Role model warden signs out

College head Chris Addington has left feeling working seven days a week for the past 17 academic years has been “an honour and a privilege” while staff say they will miss “a beautiful guy ... who epitomises the role model warden”.

Communications Advisor Gail Goodger had a chat to the man with seemingly boundless energy and good humour.

Chris Addington hopes he has made “a bit of a difference” in the lives of more than 8,000 first-year Otago students.

“Now they are scattered around the globe making a difference, I can’t ask for much more than that,” Chris says.

Former Caroline Freeman College Warden Chris Addington

He may well have looked after more students than any other college head in Otago’s history, during 11 years as master of 500-bed University College (Unicol) and then six years as warden at 263-bed Caroline Freeman.

Chris also calculated, while at Unicol, that about 15 per cent of the entire Dunedin campus’ student community at any time was current or former Unicol residents.

“I’m not a psychologist,” says the former Cromwell College principal, “but I certainly think older adolescence – 16 to, say, 23 – is an absolutely critical time.

“You’re finding out who you are. You’re developing skills. You start exploring, trying different ways of living. You’re breaking away from home and finding your own voice and independence.”

He enjoyed helping students, and their company, he says.

“The talent, the enthusiasm, the genuineness. The possibilities are endless for them to do things in their lives.”

Students’ journeys are not only academic, Chris says.

“There’s so much opportunity socially, spiritually, psychologically, with sport, their passions, and their hobbies. I tell them it’s a journey of discovery about themselves and they can embrace that.

“College life for me, it’s all about the students and providing them with activities, chances, and engagement – things like college plays, sport, music, events, competitions. We have legendary quizzes,” he says.

To get to know his tauira (students), Chris worked into the evenings because that was when most of them were around, and on weekends so he could see each team in sport and cultural competitions.

He was also usually taking photos for the college’s Facebook page, which is popular not only with college residents, but their parents and grandparents as well.

Chris ran the college’s day-to-day business too, so had a “24/7 job where you’re always on call”.

“I liken this job to being the village vicar, it’s all-encompassing. I’ve always viewed this as a vocation. This is my life; this is the home that I’ve chosen.”

He and wife Julia lived onsite, so Chris “had the luxury of being able to rush home if I needed to”.

Living onsite also made their cat, Kinko, a much-loved college pet. Student magazine Critic described her as the college queen, saying “it’s Kinko’s world and we’re just living in it”.

Too small to set off door sensors, she meowed to get in. She woke students by climbing on to their faces, Critic said, while rating her 10/10 – and all other college pets incidentally – but Kinko led the list.

The cat was so chuffed, she “replied” by letter with a limmerick, becoming a published poet, Chris says, “when I’m not” – despite him being a literature major, tutoring English, and writing sonnets and fourteener poems (heptameter).

Mascots were important to Chris as well. He created the Unicol Lion in homage to the two black lions out front.

At Caroline Freeman, his annual April Fool’s Day joke accidentally created the mascot. He sprinkled fake flamingos around the college one year, claiming they were the new mascot, and the students liked them so much that Ringo the Flamingo stayed. That prompted a Kinko poem:

They say a gangly, wading bird reigns at this first-year hall

Don’t believe all that you hear, I’m the real ruler of all

…

The inside scoop is my forte, I’ll tell you this and that

Just ask me, I know it all, because I’m the college cat.

Pets, mascots, poems, and activities all flow from Chris’ belief that a college’s strength is in its “shared community experiences – bonding together, making new friends and new connections, feeling accepted, and feeling included”.

Tauira can almost always find their niche, “someone else who likes what you do, or you can resonate with”, Chris says.

He tells students that probably “never again in your life will you live in close circumstances with so many people the same age ... You’ll never have as much freedom in your life, you don’t have to worry about food, cleaning your bathroom, mowing the back lawn. So grab it and do what you can.”

While one of the warden’s truisms is “never say you’ve seen it all before,” he has also never found teenagers en masse too much because “a college is quite well organised”.

"Students are quite respectful of the routines and procedures, and they look after each other because their friends are important to them.”

When trouble struck, such as a death in the family, academic struggles, or mental health issues, Chris aimed to create a sense of calm while getting residents to the University support structures they needed.

He also let tauira know “this’s not the end, you’ve hit a speed bump, it might be a big one, but cars cross speed bumps, survive and carry on. This is life; we all learn more from our failures than successes, our character, our persona, grit, and resilience.”

Deputy Warden Eric Nabalagi says his leader epitomised a role model warden who always provided a father figure for students, kept the college kaimahi informed, and was involved in everything.

“He’s also been a lot of things for me,” Eric adds.

“A great mentor. An exceptional leader. He’s very, very inspiring. The hard yards he puts in, his wealth of knowledge and experience, the wisdom he imparts.

“He loves what he does. He’s a beautiful guy, and I will miss him.”

A kava ceremony was held for Chris before he left to thank him for Caroline Freeman hosting the Kick Start 101 programme for Pacific and Māori students since it began.

Caroline Freeman Facilities Co-ordinator Rob Strang says, “Chris is very empathic, understanding, and really listens to people. He is a lovely man with a big heart, full of energy and enthusiasm.”

He was reliable in uncertain times and never showed strain under pressure, Rob says.

“Throughout the Covid years, he guided Caroline Freeman during a very stressful pandemic, when the college was full of students and staff, when most other University staff got to work from home.”

The man with a dry, quirky sense of humour, is “as sharp as a tack with his wit,” and has a huge personality, Rob says.

“He constantly sought out new things to spark student smiles and entertain them. If the students were happy, he was happy.

“Chris is like a wise old professor with a wealth of knowledge, but not pompous and stuffy, very approachable. He will definitely be missed,” Rob says.

Chris says he has loved college life but believes it is time to hand over the baton and prepare for life’s next phase while he's still “in reasonably good shape”.

He has no firm plans yet, apart from staying in Dunedin, swimming, playing golf, and reading, but is considering part-time teaching and, unsurprisingly for a college “vicar,” is toying with becoming a chaplain.

Perhaps it is time for a poem he has not written:

Chris, the Flamingo King, is flying to horizons new,

Taking Queen Kinko, the cat, and pieces of our hearts too.