Reviewed in the paper are studies on college and university living, facts and proposals from persons cognizant of residential living, and information about present residential accommodations of students at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID). The aim of the paper is given to be collecting previously unknown data about housing of deaf students before NTID residential facilities are completed. Students in residence halls are said to engage in self selection of peers and to exhibit seemingly inappropriate changes of life style in their search for identity. It is maintained that manipulative procedures, such as having a residence hall serve in loco parentis, have been only moderately effective and tend to inhibit the self deterministic peer process. Residence hall potential for reducing student isolation is said to depend on the hall's capacity to encompass formal and informal activities of students and to provide staff that function as a common ground between the institution and student needs. The residence hall is seen as realistically contributing to the peer process and to educational goals when it is based on the living learning center concept. The concept is discussed in terms of integration of all activities and assimilation of deaf and hearing students into a common peer culture through the use of trained student personnel as staff members. Questions related to student life in residence halls based on the concept revolve around the extent of academic input required, an arrangement between the residence hall and the physical education department to provide recreational and competitive activities, and a reallocation of professional and administrative responsibilities. (MC)