News

The amount of financial aid supplied to students in order to marginalize tuition costs at Luther College has become unsustainable at its current rate.

Five of the past six incoming classes have included more students from Iowa’s northern neighbor than from within its own borders.

President Torgerson and the College Council began constructing Luther’s annual budget last month. From October to its approval in May, the budget will be reviewed by faculty, staff, administrators, Regents, and, for only the second time, the Student Senate.

In time, a dull patch of grass between the sidewalk and Valders could be transformed into an edible garden through the efforts of three environmental philosophy students.

Life can offer success even when great opportunities fall through. This was the message first-time author Gary Moore gave in his speech when he visited Luther Nov. 12. The address was followed by a book-signing at the Luther Book Shop.

Luther College President Richard Torgerson announced JoEllen Anderson and Steve Arneson as the recipients of the Luther Staff Excellence Award for 2009 at a ceremony held in conjunction with the college’s annual Staff Appreciation Day in August. The two staff members will get to travel with student groups on separate J-term trips.

Due to their economic uncertainties and successes at raising productivity with fewer workers, employers across the nation are holding off on hiring, even as the U.S. economy begins regaining some of its composure.

One of the multitude of differences between the new Sodexo-run cafeteria and the formerly Luther-run cafeteria is how often the cafeteria receives food shipments from various distributors. Under Sodexo’s direction, the cafeteria receives one shipment of food every Tuesday and Thursday.

Athletic apparel around Luther will soon sport new tags as the college enacts a campus-wide boycott of its previous main supplier, Russell Athletic. Luther decided to endorse the boycott after allegations surfaced concerning workers’ rights violations at Russell’s Honduras factories.

Renovation of the Miller and Dieseth residence halls has long been considered by students to be somewhat of a pipe dream and a foregone fantasy.

Over J-term, the first annual Oneota Film Festival will take place on campus, offering a selection of films relating to sustainability.

The films, ranging from feature-length films to short films, will be shown in three different venues on campus Jan. 22 and 23.

Sustainability Coordinator Dan Bellrichard talked about how the idea for the festival came about.

This Friday through Sunday Luther’s mock trial teams will compete at Macalester College’s (Minn.) invitational mock trial competition. The mock trial teams, led by Mitch Zoelzer (‘10), Allison Dahlberg (‘11) and Jonathan Grieder (‘12), recently competed amongst nine other teams in a competition held at Luther Oct. 24.

With initial cases of swine flu appearing a day or two before classes started, H1N1 moved in among the students and looked as though it was going to stay.

As the semester went on, cases of the virus appeared to have dropped and the college community began to wonder if the worst was over or yet to come.

Iowa Supreme Court Justice Mark Cady delivered a speech at Luther last Tuesday regarding Iowa’s legalization of same-sex marriage. Cady is the author of the unanimous majority opinion for the case, Varnum v. Brien, which legalized same-sex marriage in the state in April 2009.

Despite national economic hardships, staff and faculty will receive a one percent raise this year. The raise is smaller than in the past, but professors are not showing great concern.

“It’s tough times,” Walt Will, professor of computer sciences, said. “We’re in a recession. I can handle it.”