Mixed flatting mystery still unsolved
OUR venture yesterday down the historic path of the University of Otago’s mixedsex flatting controversy from 50 years ago proved to be the initial steps in a journey of enlightenment with promises of more to come.
The objective of reliving the front page headlines from July 1967 was to perhaps find out just who were the three female students and their (brief) male boarder in a Union St flat which led to a famous ban on such cohabitation.
And while I’m not much nearer to identifying them, a steady source of information supplied by readers yesterday has certainly clarified some of the background and also led me down other fascinating sidetracks related to the topic.
Firstly though, I want to deal with the man who imposed this ban, former Otago vicechancellor (196773), Dr Robin Williams, who died in 2013, aged 93, because I may have cast him in an unfair light yesterday, which was not my intention.
His son, Tony, emailed yesterday to clarify one or two points. He writes:
‘‘My father did not ‘get wind of’ male and female students flatting together. He was asked by the students’ association to approve of mixed flatting. He was a very liberal and forwardthinking man, was fully aware that there were mixed flats (he had three children at university!) and was more than happy to let the affair lie there.
‘‘But in the conservative — even reactionary — climate of the day, it was entirely impossible to say he ‘approved’ mixed flatting and so had to say ‘no’.
‘‘It is worth remembering that this was the era of major student protests round the world — think of Paris, California, London and I think Brighton. Usually for more worthy causes than this, but OUSA had to have its day in the sun and so they did. I was, of course, present at the ‘sleep in’.
‘‘He generally had a very good relationship with the students’ association — The ‘Vice chancellors Ball’, held in the University Lodge ballroom by the students’ association for the vicechancellor, was a feature of his tenure here .
‘‘But the mixed flatting debacle undoubtedly contributed to his moving on relatively soon to the Australian National University in Canberra and Otago lost a great vicechancellor. Among his achievements was the restructuring of the Medical School and the opening of the Wellington Campus, and the consolidation of the campus in its present location with the closing of Union and Castle Sts, rather than the moving of the campus to the Taieri Plain.’’
Sidetracks
A couple of readers, John Burton and Suzanne Middleton, emailed to point out one of the bestknown byproducts of the mixed flatting ban was James K. Baxter’s poem A Small Ode on Mixed Flatting, written when he was the university’s Burns Fellow.
Ironically, Baxter’s fairly ribald piece was anything but small, so I cannot republish it here, and, as John points out, ‘‘the words were considered particularly saucy at the time’’.
It’s readily available online and here’s a quick link to it: https://jasongoroncy.com/ 2010/12/09/asmallodeonmixedflattingbyjameskbaxter/.
I also had an interesting phone call from Norman Fitzgerald, of Wanaka, who alerted me to another equally famous incident on a semirelated topic at the university, back in 1947, involving John Child, a former OUSA president.
Child (192284) caused a furore when, in a speech to fresher students which was intended to be humorous, he advocated, among other things, mixed flatting/free love. This led to him being expelled for a time.
Again, insufficient space prevents me from going into too much detail here but it is well covered in the book Tower Turmoil — here is the link www.otago.ac.nz/englishlinguistics/otago089414.pdf.
There were also a couple of phone calls suggesting the
OUSA president, Bruce Robertson at the time of the
1967 student sleepin protest, would later become Sir Bruce, a longserving High Court and Court of Appeal judge.
Median strip feedback
Thanks also to all the readers who responded to my invitation to suggest reasons (serious or not) for the fence which sits on top of a median strip
in St Andrew St.
Ian Smith, of Mosgiel, wrote: ‘‘The council has done well in providing a hitching rail for horses in St Andrew St, but where is the parking meter and where does one affix the ticket?’’
Jimmy Dundass, of Cromwell, had a similar view but, as a counter, taxi driver Stuart Mathieson wrote: ‘‘In certain conditions strips are difficult to see. Wet nights are a constant trial. Many have no reflectors and it is very easy to get off track and put a front wheel up on or over them. They should all have conspicuous reflectors. The barrier improves visibility and prevents irresponsible Uturning.’’