Uni hostel in line for heritage list

One of Massey University’s historic student hostels is in line for heritage status.

Heritage New Zealand has proposed putting Colombo Hall on the New Zealand Heritage List and wants to hear from those who lived in or have a strong connection with the hall to strengthen the proposal.

Colombo Hall was built in 1964 to house international students as part of the Colombo Plan, created to prevent the spread of communism in Asia and raise living standards after World War II. Now it is a regular hall.

Other buildings at Massey with heritage status are Craiglockhart Hall, the Wharerata function centre, the refectory building and the Old Main Building, now known as the Sir Geoffrey Peren Building.

Colombo is not the oldest hall at Massey though, with Mchardy and Craiglockhart pre-dating it.

In the early 1960s there was a shortage of student accommodation in Palmerston North and more than half of all students lived off campus in private accommodation.

Colombo Plan students lived in the hall until the early 1970s, but New Zealand stopped taking students by the 1980s.

The hall was extended in 1984 to accommodate more students.

Massey’s head of halls on the Manawatu¯ campus Amy Lavini said there were about 70 students in Colombo Hall this year.

‘‘It’s a first-year hall mostly made up of domestic students, but we do have a handful of internationals that chose to be in there,’’ she said. ‘‘It was refurbished three years ago.’’

It is one of the campus’ three alcohol-free hostels.

‘‘That’s popular on campus because we’ve got the vet school. A lot of pre-vet students are trying to knuckle down [to study], so it’s a bit of a popular choice.’’

She said there were a lot of vet and nursing students, but also a mix of other students too.

Massey vice-chancellor Jan Thomas supported the proposal.

‘‘In its early years Colombo Hall played an important role in housing international students,’’ she said.

‘‘These students added a great deal of diversity to campus and Palmerston North at a time when New Zealand wasn’t nearly as multicultural as it is today.’’