June 23, 2018 marked Waterloo Lutheran Seminary’s official transition to being named Martin Luther University College.
The newly named Martin Luther University College is federated with Laurier, while students who attend the college ultimately earn degrees from Laurier.
The rename and rebrand was originally announced last September by the 54-year-old building located on Wilfrid Laurier University’s Waterloo campus.
It was back in 2013 that the discussion surrounding a new name for Seminary started to take place.
“The board when they made this decision way back in 2013 they started discussion, did a fairly extensive market survey in terms of what the possibilities were for the name change, and there were literally over 100 names that were considered,” said Mark Harris, dean of Martin Luther University College.
“One of the real priorities in choosing the name was … to claim a name that would honour the tradition, the faith community out of whose tradition this school had grown.”
In specific, the new name reiterates that the College is no longer simply a denominational school.
“We are more than just the theological school that was engaged in the training of pastors. In fact, Martin Luther University college has become an enormously diverse, multi-faith community. We have over 31 faith based traditions represented amongst our students,” Harris said.
In March 2017, Seminary announced that it would be undertaking a nine million dollar renovation.
The building has been under construction since. The new building and renovations are said to encompass a community oriented environment when completed.
Along with the new name, the College has announced new visuals to match their new branding.
First, the new visuals reflects the history of Martin Luther University College.
“Martin Luther, the reformer, had a sort of visual identity that was called the Luther Rose, which was a … five-petal flower,” Harris said.
“So the new visual identity encompasses not only some of the stylistic characteristics of the Luther Rose, but also the bells in the bell tower that sits on campus to this day.”
Harris also noted that the bells on campus will be ringing at various hours of the day.
“It’s really a way of once again honouring our heritage, the faith based school, but also the more contemporary visual identity of the bells and the bell tower which are part of who we are at the Laurier campus today,” Harris said.
