Many students and alumni are expressing their outrage with the Seminary on campus being up for demolition. 

The Lutheran Theological Seminary is a historic building built in 1968 on the University of Saskatchewan campus. This building, located along the riverbank to the north of the USask campus, has been left dormant since 2020. Although it is managed by the University of Saskatchewan, it is owned by the Lutheran Theological Seminary of Saskatoon. 

The Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Manitoba and other Provinces founded the Lutheran College and Seminary in 1913, which ended up settling in Saskatoon in 1915. In 1968,the two original theological schools in western Canada merged. This is when it transferred onto the University of Saskatchewan campus and the Lutheran Theological Seminary was built. In 1969, the Graduate School of Theology was established, which would later be known as the Graduate Theological Union of Saskatoon. Today, it is known as the Saskatoon Theological Union. 

In 2020, the Lutheran Seminary moved to a smaller facility housed within the St. Andrew’s College building. Since then, the seminary has been sitting abandoned. Now, it has become a significant safety hazard due to frequent break-ins and subsequent fires inside the building. In addition to this, there has been drug paraphernalia found inside the building. A fence was put up around the building in November to try and prevent people from getting inside the building, and the university is now looking into the cost of getting the building demolished. 

Some members of the community, however, are outraged at the suggestion of tearing down such a historically and architecturally significant building. Many USask alumni visited the building often or were taught there. Tearing down the building would mean the erasure of those historic walls that housed the memories of countless students and individuals who have emotional attachments to the building.

The Lutheran Theological Seminary, which is now almost 60 years old, was built by John Holliday-Scott, a well-known Saskatoon architect. Holliday-Scott also built the Law and Dental College buildings on campus. He built the Seminary in the brutalist architectural style, which was quite unique for the time. This architectural style, as well as the emotional history connected to the building from USask alumni, are two of the main reasons why the public is so outraged at tearing it down. 

The building, while definitely trashed and vandalized, is still in relatively good shape with beautiful architectural design inside. With better security to lessen break-ins, maintenance of the grounds and proper funding to get it cleaned up, the building could be restored to its original glory. However, the funding required to implement these changes would be quite significant. Some members of the community have even suggested that it could be turned into housing or shelter for the homeless population due to the lack of affordable housing in Saskatoon. Others have said it could be used as a great place for students to get together and socialize on campus. With some work done, the space could be useful rather than spending money to demolish the building and build a new one.

In November 2024, a meeting was held by the University of Saskatchewan in response to the outrage that the community had been expressing. Holliday-Scott, who is now 91, was in attendance for the meeting. He said he was saddened because he believed that the building was important to the university and the rest of the province. He was also saddened that the university hadn’t made a greater effort to maintain the building. Although no groups in attendance made any offers to take over the building, some did verbalize their concerns with the building being torn down. 

Many members of the public were open with their outrage at seeing the building demolished, stating that the historic building was much too significant to be torn down. 

To demolish a building with such important emotional and historical significance for the students and alumni who have memories tied to the space is a huge loss for the USask community. However, safety and expenses are also big concerns for the University of Saskatchewan board of governors, who are deciding on what should happen to the building. The funding to demolish the building is significant, but the money needed to fix the building would be even greater. Some have suggested that if given the proper funding from a company or the Government of Saskatchewan, the building could be repaired and maintained.  

University management has presented a summary report with some financially viable uses for the space, however, no official plan for whether the building will be demolished or restored has been released yet.