Loyola University New Orleans is a private Jesuit university in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Originally established as Loyola College in 1904, the institution was chartered as a university in 1912. It bears the name of the Jesuit founder, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, and is a member of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities.
History
Founding
In the early 18th century, Jesuits first arrived among the earliest settlers in New Orleans and Louisiana.
Loyola University in New Orleans was founded by the Society of Jesus in 1904 as Loyola College on a section of the Foucher Plantation bought by the Jesuits in 1886. A young Jesuit, Albert Biever, was given a nickel for street car fare and told by his Jesuit superiors to travel Uptown on the St. Charles Streetcar and found a university. As with many Jesuit schools, it contained both a college and preparatory academy. The first classes of Loyola College were held in a residence behind Most Holy Name of Jesus Church. Biever was the first president. The first of Loyola's permanent buildings was undertaken in 1907, with Marquette Hall completed in 1910.
In 1911, the Jesuit schools in New Orleans were reorganized. The College of the Immaculate Conception, founded in 1847 in downtown New Orleans, split its high school and college divisions and became solely a secondary institution, now known as Jesuit High School. Loyola was designated as the collegiate institution and was chartered as Loyola University on July 10, 1912.
Growth
Loyola grew steadily over the years on its uptown campus. By the end of its first decade, the university not only included the College of Arts and Sciences, but also a School of Law (1914), a School of Dentistry (1914), and a College of Pharmacy (1919).
Several years later, a School of Music was added to the growing curriculum. At the time, the university's campus consisted mainly of Marquette and Bobet Halls, with large athletic fields extending back towards the end of the campus at Freret St. Loyola has the distinction of transmitting the first radio broadcast in the Deep South, when WWL began operation as a laboratory experiment on March 31, 1922.
With the discontinuance of the football program in the 1930s, more space became available for construction of new facilities. Stallings Hall, built for the College Of Business Administration, and the Memorial Library (now known as the "Old Library") were constructed in the post World War II years, accommodating the growth of the student population.
Norman Francis entered the Law School in 1952, becoming the first African-American admitted to the university.
More expansion continued in 1964, with the addition of the Joseph A. Danna Student Center; Albert Biever Hall, a student residence hall named after the first university president; and a central heating/cooling plant. Built soon after in 1967 was Henrietta Buddig Hall, a student residence that is Loyola's tallest building at twelve stories. The last building to be added in the 1960s was the J. Edgar Monroe Science Building (now known as Monroe Hall), the largest academic building erected to date.
The College of Pharmacy closed in 1965. The School of Dentistry closed in 1971.LSU School of Dentistry Our History
During the 1970s, Loyola began to make many changes, especially regarding Jesuit governance and in the academic curriculum, reflective of many universities during the same period. Reflecting the precedent for reform established by Vatican II, governance of the university shifted from a Jesuit regulated Board of Regents to a combined lay and clerical board of trustees. During this period, the Common Curriculum was developed to give students a wide breadth of knowledge in certain core areas, including Science, Math, History, and English studies. A broader trend was seen in the growth of the university during this period, seeing it gradually transform from a regional, largely commuter college to a higher national profile school that attracted students from across the United States.
In 1984 Loyola purchased the facilities of St. Mary's Dominican College, a nearby Catholic women's college which was closing down, and transformed it into the Broadway campus (after the name of its street location). Today, the Broadway campus includes Loyola's School of Law, Cabra Residence Hall, and a Department of Visual Arts.
Expansion in recent years has seen the addition of Mercy Hall, purchased in 1993, a former girl's preparatory academy; construction of Carrollton Hall, an upperclassman residence; and the J. Edgar and Louise S. Monroe Library, the latter two completed in 1999.
In 1996, the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities granted exclusive branding rights to Loyola University Chicago to call itself "Loyola University". This resulted in Loyola New Orleans' current trademark, Loyola University New Orleans.
Hurricane Katrina and aftermath
In August 2005, Loyola closed its campus and evacuated its students in anticipation of Hurricane Katrina. The campus sustained minimal wind damage including broken windows but floodwaters did not breach any buildings. Due to the devastation of the city of New Orleans, Loyola canceled classes for the fall 2005 semester. Following cleanup, classes resumed with the start of the spring 2006 semester on Monday, January 9, 2006. Despite the displacement of the entire student body during the fall 2005 semester, 91 percent of Loyola's undergraduate students returned for the spring 2006 semester. Loyola held commencement ceremonies for the Class of 2006 on April 28–29, becoming the first New Orleans college to do so post-Katrina.
On April 10, 2006, president Kevin Wm. Wildes unveiled Pathways - Toward Our Second Century, Loyola's strategic post-Katrina plan. The plan restructured the university's colleges and eliminated several academic programs and faculty positions to reduce operating costs and revitalize the university. The board of trustees unanimously approved and passed the plan on May 19, 2006. In response, the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences produced a vote of no-confidence in both President Wildes and Provost Walter Harris. In fall 2006, Loyola welcomed the class of 2010, the first post-Katrina freshman class, with 555 new students. Since the storm, Loyola has completed all physical repairs that were caused by the hurricane; and its enrollment is on a steady rise to pre-Katrina numbers.
The student-run online news service, Pack News, was established in 2012. Pack News marks the return of video-based journalism since the broadcast program was eliminated in 2007 with the university-wide Pathways elimination program after Hurricane Katrina.
Local chapters of the Alpha Delta Gamma fraternity, which opened in 1932, and the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, which opened in 1983, were closed during 2012. In 2018, President Wildes announced his intention to resign as president of the university. He was succeeded by Tania Tetlow on May 2, 2018.
In 2018, after years of financial problems, the school was placed on probation by its accreditor, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.
There have been seventeen presidents since the establishment of Loyola College in 1904, including Michael F. Kennelly (1970–1974), William J. Byron (2003-2004 (acting)), and Kevin Wm. Wildes (2004–2018). Tania Tetlow, who became president in 2018, was the university's first lay president; all of her predecessors were Jesuit priests.
University seal The seal, which was adopted by the university in 1929, features the coat of arms of the house of Loyola with the emblem of the Society of Jesus at the top. Central to the seal are two wolves and a golden pot, which come from St. Ignatius Loyola's family crest and symbolize generosity (having enough to give to the wolves.) Above the figures of the wolves appears the fleur-de-lis, which represents the French origin of New Orleans and Louisiana. Beneath it is a pelican feeding its young with her own blood; this ancient symbol of Christianity (Christ feeding the Church with his body and blood through the Eucharist) depicts Loyola as an institution of the state of Louisiana.
Academics
The university enrolls 5,000 students, including 3,000 undergraduates. The student to faculty ratio is 11 to 1. The Princeton Review featured Loyola New Orleans in the 2010 edition of its annual book, The Best 371 Colleges. Loyola University New Orleans ranked 10th of the South regional universities in the 2017 U.S. News & World Report Best College Ranking. The New York-based education services company says Loyola New Orleans offers students an outstanding undergraduate education.
Loyola professors have been recognized nationally and internationally by the Pulitzer Committee, the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and by numerous other associations.
Colleges Loyola is organized into colleges specializing in the liberal arts, social and physical sciences and certain professions. The colleges at Loyola include: College of Arts and Sciences The Joseph A. Butt, S.J., College of Business College of Music and Fine Arts College of Law College of Nursing and Health
College of Arts and Sciences The College of Arts and Sciences focuses on areas concerning the natural sciences, social sciences, and liberal arts programs. Students have been awarded British Marshall, Fulbright, Goldwater, Mellon, Mitchell, and Rhodes scholarships and have been included as USA Todays top students.
Joseph A. Butt, S.J., College of Business The College of Business began as an outgrowth of the College of Arts and Sciences and became a full-fledged college in 1947. In 1983, the College of Business was renamed in honor of Joseph A. Butt, a longtime Jesuit professor in the business college. The College of Business is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).
College of Music and Fine Arts The College of Music was established when the New Orleans Conservatory of Music and Dramatic Art, which was founded by Ernest Schuyten in 1919, was incorporated into the university in 1932. It is the only Jesuit college of music in the United States. In April 2007, the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance announced its relocation to the College of Music and Fine Arts from the campus of the University of Southern California. The music industry program was one of the first in the country and it combines both the performing and technical aspects of the music business.
College of Law
Loyola's law school opened in 1914. Co-located for many years on the main campus of Loyola, the Law School moved to the new Broadway campus in 1986, after Loyola purchased the closed campus of St. Mary's Dominican College in 1984.
College of Nursing and Health The College of Nursing and Health is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE). It also includes the Loyola Institute for Ministry.
Centers and institutes The university houses institutes in many different disciplines: Twomey Center for Peace Through Justice Jesuit Social Research Institute (JSRI) Center for Environmental Communications Center for the Study of Catholics in the South Gillis Long Poverty Law Center Jesuit Center Lindy Boggs National Center for Community Literacy Loyola Institute of Politics Loyola Institute for Ministry (LIM) Shawn M. Donnelley Center for Nonprofit Communications
Jesuit Social Research Institute 'The esuit Social Research Institute (JSRI) is a joint effort of Loyola University New Orleans and the Society of Jesus Central and Southern Province, originating in 2007. Its main efforts are in the areas of research, policy analysis, and advocacy for justice, especially with regard to poverty, immigration, and racism issues.