Thomas Merton Hall
Merton Hall houses over 300 first-year students in a traditional corridor style building. Staffed with 11 student Resident Success Assistants and one professional Residence Hall Director, Merton Hall is a great environment for first-year students to get to know each other and prepare for academic success.
Building Amenities
- Shared kitchen space on each floor
- Overnight security presence at the main entrance of the building
- Card swipe entry at the main entrance
- Laundry facilities on each floor
- Vending machines located throughout the building
- Shared gender specific common bathrooms
- All-gender public bathrooms on first floor
Room Amenities
- Double and triple occupancy
- Window coverings
- Card swipe entry to the room
- Desks (one per resident)
- Chairs (one per resident)
- Adjustable bed (one per resident)
- Three drawer dresser (one per resident)
- Clothes armoire (one per resident)
- Cable television jack (One per room)
- Air conditioning/heating unit
- Wireless internet access
- Micro-fridge unit (one per room)
Meet the Staff
Francesca Salvati
Residence Hall Director
203-416-3418
salvatif@sacredheart.edu
- Nolan Young (SRSA)
- Lilia Cavaliere-Hill
- Eileen Duffy
- Nat Joseph
- Forde Todd
- Brenna Herring
- Hunter Bishop
- Molly Farrell
- James Toscano
- Kyla Coughlin
- Suzan Adekunle
Who is Thomas Merton?
Thomas Merton
1915-1968
Thomas Merton was born in 1915 in Prades, France. He had a difficult and often unhappy childhood, after his mother died when he was 6 and his father died when Thomas was 15. Through his teens and early 20s, Thomas Merton led a worldly and confused life, but he was always searching for meaning. In his mid-20s, he experienced a deeply religious conversion and joined the Catholic Church while a student at Columbia University. After teaching English for a while and working in a Harlem settlement house, he entered Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky at age 26 and continued his search for God and for ultimate human meaning as a Trappist monk. Ironically, Merton’s withdrawal from the world was his door to greater involvement with all of humanity. He was the author of more than 70 books that included letters, personal journals, poetry, meditations and interreligious reflections. His pointed works of social criticism on racism, peace and economic justice brought him prominence in American literature. His writings include such classics as The Seven Storey Mountain (which remains in print after more than 50 years), New Seeds of Contemplation and Zen and the Birds of Appetite. Seeing parallels between Asian mysticism and Western tradition, Merton gained permission to attend an ecumenical conference of Buddhist and Christian monks in Bangkok, Thailand. While attending that meeting in 1968, he was accidentally electrocuted and died at age 53.
"Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone - we find it with another."