Freemont College is a center for higher education.
The Rossum Corporation funded a laboratory there which created the imprinting technology.
Caroline Farrell and her boyfriend Leo broke into the lab, believing they would stop horrible animal testing, only to discover the technology. They fled the security guards, but Leo was shot and died. Farrell was eventually wiped and turned into the Active, Echo.
The lab worked on a memory drug some time later. Sam Jennings stole the drug, intending to sell it to a Swiss company, Bel Med Tech. The drug was transferred by touch, and eventually infected many of the inhabitants of the school, causing them to lose their inhibitions. The Dollhouse intervened, sending agents to control the situation, on the basis that they were immune to the drug. They were affected anyway, but instead of losing their inhibitions began to experience emmories which had been wiped.
Jennings was captured by the Dollhouse and given the option of becoming an Active.