What is Locals?
Locals is the biggest collegiate student community on campus, with a quarter of all students choosing to live at home, flat, or board in their first year. All of these students are automatically part of the Locals Programme and will start to receive emails at the beginning of their first year.
We kick off the year with a full week of Orientation events including a welcome event, fun events to help you find your way around campus, participation in the Inter-College sports day, and a pre-toga event. We then run a full year of movie nights, games nights, the annual Locals Ball, a midwinter Christmas, charity quiz nights, the Relay for Life, SPCA cupcake day, Q&A sessions, academic workshop, and tons of other events. Locals has a team of staff dedicated to making your transition to tertiary level study as smooth as possible. Our volunteers are all Locals alumni who have all navigated their first year and made it onto their second, third or even fourth year at University.
Locals HQ is a room in the heart of campus that is exclusively for locals students. There are spaces to study, heat up your lunch, or just chill out between classes. Students can use the room between 8:00am and 6:00pm, Monday to Friday. As well as a common room we hold many of our events throughout the year in Locals HQ.
HQ is on the first floor of the Union building. There are always Locals staff members in the room ready to help out with everything and anything.
Inter-College Competition
A a collegiate community, Locals participates in the Inter-College Competition events throughout the year. The Inter-College Competition is a big part of the collegiality at Otago. It provides an opportunity for all the collegiate communities at Otago to compete against each other in sporting, cultural, and gaming competitions. There is an event out there for everyone so check out the Inter-College website to find out more.
Contact Maya Pitcon, the Deputy Head of Locals, if you see any events that you would like to participate in.
Visit the Inter-College website
Email maya.pitcon@otago.ac.nz