with communal bathrooms, the meaningful choices are about community rather than amenities — single-gender building or not, and whether your student wants a living-learning community, which concentrates in Coughlin.
02
Before arrival
Request a mailbox — this one is mandatory
Gonzaga delivers nothing to the residence halls or apartments; all mail and packages are picked up at Mail Services, and every new student must request a mailbox before arriving on campus. Do this early, because the MSC number is part of the address and nothing can be shipped ahead without it.
03
Summer
Buy the fridge to spec, and only twin XL sheets
The refrigerator has to be 4 cubic feet or less, draw no more than 0.5 amps, and sit in open space rather than a closet. Microwaves are allowed, so one of each per room works — coordinate with the roommate. Buy extra-long twin sheets for the first two years; the upper-division apartments switch to full-size beds later.
04
August 28
Move-in day
Residence halls open for new Zags on Friday, August 28, 2026, with New Student Orientation following. Spokane in late August is hot and dry, and the traditional halls are walk-up corridor buildings — start early in the day, bring water, and expect the carrying to be the hard part.

The actual buildings

Where you'll live at Gonzaga University

Where first-years live

First-years live in Gonzaga's traditional-style halls, which are corridor buildings with communal bathrooms and a strong floor culture — Catherine Monica, Madonna, DeSmet, Welch, and Coughlin. Two of them are single-gender by building: DeSmet is all-male and Welch, directly across from it, is all-female. Coughlin is where most first-year living-learning community students land. Gonzaga's residency requirement runs two years — students must complete four full semesters in university housing, summers excluded, before being released from it — so the hall your student starts in is the first of two years on campus rather than one.

CoughlinNewest · 5 floors · most first-year LLCs

One of the newest halls and the home of most first-year living-learning communities, with five residential floors of corridor-style rooms at a standard 11'3" by 15'6" and moveable furniture. Each wing has its own communal bathroom, lounge, and laundry, and each residential floor has a full kitchen. The building also holds a first-floor lobby and classroom, a library on the fourth floor, a game room with ping pong, pool and shuffleboard, a piano and music room, study rooms, and bike storage.

DeSmetAll-male · in-room sinks · walk-in closets

An all-male traditional hall right in the heart of campus, with four residential floors that each have a study room and a communal bathroom. Two features set it apart from most first-year housing anywhere: sinks in the rooms and walk-in closets.

WelchAll-female · across from DeSmet

DeSmet's counterpart directly across the way, all-female and equally central. Every residential floor has its own kitchenette, lounge, communal bathrooms, and study rooms, and residents tend to mention the light — the windows are large and they open.

Madonna3 floors + basement · closest to dining

A traditional hall of three floors and a basement whose great practical advantage is location: it's the closest residence to the student center and the dining hall, which is worth more than it sounds in February. Rooms have their own sinks.

Catherine Monica2 floors · lounges and a basement kitchen

A two-floor traditional hall built around common space — multiple lounges on both floors with couches, vending, ping pong and pool tables, and a roomy basement lounge alongside a classroom and a full kitchen. Each wing has a study room and communal bathroom, with laundry on every floor.

The stuff nobody puts in one place

Spokane logistics, sorted

How to send a package to a Gonzaga student

[Student Name]
Gonzaga University MSC #
502 E. Boone Ave.
Spokane, WA 99258

The MSC number is the student's mailbox, and every new student has to request one before arriving — without it, nothing can be sent ahead. There are no deliveries to residence halls or apartments at all; everything is picked up in person at Mail Services, on the south side of the BARC at 817 E. DeSmet Ave. Note that the pickup location and the mailing address are deliberately different.

Spokane is not the Washington you're imagining

Gonzaga sits east of the Cascade crest, which puts it in a completely different climate from Seattle — semi-arid, with hot dry summers, cold snowy winters averaging around four feet of snow, and a great deal more sunshine than the western half of the state. Families who pack a rain shell and call it a coat get this wrong every year. The upside is what that weather makes possible: Mount Spokane is under an hour away, several larger mountains are within a weekend, and Coeur d'Alene and its lake are about forty minutes east in Idaho.

Basketball is part of the housing experience

It is difficult to overstate how much the men's basketball program shapes the rhythm of a Gonzaga winter. Home games at the McCarthey Athletic Center — the Kennel — sell out, the student section is an organized institution called the Kennel Club with its own membership and ticket process, and game nights reorganize the week for a large share of campus. For a first-year deciding what to spend on and plan around, it belongs on the list alongside books and a coat.

Beyond the campus gates

Spokane & around

Right there

The Spokane River & Centennial Trail

Campus runs along the river, and the Centennial Trail follows it for miles in both directions — the default run, ride, and walk, and the green edge of an otherwise urban campus.

On campus

The Kennel

The McCarthey Athletic Center, one of the loudest small arenas in college basketball. Student tickets run through the Kennel Club, and a home game is the closest thing Gonzaga has to a shared weekly ritual.

Nearby

Downtown Spokane

A genuinely walkable downtown just south across the river, with Riverfront Park, restaurants, and the Davenport hotels. Being able to walk into a real city center is unusual for a school this size.

Getting around

Coeur d'Alene, the mountains & GEG

Spokane International is about twenty minutes west, Coeur d'Alene and its lake about forty minutes east into Idaho, and Mount Spokane under an hour north. The outdoors here is close enough to be a weekday thing, not just a break trip.

For move-in, family weekend & graduation

Where to stay near Gonzaga University

Closest

Ruby River & Centennial Hotel

Under a mile

The two closest options to campus, both under a mile and both on the river side of downtown — the shortest drive for a move-in morning that starts early.

Nearby

The Davenport hotels

~1 mile

Downtown Spokane's landmark hotels, including the historic Davenport and the Davenport Grand, about a mile from campus. The nicer choice for a family weekend, and walkable to Riverfront Park.

Wider net

Spokane Valley & near the airport

~15–25 min

Chain hotels spread east through Spokane Valley and west toward GEG. Plenty of supply and easy parking when downtown fills up.

Book around the basketball schedule, not just the academic one. Spokane's downtown hotels fill for home games as well as for move-in, Family Weekend, and graduation, and a marquee opponent can tighten availability across the city. Reserve as soon as your dates are set, and treat Spokane Valley as the reliable overflow.

Gear up