University of Lethbridge facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
University of Lethbridge

Motto	Latin: Fiat Lux
Motto in English	Let there be light
Type	Public
Established	1967
Endowment	$73 million (2019)
Chancellor	Charles Weaselhead
President	Michael J. Mahon
Provost	Erasmus Okine
Academic staff	491
Undergraduates	8,231
Postgraduates	753
Address	4401 University Drive Lethbridge, Alberta T1K 3M4 49°40′00″N 112°51′50″W / 49.66667°N 112.86389°W / 49.66667; -112.86389 (University of Lethbridge)
Campus	Urban, 185 ha (460 acres; 0.71 sq mi)
Colours	Blue & gold
Nickname	Horns
Affiliations	AUCC, IAU, U Sports, ACU, CWUAA, CUP.
Mascot	Luxie

The University of Lethbridge (also known as uLethbridge, uLeth, and U of L) is a public comprehensive and research university, founded in the liberal education tradition, located in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, with a second campus in the city of Calgary, Alberta.

History

March in support of the University being located in west Lethbridge

University of Lethbridge - Circa 1972.

The University of Lethbridge welcomed only 650 students when it first opened its doors in 1967. With the completion of University Hall in 1971, the University moved permanently to west Lethbridge with enrolment growing to over 1,200 students. The current location of the University was only chosen after fierce community debate with the Provincial Government who wanted the University to be located in east Lethbridge. After the University's first Convocation on May 18, 1968, more than 500 students, faculty and community members held a protest march in support of having the University located in west Lethbridge. Soon after, the government decided west Lethbridge would be the University's permanent location.

University Hall was designed by the renowned architect Arthur Erickson and sits within the coulees above the Oldman River. University Hall was selected as one of four buildings to appear on a Canadian postage stamp celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Royal Canadian Architectural Institute (RAIC).

Over the next half century, the student population has grown to 8,155 undergraduates and 640 graduate students as of 2019. The University now offers over 150 undergraduate degree programs in the Arts, Sciences, Management, Education, Heath Sciences and Fine Arts. Further, the University has added over 50 Masters and PhD programs.

President

The president of the University of Lethbridge, Mike Mahon, is in his second term and has led the institution since July 1, 2010. Mahon, who previously held the role of the dean of the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation at the University of Alberta, is also the chair of the Board of Universities Canada.

Academics

The University of Lethbridge offers both graduate and undergraduate degrees in four faculties and three schools, as described below.

The university is accredited under Alberta's Post-Secondary Learning Act and is considered a "comprehensive academic and research university" (CARU), which means offer a range of academic and professional programs that generally lead to undergraduate and graduate level credentials, and have a strong research focus.

Aboriginal

The University of Lethbridge provides special first-year bridging programs for Aboriginal students. The University of Lethbridge's Niitsitapi Teacher Education Program with Red Crow Community College was developed in partnership with specific Aboriginal communities to meet specific needs within Aboriginal communities.

Research

The University of Lethbridge is a research-intensive university, named "Research University of the Year" in the undergraduate category in 2012, and consistently ranks highly in terms of TriCouncil funding, especially in the sciences, but increasingly in all fields of scholarly inquiry. It is home to 60 research chairs, 8 Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada, and 2 Order of Canada recipients.

The university is home to 15 centres and institutes, which transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries, including include the Alberta Gambling Research Institute (AGRI), Alberta RNA Research and Training Institute (ARRTI), Alberta Terrestrial Imaging Centre (ATIC), Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience (CCBN), Canadian Centre for Research in Advanced Fluorine Technologies (C-CRAFT), Centre for the Study of Scholarly Communication (CSSC), Centre for Culture and Community (CCC), Centre for Oral History and Tradition (COHT), Centre for Socially Responsible Marketing (CSRM), Health Services Quality Institute (HSQI), Institute for Child and Youth Studies (I-CYS), Institute for Space Imaging Science (ISIS), Prentice Institute for Global Population and Economy, Small Business Institute (SBI), and Water Institute for Sustainable Environments (WISE).

The university's infrastructure in the sciences and information technology is accessible to undergraduate students and the university is a provincial leader in terms of undergraduate involvement in publishable and translational faculty research and innovation.

Faculties and Schools

Students' Union building at University of Lethbridge

The University of Lethbridge offers over 150 degree programs. It has seven faculties and schools that administer its bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees.

• Faculty of Arts and Science
• Faculty of Education
• Faculty of Fine Arts
• Faculty of Health Sciences
• Dhillon School of Business
• School of Graduate Studies
• School of Liberal Education

The Faculty of Arts and Science offers 9 pre-professional programs in dentistry, journalism, law, medicine, nutrition and food sciences, optometry, social work, and veterinary medicine, as well as an engineering transfer program, through which students take their first year at the University of Lethbridge before completing their degrees at the University of Alberta or the University of Saskatchewan.

The Agility program in Innovation and Entrepreneurship was launched at the university in 2015. This program encourages transdisciplinary innovation, including social innovation, and will soon include a large makerspace in the new science and academic building to complement existing, specialized makerspaces. The university also partners with tecconnect (Economic Development Lethbridge), RINSA, and other organizations to encourage the production of spinoffs and collaboration with industry.

Rankings

The University of Lethbridge was ranked second in Canada in the primarily undergraduate university category for Maclean's 2021 university rankings.

Athletics

The university is represented in U Sports by the Lethbridge Pronghorns, formerly known as the Chinooks. They have men's and women's teams in basketball, ice hockey, judo, rugby union (women only), soccer, swimming, and track and field. They lack teams in volleyball after the men's team was cut in 1988 and the women in the early 1990s. The Pronghorns have won national championships in men's hockey (1994) and women's rugby (2007, 2008, 2009). The university has an intramurals program.

The home gymnasium for the Pronghorns is First Choice Saving Centre, which includes 3 full-size basketball courts, an indoor track field, a rock-climbing wall, and an exercise room. The construction was finished in 2006 and is open to public on a membership basis.

An outdoor stadium is situated in the southern campus and opened in fall of 2009. It is the home for Pronghorns soccer teams and the women's rugby team.

The men's and women's ice hockey teams play at Nicholas Sheran Arena located just west of the university campus.

Art gallery

The University of Lethbridge Art Gallery has one of the largest collections in Canada of 19th and 20th-century Canadian, American and European art, with over 13,000 pieces including drawing, print making, painting, photography, sculpture and installation.

The previous director, Jeffrey Spalding, spearheaded this nationally renowned art collection. Josephine Mills was appointed director/curator of the Art Gallery in 2001 and maintains a strong exhibition, publication, and research program.

The collection quickly outgrew available archiving and storage space, so a new building was completed in 1999 to house large works. Additional renovations were made in 2000 and 2003 to update a study area for the collection and an incoming/outgoing art handling area.

In 2006, a comprehensive registration database was made available online of the University of Lethbridge collections.

Lineage and establishment

University of Lethbridge