Concordia University College of Alberta
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Concordia University of Edmonton, is a publicly funded independent academic institution in
Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...
,
Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
, Canada; accredited under the Alberta ''Post-secondary Learning Act''. Concordia offers arts, science, and management undergraduate degree programs, as well as graduate degree programs in education, information technology, information security, and psychology. Concordia is primarily funded by tuition and private donations and as of the 2022, receives nearly one third of its funding from the government of Alberta.


History

Concordia University of Edmonton was founded in 1921 as Concordia College by the
Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS), also known as the Missouri Synod, is a traditional, confessional Lutheran denomination in the United States. With 1.8 million members, it is the second-largest Lutheran body in the United States. The LC ...
to prepare young men for preaching and teaching in the
Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
church. It was essentially a high school for many decades. It introduced co-education in 1939, offering general study courses and an accredited high school program. In 1967, Concordia began offering first-year university courses in affiliation with the
University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexander Cameron Rutherfor ...
. Affiliation for second-year courses began in 1975. The university graduated its first cohort of Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science three-year degrees in 1988, gradually expanding to other disciplines and four-year programs. A formal separation between the high school and college (degree granting) was initiated in 1994. The affiliation with the University of Alberta officially ended in 1991 by mutual agreement. Concordia College operated as a denominational college affiliated with the public sector until 1987, when the Province of Alberta allowed Concordia to start operating as a private degree-granting university college. Concordia changed its name from Concordia College to Concordia University College of Alberta in 1995. The high school program that had run within Concordia since 1939 separated into an independent institution called Concordia High School in 2000. Both institutions shared the same campus until July 2011. In 2014, the Alberta government announced that Concordia would be allowed to drop the word "college" from its name, allowing Concordia to call itself a university. On May 1, 2015, Concordia University College of Alberta was renamed Concordia University of Edmonton. Although the university had indicated its intention to continue relationships with
Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
organizations and alumni, in November 2015 Concordia removed references to Christianity from its mission statement, effectively self-identifying as a secular institution. Concordia's religious constituency had not fully funded the school since 1978, and in 2015, with religious financial support at 0.1 per cent of the school's $30 million budget, the board decided to secularize. The secularization was formally announced in April 2016. On January 4, 2022, the Concordia University of Edmonton Faculty Association (CUEFA) began a
strike Strike may refer to: People *Strike (surname) Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm *Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...
over concerns surrounding pay and workload. This was the first strike by an Albertan faculty association since they had gained the right to do so under the Labour Relations Code in 2017. The strike lasted for 11 days, with CUEFA and the university reaching a four-year collective agreement on January 15. As a result of the strike, the start of the 2022 winter semester was delayed until January 19.


Programs and faculties

The university has five faculties and two schools: Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Education, Faculty of Graduate Studies, Faculty of Management, Faculty of Science, School of Physical Education and Wellness, and School of Music. The university offers 45 majors and minors in the fields of arts, science, and management; two after-degree programs, three master's degrees, and several graduate certificates and diplomas. The
University of Lethbridge , mottoeng = ''Let there be light'' , type = Public , established = , academic_affiliations = Universities Canada , endowment = $73 million (2019) , chancellor = Charles Weasel ...
had a small extension campus at the university from 2012 to 2015. Bright Horizons Childcare and the
Concordia Lutheran Seminary Concordia Lutheran Seminary (CLS) is a Lutheran seminary situated on the north bank of the North Saskatchewan River in Edmonton, the provincial capital of Alberta, Canada. The seminary is located near the campus of Concordia University of Edmonto ...
also share the university grounds. Campus life features a community orchestra, a community choir, a women's choir, a touring choir, and regular drama productions. There are three dormitory buildings on campus: Founders Hall, Eberhardt Hall, and Wangerin House. Two more residences are designated for students taking after-degree or masters' programs. The university has a gymnasium and a large athletic field on campus. In the past the field was sometimes used for spring practice by the
Edmonton Elks The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at the Brick Field at Commo ...
football team.


Crest

Concordia's crest was designed in 1921 and was in continual use as a logo until 1991, when it was updated to remove the word "college" from the title. In 2010 the crest was retired as the visual identity of Concordia. It remains in use on legal documents as a seal, and on degree diplomas. A new logo was adopted in 2010. It reflects Concordia's front entrance of the historic Schwermann Hall, built in 1926, which also mirrors the castle church door in Wittenberg, Germany, on which
Martin Luther Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...
nailed the
95 Theses The ''Ninety-five Theses'' or ''Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences''-The title comes from the 1517 Basel pamphlet printing. The first printings of the ''Theses'' use an incipit rather than a title which summarizes the content ...
, sparking the
Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
. Further, the logo's curved lines represents the shore and waters of the
North Saskatchewan River The North Saskatchewan River is a glacier-fed river that flows from the Canadian Rockies continental divide east to central Saskatchewan, where it joins with the South Saskatchewan River to make up the Saskatchewan River. Its water flows eventual ...
, which lies directly below Concordia, in the Highlands neighborhood of Edmonton.


Notable alumni

*
Lynne Bowen Lynne Bowen (born August 22, 1940 in Indian Head, Saskatchewan) is a Canadian non-fiction writer, historian, professor, and journalist, best known for her popular historical books about Vancouver Island and British Columbia. Over the years, Bowen ...
, university professor, oral historian and writer—CUE Distinguished Alumni Award 2000 winner *
Nathan Fillion Nathan Fillion (; born March 27, 1971) is a Canadian-American actor. He played the leading roles of Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds on '' Firefly'' and its film continuation '' Serenity'', and Richard Castle on '' Castle''. , he was starring as J ...
, actor *
Sarah Hoffman Sarah Marjorie Hoffman (born May 23, 1980) is a Canadian politician who served as the 10th deputy premier of Alberta and minister of Health in the cabinet of Rachel Notley. Hoffman was previously a member of the Edmonton Public School Board, wh ...
, politician *
Sam Lam Sam Lam (born December 30, 1988) is a Canadian professional soccer player. Career University and college Lam played college soccer at Concordia University College of Alberta as well as with the University of Alberta Golden Bears. He was nomina ...
, soccer player


Athletics

The
Concordia Thunder Concordia may refer to: * Concordia (mythology), the Roman goddess who embodies agreement in marriage and society Businesses and organizations Educational institutions * Concordia University (disambiguation), for Concordia University, Concor ...
compete in the
Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference The Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) is the governing body for collegiate sports in Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1964, as the Western Inter-College Conference, the ACAC is represented by eighteen schools, including one in Saskatchewan, t ...
(Provincial Level) and the
Canadian Colleges Athletic Association The Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) is the national governing body for organized sports at the collegiate level in Canada. Its name in French is l'Association canadienne du sport collégial (ACSC). National championships CCAA m ...
(National Level). Team sports include:
badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...
,
basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
,
curling Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding ...
,
golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...
,
hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...
,
soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
,
cross country running Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open coun ...
, and
volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...
. Each sport includes participation by both men and women on separate teams with the exception of hockey, which only has a men's team. Thunder alumni include: Andrew Parker, a basketball player who competes for the
Edmonton Energy The Edmonton Energy is a professional basketball team in the International Basketball League, formerly known as the Edmonton Chill. The Chill name was revoked in August 2008, after allegations of misconduct were filed with the league regarding Tr ...
of the
International Basketball League The International Basketball League (IBL) was a semi-professional men's basketball league featuring teams from the West Coast of the United States. In 2010 the Albany Legends became the first team in the Northeastern United States to join. The ...
. Another notable Concordia alumnus, Daniel Veenstra, became prominent in the
diving Diving most often refers to: * Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water * Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes Diving or Dive may also refer to: Sports * Dive (American football), a ...
world by placing a spot on the 2012 Canadian Olympic team.


References


External links


Concordia University of Edmonton
{{DEFAULTSORT:Concordia University of Edmonton Universities and colleges in Edmonton Universities in Alberta Lutheranism in Canada Educational institutions established in 1921 1921 establishments in Alberta