Wilfrid Laurier University
Wilfrid Laurier University is a public university in Ontario, Canada, with campuses in Waterloo, Brantford and Milton. It is named in honour of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the seventh Prime Minister of Canada. A "multi-campus multi-community university", Laurier offers undergraduate and graduate programs in a variety of fields with over 17,000 full-time undergraduate students, over 1000 full-time graduate students, and nearly 4,000 part-time students as of late 2019. Laurier's varsity teams, known as the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks, compete in the West Conference of the Ontario University Athletics, affiliated with U Sports.
History
In 1910, the Lutheran Synod established a seminary, which opened to students in 1911, under the name Evangelical Lutheran Theological Seminary of Eastern Canada. In 1914, the seminary expanded its offerings to include non-theological courses and adopted the name "the Waterloo College School." In 1924, the institution evolved into the Waterloo College of Arts.It became affiliated with the University of Western Ontario in 1925 and introduced honors degree programs in the arts.
In 1960, the Lutheran Church transitioned its sponsorship of Waterloo College, resulting in a revised charter that led to the renaming of the seminary to Waterloo Lutheran University. This name was subsequently changed to Wilfrid Laurier University on November 1, 1973, following the enactment of the relevant provincial law by Ontario Lieutenant-Governor Ross Macdonald, who later served as Laurier's chancellor. The name honored Wilfrid Laurier; while the former Prime Minister of Canada had no local connections, the university retained its WLU nickname. The seminary and theological programs of Waterloo Lutheran University continued to be offered by the affiliated Waterloo Lutheran Seminary. The change of name was officially approved by the Waterloo Lutheran board of governors during a meeting held on June 12, 1973.
Laurier's school colours are purple and gold.
Expansion
In 1999, Laurier expanded its footprint by establishing a second campus in Brantford. Additionally, in 2006, the Lyle S. Hallman Faculty of Social Work relocated from the Waterloo campus to a campus situated in downtown Kitchener. The Brantford campus is centered around a cluster of historic properties in the downtown area, which have been thoughtfully restored for university purposes. These include a former Carnegie library, Brantford's 1880 post office, and a 1950 Odeon Theatre.On April 18, 2018, Wilfrid Laurier University received approval for a new campus location in Milton. In collaboration with Conestoga College, this new campus was slated to be constructed within the Milton Education Village. The Milton campus, as outlined on WLU's website, was aligned with a program offering focus on science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. However, due to budget constraints imposed by the Conservative government, the plan for this STEAM-focused academic venture, along with expansion on other campuses, was canceled. The plan for the Milton campus was later approved in June 2021, and its first class opened in the autumn of 2024.
2017–18 freedom of speech controversy
In November 2017, the university became the subject of a free speech and academic freedom controversy for censuring teaching assistant Lindsay Shepherd, who used a three-minute recording of a debate involving Jordan Peterson about the required use of gender-neutral pronouns in a communications class. The case was criticized by several newspaper editorial boards and national newspaper columnists as an example of the suppression of free speech on university campuses. After the release of the audio recording of the meeting in which the TA was censured, WLU President Deborah MacLatchy and the TA's supervising professor Nathan Rambukkana published letters of formal apology. An independent investigation found the teaching assistant had not violated university policies. It also found that the subsequent meeting held by several professors berating her for using the recording was conducted with "significant overreach.", Peterson and Shepherd were each suing the university as well as the professors who were involved. Two of the professors filed a third-party claim against Shepherd.Academics
The university has an enrolment of about 17,000 full-time and part-time undergraduate students, and over 1,500 full-time and part-time graduate students. It has over 500 faculty and staff members. Laurier has been transitioning from a primarily undergraduate university to a mid-size research university. In the 2022 Maclean's magazine survey of Canadian universities, Laurier was ranked seventh out of 15 Canadian universities in the magazine's comprehensive university category.The registrar's report for winter 2016 indicates that the six most popular majors at Laurier, across the entire university, were : business, communications studies, psychology, criminology, economics, and biology.
A September 2017 report indicated that students could choose to concentrate in composition, comprehensive, music education, music history, theory and critical analysis, performance, or community music; second-year Bachelor of Music students could take music therapy as an option. In addition, Laurier is home to the Penderecki String Quartet - an internationally-recognised group playing largely new compositions. The music faculty boasts two performance spaces, the Theatre Auditorium and the Maureen Forrester Recital Hall. Laurier's strength in "music and business education" has been identified as one of the reasons that the Waterloo region is a "powerful educational hub" by former University of Waterloo president, and former governor-general of Canada, David Johnston. Laurier was named Canada's Best Music Campus by CBC Radio in 2013.
| Undergraduate | Graduate | |
| Male | 44.9% | 40.7% |
| Female | 55.1% | 59.3% |
| Canadian student | 94.8% | 93.7% |
| International student | 5.2% | 6.3% |
According to Maclean's, "Standout Programs" at Laurier in 2017–2018 included business administration, game design and development, and law and arts.
Laurier was the headquarters of the Academic Council of the United Nations System, the goal of which is to strengthen the study of international organizations and to create strong ties between the academic community and diplomats within international organizations.
The Balsillie School of International Affairs, opened in uptown Waterloo in 2008, is a partnership between Laurier, the University of Waterloo, and the Centre for International Governance Innovation. The Balsillie School offers three programs: a masters in arts in global governance, a masters in international public policy and a PhD program in global governance.
Cooperative education
Laurier has the oldest business cooperative education program in English-speaking Canada and the largest business co-op program in Canada. Students are able to enjoy co-op opportunities with dozens of companies, including KPMG, Ernst and Young, PepsiCo, Scotiabank, Unilever, and Manulife Financial.Laurier Library
As of the 2014–2015 annual report, the Laurier Library holds 1 million print volumes, 312,000 electronic books, 68,000 electronic journals, and 280 databases, thousands of media titles. In addition, the library is a member of the tri-university "group of libraries", through which access to a combined information collection in excess of seven million print items is available.There are three physical locations for the library: the Waterloo campus' primary library, the Brantford campus' digital library and learning commons space and the collection space in the Brantford Public Library, and the Social Work Library in Kitchener.
The library, in conjunction with Wilfrid Laurier University Press, hosts "Scholars Commons @ Laurier," an institutional repository that aims to support open scholarly communication, collaboration, and lasting visibility and recognition for Laurier scholarship. It houses faculty scholarship, theses, dissertations, online journals, and an archival collection of The Cord dating back to 1926.