Wednesday 11 July 2018 9:38am
Chancellor Dr Royden Somerville unveiled a set of story panels at Monday's opening. The panels serve to tell future visitors and residents alike the history of Caroline Freeman and the more recent history of Caroline Freeman College itself. Photos: Alex Lovell-Smith.
The students living there have been calling it “home” since February, but the official opening of the newly re-named Caroline Freeman College took place at a formal ceremony held earlier this week.
Georgia Freeman, a second-year Commerce student and the great-great-great niece of Caroline Freeman.
Speaking at Monday’s event, Chancellor Dr Royden Somerville said the re-naming was a “fitting acknowledgement” of the important part that Caroline Freeman played in the history of the University of Otago as its first woman graduate.
After first enrolling at Otago in 1875, Caroline Freeman famously walked more than 10km from Green Island to the University and back each day while also working full-time as a teacher. One of only a handful of female students at the time, she was awarded a BA in 1885. The following year, she opened Girton College – a private girls’ school which went on to become Dunedin’s Columba College.
Dr Somerville paid tribute to Caroline’s legacy noting that, “we would all agree that Caroline Freeman herself would be delighted that the steps which she first made as a pioneer for women in tertiary education have resulted in huge strides, particularly for women”.
Columba College students, Lydia Joseph and Bridget Scott, attended the event in recognition of the historic link between Columba College and Caroline Freeman.
Georgia Freeman, a second-year Commerce student and the great-great-great niece of Caroline Freeman, said she was “honoured” to speak on behalf of the Freeman family at Monday’s ceremony.
Addressing the gathering, she acknowledged how different her own academic journey was compared to Caroline’s. For her generation, she said, first year fees-free, access to interest-free student loans and living “within a stone’s throw of the University” meant that “attending University, while challenging, is quite simple.”
“Living as we do now, it is so easy to forget that life wasn’t always like this and if it wasn’t for people like Caroline Freeman, who were willing to persevere, push boundaries and open doors, then nothing would have changed.”
Andy Walne, the Head of Caroline Freeman College, said that the College’s motto – Alere Flammam or nourish the flame – was the same used for Girton College, the school Caroline founded following her graduation from Otago.
“The message is as relevant today as it was 140 years ago,” he said.
To close the formal proceedings, Dr Somerville unveiled a set of story panels newly mounted on an exterior wall of the College. The panels serve to tell future visitors and residents alike the history of Caroline Freeman and the more recent history of the College itself.
In November 2017 the University Council approved the re-naming of the former City College to Caroline Freeman College. This marked the change to full ownership by the University, from the original student accommodation project which opened in 2000 as a joint development by the Dunedin City Council, the University of Otago, Otago Polytechnic and Dunedin College of Education.
Otago Chancellor Dr Royden Somerville speaks with members of the Freeman family ahead of Monday's gathering.