Saint Louis University

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Saint Louis University (also known as SLU) is a private, co-educational Catholic Jesuit university in the United States located in St. Louis, Missouri. It has a current enrollment of 11,823 students, making it the 4th largest Jesuit University in the United States. [link]

Contents

History

SLU was founded in 1818 as Saint Louis Academy and later taken over by the Society of Jesus, making it the oldest university west of the Mississippi River and the second oldest Jesuit college in the nation. (Only Georgetown University has been in existence longer). It is one of 28 member institutions of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities.

The first M.D. degree awarded west of the Mississippi was conferred by Saint Louis University in 1836.

During the early 1940s, many local priests, especially the Jesuits, began to challenge the segregationist policies at the city's Catholic colleges and parochial schools. Saint Louis University opened its doors to African Americans in 1943 after its president, Father Patrick Holloran, secured the approval of St. Louis Archbishop John J. Glennon.

For over thirty years the university has maintained a campus in Madrid, Spain with a student body of around 1000. The [Madrid campus] was the first freestanding campus operated by an American university in Europe and the first American institution to be recognized by Spain's higher education authority as an official foreign university.

DuBourg Hall serves as the administration building for St. Louis University.

Since 1953, the university has had a distinctive research resource in the [Vatican Film Library], created through initiatives taken by Fr. Lowrie Daly, S.J. and generously supported by the Knights of Columbus. External scholars are able to apply for [NEH Research Fellowships] to gain access to the microfilmed manuscript collections. These fellowships are administered by Saint Louis University's [Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies].

In the early 1970's, the campus was the site of an emerging new stream of Biblically-based liturgical music that has enjoyed a worldwide impact. The composers were known as The St. Louis Jesuits. After a twenty-year hiatus, they released a new album in the fall of 2005.

The university was ranked 78th by U.S. News & World Report in their list of the best U.S. colleges for 2006.

The University has long supported the arts, with several museums on campus including the [Museum of Contemporary Religious Art], the [Saint Louis University Museum of Art], and Cupples House.

Major Building and Renovation Projects

Edward A. Doisy Research Center

SLU is currently building a $67 million, 10-story tall research building that will connect to its Medical Campus Building. It is designed to be a green building and is named for Edward Adelbert Doisy, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine laureate of 1943 and a long-time faculty member at SLU's medical school.SLU Press Release:[SLU Research Building Named in Honor of Nobel Laureate Following $30 Million Gift] With improvements to other research building facilities, the total cost of the project is forecasted to be around $80 million.

On-Campus Arena

The planned multi-purpose arena, whose construction will begin on August 28, 2006, SLU Press Release:[Saint Louis University Announces Arena Groundbreaking Date] and is expected to cost $80 million, will contain more than 10,000 seats, a training facility, state of the art locker rooms, and a practice facility that can house an additional 1,000 spectators. It will be located on the eastern-most end of campus, just north of I-64. The arena will replace the Savvis Center as the University's primary location for large events, notably Commencement celebrations and varsity sports. It has yet to be named.

Recreation Center

Also beginning at the end of the Summer 2006 will be a massive renovation of the Simon Recreation Center. The overhaul, which was approved by SLU's Student Government Association on May 3, 2006, will convert a parking lot located under the building into additional workout space and be funded by an annual $100 fee to students. The project is expected to be completed by the end of the Fall semester 2006, with early estimates of its total cost hovering around $7 million.

Sports

The men's soccer team has won 10 national titles (1959-60, 1962-63, 1965, 1967, 1969-70, 1972-73), the most in NCAA Men's Soccer Championship history. SLU also holds the record for most NCAA Tournament appearances with 42. Several Billikens have gone on to play professionally, including Shane Battelle, Brad Davis, Vedad Ibisevic, Brian McBride, Matt McKeon, Dipsy Selolwane, Mike Sorber, Joe Clarke, Bob Madison, Jack Jewsbury, Tim Ward, and Will John. The soccer team plays at Hermann Stadium on campus. Legion 1818 is the official supporters group for the team.

The women's soccer program has also made great strides since its founding in 1996. Under the tutelage of coach Tim Champion, the Lady Billikens made their NCAA Tournament debut in 2005, knocking off Stanford before falling to perennial power Santa Clara in the second round.

In the 1948-1949 the Billikens were ranked first in the first AP basketball poll. Ed Macauley of the Basketball Hall of Fame and SLU won the NIT championship in 1948 and have played in that 18 times and the last time being 2004. Larry Hughes of the Cleveland Cavaliers played one season at SLU in the 1997-1998 season, where he was selected as the consensus national Freshman of the Year. They have made the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament in 1952, 1957, 1994, 1995, 1998, and 2000. The Billikens are currently coached by Brad Soderberg. Here is the List of Head Men's Basketball Coaches at Saint Louis University.

In 2006, the Billiken baseball team earned the program's first NCAA Tournament berth since 1966 by winning the Atlantic 10 Tournament. SLU’s most successful baseball team of all time was the 1965 squad, which qualified for the NCAA Tournament and advanced to the College World Series.

SLU has not had football since the late-1940s, although they did field a club level football squad during the late 1960s and early 1970s. SLU's football team threw the first legal forward pass in football history. Eddie Cochem, the St. Louis University coach, was the first to use the forward pass in 1906.They also had a hockey program for nearly the entire decade of the 1970s, until the program ended in 1980.

SLU currently plays their basketball games at the Savvis Center but is presently proceeding on development of a new 10,000-seat arena on the Frost campus which will bring games a lot closer to the resident student body. Construction will start by September 2006 and the arena should be ready for the 2008-2009 season.

The widespread NCAA conference realignment affected the Billikens, as they made the move from Conference USA (which was created by a merger between the Metro and Great Midwest Conferences) to the Atlantic 10 on July 1, 2005. This became the sixth conference affiliation for SLU since 1937. Through the years, SLU has been affiliated with the Missouri Valley Conference (1937-1974); the defunct Metro Conference (1975-1982); the Midwestern Collegiate Conference, now known as the Horizon League (1982-1991); and the defunct Great Midwest Conference (1991-1995).

Student Organizations

Saint Louis University has a large number of student organizations that cover a variety of interests: student government, club sports, organizations focused on media and publications, performing arts, religion and volunteerism and service. A current list can be found [here] on the university's website. One of the many groups include the Great Issues Committee, which brings speakers to the University's campus. Another is the Presidential Scholars Society, which is an undergraduate social organization and scholastic honor society whose members have received SLU's highest academic award, the Presidential Scholarship. Other student groups include:

Parks Guard - Military drill team that competes in Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps drill competitions and conducts honor guard ceremonies for local events

Greek Life

Saint Louis has 13 fraternities and five sororities on-campus.

Fraternities

Sororities

Housing

Saint Louis has both dormitory and apartment space on-campus. As part of the Freshman Year Experience (FYE) program, resident freshman students live in one of two freshman-only buildings for their first year, after which point they are able to live anyplace else on campus.

FYE Options

The Griesedieck Complex (also known as "Gries", pronounced "grease") contains 14 stories of living space in its main building, with additional dorm space in its two wings, Walsh and Clemens. Reinert Hall, named after Jesuit Father Paul C. Reinert, is located across the street from the main campus; sometimes referred to as "the Island," where the building lacks in location it makes up for in living space, containing some of the largest dormitories at SLU. Freshman Honors students can also choose to live at Notre Dame Hall, located on the South Quad.

Upperclassman Options

Several housing choices exist for sophomores, juniors and seniors. SLU does not have Greek houses on campus; however, DeMattais Hall acts as a Greek dormitory and de facto community House. Another dorm option is Fusz Hall, caddy-corner to the University's Clocktower. It contains a food court.

Grand Forest, the Village, and the Marchetti Towers are the apartment options available. Because of its proximity to the stadium, many student-athletes live in Grand Forest. Similarly, the Village, just across from DeMattias, houses many Greeks. The Village is also very close to the local SLU bars -- Humphrey's and Laclede's -- making it an especially popular location for juniors and seniors. The Marchetti Towers is just west of Grand Forest and consists of two, 12-story towers. It is very popular with sophomores coming out of FYE housing, though it also has a strong junior and senior population.

Notable moments

1903 -- Theodore Roosevelt attends a Latin disputation at Saint Louis University. It is a "Grand Act" (a defense covering Philosophy and Theology) given by Spanish Jesuit Fr. Joachim Villalonga in celebration of the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase.
1943 -- Professor of Biochemistry Edward Adelbert Doisy shares (with Henrik Dam) the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on Vitamin K, which he had isolated in a pure form in 1939.
Jesuit Priests from SLU assist a boy believed to suffer from demonic possession. The boy's experience serves as the basis of the documentary In The Grip Of Evil and was dramatized in the film The Exorcist.
1967 -- First lay incorporation of a Jesuit university in the United States. The membership of the Board of Trustees went from 13 Jesuit priests to 18 lay members and 10 Jesuits. Fr. Paul Reinert, S.J., yielded the chairmanship to Daniel L. Schlafly. (Reported in Time magazine, February 3, 1967: "A Louder Voice for Laymen.")
2003 -- The unranked SLU basketball team upsets #2 Louisville at the Savvis Center. Louisville had the nation's longest winning streak at the time.

Notable graduates

Academia

Michael J. Garanzini, S.J. (B.A. 1971) -- president of SLU student government in 1969-1970 is now president of Loyola University of Chicago (since 2001).
Walter J. Ong, S.J. (M.A. 1941) -- world-class thinker, lecturer, author, known today as an honorary guru among technophiles.

The Arts

Richard Dooling (B.A. 1976; J.D. 1987) -- lawyer and author of four novels: Critical Care; White Man's Grave; Brain Storm; Bet Your Life.
James Gunn (B.A. 1992) -- Film Director (Slither), Screenwriter (Dawn of the Dead, Scooby-Doo), and Novelist (The Toy Collector)
Andreas Katsulas (B.A.) -- Actor, The Fugitive, Babylon 5
David Merrick (J.D. 1937) -- Broadway producer.

Politics

Enrique Bolaños (B.A. 1962) -- President of Nicaragua.
Freeman Bosley, Jr. (B.A. 1976; J.D. 1979) -- St. Louis, Missouri's first African-American mayor.
Jack Buechner (J.D. 1965) -- U.S. Congressman, Missouri (1987-1991).
William Lacy Clay, Sr. (B.S. 1953) -- U.S. Congressman, Missouri (1969-2001).
Robert Emmett Hannegan (1903-1949) (J.D. 1925) -- Commissioner of U.S. Internal Revenue (1943-1945); Chairman, Democratic National Committee (1944-1947); U.S. Postmaster General (Truman administration, 1945-1947); President, St, Louis Cardinals (1947-1949)
Francis Slay, (J.D. 1980) -- Forty-fifth mayor of the City of St. Louis.
Joseph P. Teasdale, J.D., former Governor of Missouri

Science

Gene Kranz (B.S. 1954) -- lead NASA flight director during the Apollo 11 moon landing and leader of the Apollo 13 rescue mission.

Sports

Pat Leahy -- played soccer at SLU but was a placekicker for the New York Jets from 1974 to 1990
Ed Macauley (1949) -- NBA Hall of Famer
Brian McBride -- Only American to score in more than one FIFA World Cup tournament, doing so once in 1998 vs. Iran, and again in 2002. He is also SLU's alltime leading goalscorer. Until 2003, he held the freshman scoring record, until that was taken by Vedad Ibisevic.
Jerry Trupiano -- Red Sox Radio Broadcaster

Miscellaneous

Thomas J. Farrell (B.A. 1966; M.A. 1968; Ph.D. 1974) -- "Man of the Year" according to the SLU student newspaper in May 1969 is the author of Walter Ong's Contributions to Cultural Studies (2000) and senior editor (with Paul A. Soukup, S.J.; SLU B.A. 1973) of An Ong Reader (2002).
John Kaiser, M.H.M. (B.A. 1960) -- Mill Hill Missionary died under suspicious circumstances while serving in Kenya. Received an Award for Distinguished Service in the Promotion of Human Rights from the Law Society of Kenya prior to his death.
Trafford P. Maher, S.J. (B.A. 1937; M.A. 1939) -- with a grant from the American Jewish Committee, researched material that was used by the Second Vatican Council in documents on ecumenism and relationships with non-Christians.
Sister Rose Thering, O.P. (Ph.D. 1961) -- Dominican nun whose campaign against anti-Semitism in Catholic textbooks is the subject of the Oscar-nominated 39-minute documentary film directed by Oren Jacoby, Sister Rose's Passion.

External links

Citations

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