St Anselm Hall has a rich history, especially of supporting students. Since its founding in 1909 until 2019, the hall had a Warden, an academic member of University staff who lived within the hall (in a flat in Schuster).

 

In the early days, the Warden was in charge of everything within the hall, from the maintenance of the building to the catering, disciplinary action of the students and managing all the hall finances.

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The hall also had three to four postgraduate students, known as 'tutors', who would support student welfare and activities. Each tutor was in charge of a particular part of hall life, for example one tutor was involved in supporting students run the Cellar Club bar.

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In 2015/16 reforms to the old 'tutor system' meant that the traditional Wardens were removed and replaced with ResLife Officers (RLOs). These roles were still held by academic staff at the University.

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In 2019 further reforms to the ResLife system reduced the numbers of ResLife Advisors in each hall of residence, reducing the number from three in St Anselm Hall to two. The reforms also made the ResLife Officers (now called ResLife Coordinators (RLC)) become full-time members of staff and not academic staff.

The number of RLCs over the whole of the University was reduced, meaning each RLC was in charge of a larger number of halls and therefore students. The RLC stopped living in St Anselm Hall at this point and moved into Dalton Ellis, a nearby hall of residence.