Luther College (Saskatchewan)

Luther College is a college and high school located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. The university portion of Luther College is located on the campus of the University of Regina and is a federated college. The high school is located at 1500 Royal Street. There are approximately 400 students and 30 full-time faculty members at the university college. As a federated college, Luther College is administratively and financially independent, but the college's university students receive their degree from and may take courses at the University of Regina.

History

Luther College was founded in 1913 as Luther Academy, with classrooms and dormitory space for 32 male students in Melville, Saskatchewan. Women first enrolled as non-residential students in 1920. In 1926, the school relocated to a larger campus in Regina and began offering university level courses. The college used to be officially affiliated with the University of Saskatchewan until 1968, and opened new residence halls and academic buildings on the University of Regina campus in 1971. The high school continues to occupy the 1926 campus.

On December 7, 2007, Saskatchewan Roughriders Head Coach Kent Austin visited the high school to speak to the students and brought the Grey Cup.^[1]

On September 23, 2008, a former student of Luther College returned during the schools daily chapel and held the congregation hostage.^[2] He returned with what appeared to be a firearm. He held the majority of the student body and the staff hostage in the gym. He forced the school's chaplain Larry Fry to read a letter he had prepared. The letter detailed why the student thought he had been wrongfully expelled. Partway through the ordeal the student let some people leave but many others just ran outside, where a very large police force was gathered. Eventually the school's principal Mark Anderson noticed that the weapon was in fact a pellet gun. Anderson made a move to disarm the student, during the struggle the Regina police SWAT unit moved in and apprehended the student. There were no physical injuries, and school did resume the next day. The former student who cannot be named due to Canada's Youth Criminal Justice Act received a probationary sentence.

Standards

Luther College High School (LCHS) is one of the few independent high schools in Saskatchewan.

According to the Luther College Website,^[3] it strives to:

• Maintain a Christ-inspired atmosphere in the total life of the College
• Assist students in developing a creative and active integration of faith, learning and culture
• Assist students to probe the dimensions of the Christian Gospel in relation to their own lives and to society
• Provide opportunities for Christian worship, study and fellowship
• Give counsel and guidance to students who desire to enter church-related vocations
• Introduce students to major fields of human knowledge and experience
• Encourage sound habits of thinking about those ideas and experiences, stimulating imaginative and intelligent responses to them
• Encourage both faculty and students to strive for high quality standards in their academic performance
• Make it possible for students to concentrate on one of more areas of learning

Chapel

Students engage in a daily religious service with Pastor David Peterson.

Athletics

Luther College has a history of athletics. The school has a variety of sports offered including football, golf, volleyball, soccer, basketball, curling, hockey, cross country running, and track and field. The school is home to Luther Invitational Tournament (L.I.T.), one of the longest-running basketball tournaments in Western Canada. L.I.T. has been held annually in February since 1953. Luther as host team has played in every L.I.T. except one, winning four titles in 1953, 1984, 1990 and 2006. The high school's AAA football team won city titles in 1993, 2005, and 2014, as well as provincial titles in 1993 and 2005. In 2010, the Luther Lions won the 5A Regina Basketball City Championships. In 2016 the boys won the small school soccer city final. The girls also won their third straight city finals.

Notable alumni

• Glenda Goertzen, 1989 college alumnus, author
• Henry Taube, 1933 high school alumnus, winner of the 1983 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• Jonathan Denis, Alberta MLA and Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs

See also

• Higher education in Saskatchewan
• List of agricultural universities and colleges
• List of colleges and universities in Saskatchewan

References

Universities in Saskatchewan
Public Universities	First Nations Regina Saskatchewan
Public Colleges	Carlton Trail Cumberland Gabriel Dumont Great Plains North West Northlands Parkland Southeast
Technical institutes	Polytechnic SIIT
Private Colleges	Bethany Briercrest Eston Mathieu Millar Nipawin St. Petro Mohyla