Comprising thirteen colleges and schools, Loyola offers more than 80 undergraduate and 140 graduate/professional programs and enrolls approximately 17,000 students.[5] Loyola has six campuses across the Chicago metropolitan area, as well as a campus in Rome. Another guest program in Beijing was closed in 2018.[6] The flagship Lake Shore Campus is on the shores of Lake Michigan in the Rogers Park and Edgewater neighborhoods of Chicago, just over seven miles north of the Loop.
Loyola's athletic teams, nicknamed the Ramblers, compete in NCAA Division I as members of the Atlantic 10 Conference.[7] Loyola won the 1963 NCAA men's basketball championship and remains the only school from Illinois to do so.[8] The Ramblers are also two-time (2014, 2015) NCAA champions in men's volleyball.[9]
On June 30, 1870, Jesuit priest and educator Arnold Damen established St. Ignatius College.[10] At that time, Chicago was a much smaller, but rapidly growing city just shy of 300,000 people, and as a result, the original campus was much closer to the city center, along Roosevelt Road. In 1909, the school was renamed Loyola University, and in 1912, it began to move to the Lake Shore Campus; today the original building is part of St. Ignatius College Prep, adjacent to the University of Illinois at Chicago.
To meet the growing needs of Chicago, Loyola established professional schools in law (1908), medicine (1909), business (1922), and nursing (1935). The Chicago College of Dental Surgery became part of the university in 1923, and closed 70 years later. A downtown campus was founded in 1914, and with it, the School of Sociology. As the predecessor to the School of Social Work, it enrolled Loyola's first female students, though the school did not become fully coeducational until 1966. Loyola Academy, a college prep high school, occupied Dumbach Hall on the Lake Shore Campus, until it moved to Wilmette in 1957.
The current Water Tower Campus opened in 1949. In 1962, Loyola opened a campus in Rome, near the site of the 1960 Summer Olympics. In 1969, Loyola established the School of Education and consolidated medical programs at the Loyola University Medical Center, a hospital and health care complex in Maywood, a neighboring suburb of Chicago. The university legally separated from the Jesuits in 1970, and today is under lay control and governed by a board of trustees. [citation needed] Loyola purchased neighboring Mundelein College in 1991.
Mundelein Center
Major capital campaigns, since the turn of the century, have greatly enhanced Loyola's academic profile and campuses.[11][12] In 2005, the Loyola University Museum of Art was established on the Water Tower Campus, and the Rome campus was renamed in honor of Director Emeritus John P. Felice. In 2009, the Cuneo Foundation presented the university with the Cuneo Mansion and Gardens,[13] a 100-acre estate with an Italianate mansion and extensive collections of art and furnishings in Vernon Hills. The $50 million gift is the largest in Loyola history.
In 2010, Loyola purchased the Resurrection Retreat Center in Woodstock for retreats and ecological study, allowing the site to become the school's fifth campus. In 2012, Loyola alumnus Michael R. Quinlan donated $40 million to the business school, which was renamed in his honor. During this time, over 200,000 square feet of LEED-certified sustainable spaces have been built on the Lake Shore Campus , along with significant mixed-use developments on the Water Tower Campus.
Loyola ranks among the top 120 universities in the nation,[14] and is currently undergoing over $800 million in capital construction projects.[12] In 2015, the university established Arrupe College, a uniquely structured two-year college designed to give low-income students access to a Loyola education.[15]
On May 23, 2016, Loyola named Jo Ann Rooney its 24th president. She is the school's first female president.
Campuses
Lake Shore Campus
Cudahy Library
Loyola's flagship Lake Shore Campus is on the shores of Lake Michigan in the Rogers Park and Edgewater neighborhoods on Chicago's north side, about seven and a half miles north of the Loop.[16] Founded in 1912, it is the school's primary residential campus and the home of the College of Arts and Sciences and a variety of graduate programs. With over 40 buildings, the campus offers green space and lakeshore access, as well as several landmarks:
The Madonna della Strada Chapel, an Art Deco masterpiece completed in 1939, is the center of Loyola's religious life. The Mundelein Center, a 200-foot tall Art Deco skyscraper completed in 1930, is the home of Loyola's fine and performing arts programs and a National Historical Landmark.[17] The Joseph J. Gentile Arena, which holds 5,500 for basketball, volleyball, and campus events, was recently expanded to include the Norville Center, a student-athlete academic center and home of Rambler athletics. One of the largest events held annually in Gentile Arena is Colossus, which features a musical artist and comedian. Artists, including Jason Derulo and John Mulaney, have performed for Colossus. The Halas Recreation Center was remodeled and incorporated into the sprawling new Damen Student Center, the heart of campus social life.
Cudahy Science Hall
The E.M. Cudahy Memorial Library contains over 900,000 volumes and 3,600 periodical subscriptions,[18] and in 2008, was expanded to include the Information Commons, an academic and social space with glass curtain walls that offer unparalleled views of the lake and campus. Science education and research takes place in the Quinlan Life Sciences building and the Institute of Environmental Sustainability, a multipurpose complex that includes academic space, a residence hall, a greenhouse, and the largest geothermal energy facility in Chicago.[19]
The Lake Shore Campus is connected to the Chicago "L" via the Loyola station on the CTA Red Line. Red Line trains pass north-bound to the Howard terminus and south-bound to the Loop and South Side. Purple Line trains pass by the Loyola CTA station, but do not stop.
Sustainability
Loyola's various environmental efforts have reduced university energy use by 33% since 1998.[20] Loyola has three LEED Silver certified buildings and four LEED Gold certified buildings, with all future construction to be LEED certified as well. Loyola has more green roofs than any college in the Midwest, which includes both new and renovated buildings. In 2014, Loyola placed 4th nationally (and 1st in Illinois) in the Sierra Club's ranking of America's Greenest Colleges.[21]
Water Tower Campus
The Water Tower Campus opened in 1949, along a stretch of Michigan Avenue today known as the Magnificent Mile, and is named after the Chicago Water Tower, a city landmark that survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. It is the home of the Quinlan School of Business, the School of Law, the School of Education, the School of Continuing and Professional Studies, the School of Social Work, the School of Communication, the Institute of Pastoral Studies, and Arrupe College, as well as a selection of classes from programs based elsewhere.
The Chicago Water Tower, a city landmark and the downtown campus' namesake
Dominated by mixed-use skyscrapers, campus buildings include the Corboy Law Center, Terry Student Center, Baumhart Hall, and landmark Lewis Towers, built in 1945 as the Illinois Catholic Women's Club,[22] and today home of the Office of the President and the Loyola University Museum of Art. Recent construction includes the School of Communication which occupies the basement, first, and second floors of The Clare, a 587-foot tower that serves as a retirement community, and the LEED-certified John and Kathy Schreiber Center, which opened in 2015 as the new home of the Quinlan School of Business.[23]
The Water Tower Campus is also connected to the 'L' via the Chicago station on the CTA Red Line. Students can travel between Water Tower Campus and Lakeshore Campus on a school-sponsored shuttle during the week.
Health Sciences Campus
Founded in 1969, along with the Loyola University Medical Center, the Health Sciences Campus in Maywood is the home of the Stritch School of Medicine, the Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing, and several programs that are part of the School of Continuing and Professional Studies. Maywood is a nearby western suburb of Chicago, approximately eleven miles from the Loop.
Loyola University Medical Center comprises the main hospital, Loyola Outpatient Center, Ronald McDonald Children's Hospital, Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center, and several medical office and laboratory buildings. In 2011, the medical center was sold to Trinity Health, while Loyola continues to own and operate the academic buildings and select research facilities on campus.[24]
In 2017, Loyola expanded its accelerated nursing program to an online-based format with lab in Downers Grove.[25]
John Felice Rome Center
Loyola's permanent campus in Rome opened in 1962 at Casa Italiana Viaggi Internazionali Studenti (C.I.V.I.S.), a dormitory originally built to host athletes during the 1960 Summer Olympics. In 1978, the campus moved to its current location on Monte Mario, approximately two miles northwest of Vatican City. The campus is the home of the oldest American university program in Italy,[26] and hosts students from both Loyola and other universities seeking to study abroad. In 2005, the campus was renamed in honor of founder and Director Emeritus John P. Felice.[27]
Additional campuses
In 2010, Loyola founded the Retreat and Ecology Campus on the former site of the Resurrection Retreat Center in Woodstock, Illinois, an outer suburb approximately fifty miles northwest of Chicago.[28] The campus houses the university's campus ministry programs, and offers a unique learning opportunity for students and faculty interested in the sciences. The property contains 20 acres (8 ha) of natural habitat that includes ponds, streams, woods, and prairie.
Loyola also owns and operates the Cuneo Mansion and Gardens in suburban Vernon Hills, Illinois, approximately thirty miles north of Chicago. The mansion and grounds were donated to the university in 2009, by the John and Herta Cuneo Foundation. The estate operates as a museum and hosts special events and a growing number of academic programs in business, education and law.
For the 2022–2023 academic year, undergraduate tuition for new full-time students was $50,270 per year, not including room, board and fees, including the CTA student transit 'U-Pass', Student Activity Fee, Technology Fee and mandatory health insurance.[38] Graduate school tuition varies, depending on the school.
Rankings and demographics
Loyola University Chicago was ranked 115th among "National Universities" according to the 2019 U.S. News & World Report college rankings.
A statue of Ignatius of Loyola was dedicated in 2000 and sits outside Cuneo Hall.
Religious education
Loyola's Department of Theology offers undergraduate and graduate courses in the study of systematic theology, ethics, and Biblical studies, offering a diverse set of classes that are not limited to religious studies in a Catholic context.
Loyola hosts a Jesuit First Studies Program, one of three in the country, with Fordham University and Saint Louis University housing the other two. During a three-year period in the program, Jesuit Scholastics and Brothers generally study philosophy and some theology. First Studies is one part of an eleven-year formation process toward the Jesuit priesthood. This program is administered by the Midwest Province of the Society of Jesus.
Until 2019, Loyola also hosted Saint Joseph College Seminary, which served the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago and provided vocational training to candidates for the diocesan priesthood. Loyola University also provided religious education for those seeking careers in lay ministry with the Loyola University Institute of Pastoral Studies, as well as degree opportunities in interdisciplinary Catholic studies.
Schools and colleges
Loyola Chicago is composed of the following schools and colleges:
Parkinson School of Health Sciences and Public Health
School of Environmental Sustainability
Student life
Students at the John Felice Rome Center, Rome, Italy
Residential life
Most of the residence halls and apartments managed by Loyola's Department of Residence Life are in the Rogers Park and Edgewater neighborhoods, surrounding the Lake Shore Campus. One, Baumhart Hall, is at the Water Tower Campus on the Magnificent Mile in Chicago. Most of Loyola's residence halls are named after other Jesuit colleges and universities.
First-year students may live in one of the following residences on the Lake Shore campus: Campion Hall, Francis Hall (for first year students of the Interdisciplinary Honors Program), de Nobili Hall, Mertz Hall, Regis Hall, San Francisco Hall, and the Simpson Living Learning Center (Simpson Hall). Simpson, Mertz, and de Nobili Halls are located above dining halls that serve these buildings and the halls surrounding them. Residence halls on the north side of campus are served by a dining hall and food court in the Damen Student Center. First- and second-year students are required to live in on-campus housing.
Third- and fourth-year students are permitted to choose from fifteen residences at the Lake Shore campus: Bellarmine, Canisius, Fairfield, Fordham, Georgetown, LeMoyne, Marquette, Marquette South, Messina, Regis, Saint Louis, Santa Clara, Seattle, Spring Hill and Xavier Halls. Santa Clara Hall is on Loyola Avenue, with views of Lake Michigan. Upperclassmen can also choose to live in Baumhart Hall, located at 26 E. Pearson, just a block from the Magnificent Mile in downtown Chicago. It is a 25-floor apartment-style residence for upperclassmen and graduate students at Loyola University. Students living in Baumhart and taking classes on the Water Tower Campus have access to two dining facilities: Nina's Cafe (in the Corboy Law Center) and LU's Old-Fashioned Deli and Pub (in the Terry Student Center).
Loyola University owned and operated a low-power, carrier current radio station, WLUC-AM, in the 1960s. Students broadcast an eclectic music format on 600 kHz to Lake Shore Campus buildings and the surrounding Rogers Park neighborhood. The station had a well-equipped studio in a University-owned Student Life house on Loyola Avenue. The structure was demolished to make way for the Crown Center for the Humanities.
WLUC-AM was replaced by an on-air FM station, WLUW, in the 1970s.[41]
NCAA Division I National Championships (3):
1963 Men's Basketball, 2014 Men's Volleyball, 2015 Men's Volleyball
Loyola is home to 11 varsity teams, most of which compete in NCAA Division I. The teams include men and women's basketball, cross country, men and women's golf, men and women's soccer, softball, track, and men and women's volleyball. The nickname "Ramblers" was first applied to Loyola's football team in 1926, because they frequently traveled throughout the United States.[42]
The LU Wolf is the mascot for the university. He was inspired by the coat of arms of St. Ignatius of Loyola, from whom Loyola derives its name, which depicts two wolves standing over a kettle. Taken from the heraldic crest carved in the lintel on St. Ignatius' family home in Azpeitia, Spain, the wolves and cauldron refer to the prosperity and generosity of the Loyola family, who, after feeding family, retainers and soldiers, had enough food to feed even the wild animals.
Loyola's men's basketball team, the Ramblers, won the 1963 national championship. Loyola is the only Division I NCAA school in Illinois to have won a national title in men's basketball.[43] In 2018, they finished the NCAA tournament with the all-time highest win percentage of any team to have ever competed in the tournament. Loyola placed slightly ahead of Duke University.[44]
The publicity surrounding Loyola's tournament run generated an estimated $300 million in publicity for the school.[50]
In October 2018, the Loyola Ramblers Women's Soccer team won the Missouri Valley Conference regular season title with 6–1 win over Evansville. The win gave the Ramblers their first Missouri Valley Conference regular season title in program history.[51]
In November 2021 Loyola announced that it would join the Atlantic 10 conference in 2022.
