Saint Louis University (SLU) is a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

Jesuit

research university A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are the most important sites at which knowledge production occurs, along with "intergenerational kno ...

with campuses in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, whic ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

, and

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), an ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' ( Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

. Founded in 1818 by

Louis William Valentine DuBourg Louis William Valentine DuBourg (french: Louis-Guillaume-Valentin DuBourg; 10 January 1766 – 12 December 1833) was a French Catholic prelate and Sulpician missionary to the United States. He built up the church in the vast new Louisiana Territ ...

, it is the oldest university west of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it ...

and the second-oldest Jesuit university in the United States. It is one of 27 member institutions of the

Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities The Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) is a consortium of the 28 Jesuit colleges and universities and three theological centers in the United States, Canada, and Belize committed to advancing academic excellence by promoting an ...

. The university is accredited by the

North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools The North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA), also known as the North Central Association, was a membership organization, consisting of colleges, universities, and schools in 19 U.S. states engaged in educational accreditation. It ...

. In the 2021–2022 academic year, SLU had an enrollment of 12,883 students. The student body included 8,138 undergraduate students and 4,745 graduate students that represents all 50 states and 82 countries. The university is classified as a Research II university by the

Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, or simply the Carnegie Classification, is a framework for classifying colleges and universities in the United States. It was created in 1970 by the Carnegie Foundation for the Adv ...

. For more than 50 years, the university has maintained a campus in Madrid, Spain. 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. The campus has 850 students, a faculty of 110, an average class size of 17 and a student-faculty ratio of 12:1. Of the 12,883 students, 788 study at the Madrid Campus which also represents students from 45 of the 82 total countries students are from. SLU's athletic teams compete in the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athlete, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic sports, ...

's Division I and are a member of the

Atlantic 10 Conference The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I. The A-10's member schools are located in states mostly on the United States Easte ...

History

Early years

Saint Louis University traces its origins to the Saint Louis Academy, founded on November 16, 1818, by the Most Reverend

, Bishop of Louisiana and the Floridas, and placed under the charge of the Reverend François Niel and others of the secular clergy attached to the Saint Louis Cathedral. Its first location was in a private residence near the Mississippi River in an area now occupied by the

Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Gateway Arch National Park is an American national park located in St. Louis, Missouri, near the starting point of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The memorial was established to commemorate: *the Louisiana Purchase and subsequent westward mo ...

within the

Archdiocese of St. Louis The Archdiocese of St. Louis ( la, Archidiœcesis Sancti Ludovici) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church that covers the City of St. Louis and the Missouri counties of Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln, Perr ...

. Already having a two-story building for the 65 students using Bishop Dubourg's personal library of 8,000 volumes for its printed materials, the name Saint Louis Academy was changed in 1820 to Saint Louis College (while the secondary school division remained Saint Louis Academy, now known as

St. Louis University High School St. Louis University High School (SLUH) is a Jesuit Catholic high school for boys. Founded in 1818, it is the oldest secondary educational institution in the U.S. west of the Mississippi River, and one of the largest private high schools in Miss ...

). In 1827 Bishop Dubourg placed Saint Louis College in the care of the Society of Jesus. Not long after that, it received its charter as a university by act of the Missouri Legislature. Old_Saint_Louis_University_Location

University beginnings and American Civil War

In 1829, the new university moved its campus to Washington Avenue and Ninth, today the site of

America's Center America's Center is a convention center located in downtown St. Louis, Missouri, and is situated next to the Dome at America's Center, the former home of the National Football League's St. Louis Rams (now the Los Angeles Rams) and the curren ...

. At this time, the founders forced enslaved

Black Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

from their St. Stanislaus Seminary in Hazelwood to labor at the university. In 1852 the university and its teaching priests were the subject of an anti-Catholic novel, ''The Mysteries of St. Louis'', which was written by newspaper editor

Henry Boernstein Henry Boernstein n Europe, Heinrich Börnstein(November 4, 1805 – September 10, 1892) was a German revolutionary who served as the publisher of the ''Anzeiger des Westens'' in St. Louis, Missouri, the oldest German newspaper west of the M ...

. Boernstein's popular newspaper, ''

Anzeiger des Westens The ''Anzeiger des Westens'' (literally "Gazette of the West") was the first German-language newspaper in St. Louis, Missouri, and, along with the ''Westliche Post'' and the ''Illinois Staats-Zeitung'', one of the three most successful German-langu ...

'', routinely criticized the university.''Catholicism and American Freedom,'',

John McGreevy John T. McGreevy (born 1963) is an American historian who has been serving as Charles and Jill Fischer Provost of the University of Notre Dame since July 1, 2022. He was formerly the dean of the College of Arts & Letters at the University of N ...

Norton and Co., New York 2003, p. 22-23. In 1867, after the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by state ...

, the university purchased "Lindell's Grove", in what is now Midtown. The university subsequently moved to this new location, which is the current site of today's north campus. Lindell's Grove was the site of the Camp Jackson Affair, which had occurred only a few years prior to the university's purchase. The first building on campus, DuBourg Hall, began construction in 1888, and the college officially moved to its new location in 1889. Construction of the new

St. Francis Xavier College Church St. Francis Xavier College Church is a Catholic church in the Midtown neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri, United States. The church was built by the Society of Jesus in 1836: the current building dates from 1884. It serves as a parish church i ...

began on 8 June 1884. The basement of the church was completed later that year and was the location for liturgical functions until the upper church was subsequently completed in 1898.

20th century and shift to majority lay board of trustees

During the early 1940s, many local priests, especially the Jesuits, began to challenge the

segregationist Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crime against humanity under the Statute of the Interna ...

policies at the city's Catholic colleges and parochial schools. After the ''

Pittsburgh Courier The ''Pittsburgh Courier'' was an African-American weekly newspaper published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the mo ...

'', an African-American newspaper, ran a 1944 exposé on St. Louis Archbishop

John J. Glennon John Joseph Glennon (June 14, 1862 – March 9, 1946) was a prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, serving as Archbishop of St. Louis from 1903 until his death in 1946. He was elevated to the cardinalate in 1946. Early life and ministry John Glen ...

's interference with the admittance of a black student at the local

Webster College Webster University is a private university with its main campus in Webster Groves, Missouri. It has List of Webster University campus locations, multiple branch locations across the United States and countries across Europe, Asia, and Africa. I ...

, Fr. Claude Heithaus, SJ, professor of Classical Archaeology at Saint Louis University, delivered an angry homily accusing his own institution of immoral behavior in its segregation policies. By summer of 1944, Saint Louis University had opened its doors to

African-Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

, after its president, Father Patrick Holloran, secured Glennon's reluctant approval . In 1967, Saint Louis University became one of the first Catholic universities to give laypeople more power over the affairs of the school. Board chairman Fr. Paul Reinert, SJ, stepped aside to be replaced by layman Daniel Schlafly, and the board shifted to an 18 to 10 majority of laypeople. This was largely because of ''Horace Mann vs. the Board of Public Works of Maryland,'' a landmark case heard by the

Maryland Court of Appeals The Supreme Court of Maryland is the highest court of the U.S. state of Maryland. Its name was changed on December 14, 2022, from the Maryland Court of Appeals, after a voter-approved change to the state constitution. The court, which is composed ...

, which declared unconstitutional grants to "largely sectarian" colleges. The

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st Catholic ecumenical councils, ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions) ...

has also been mentioned as a major influence on this decision for its increased focus on the laity, as well as the decreased recruitment of nuns and priests since the council. From 1985 to 1992 the chairman of the Board of Trustees was

William H. T. Bush William Henry Trotter Bush, CStJ (July 14, 1938 – February 27, 2018) was an American banker and businessman. A scion of the Bush family, he was the youngest son of US Senator Prescott Sheldon Bush and Dorothy Walker Bush, the youngest br ...

(younger brother of former president

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; p ...

). The younger Bush also taught classes at the school. Since the move to lay oversight, there has been some debate over how much influence the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

should have on the affairs of the university. The decision by the university to sell its hospital to

Tenet Healthcare Tenet Healthcare Corporation is a for-profit multinational healthcare services company based in Dallas, Texas, United States. Through its brands, subsidiaries, joint ventures, and partnerships, including United Surgical Partners International (U ...

in 1997 met much resistance by both local and national Church leaders, but went ahead as planned. In 2015, the Catholic SSM Health system assumed operation of Saint Louis University hospital. A $500 million rebuilding of the hospital and construction of a new ambulatory care center was completed in 2020.

Timeline of notable events

* 1818 – First institution of higher learning west of the Mississippi River * 1832 – First graduate programs west of the Mississippi River * 1836 – First medical school west of the Mississippi River * 1843 – First in the West to open a school of law * 1906 – First forward pass in football history * 1908 – First women students admitted * 1910 – First business school west of the Mississippi River * 1925 – First department of geophysics in the Western Hemisphere * 1927 – First federally licensed school of aviation * 1929 – First woman PhD graduate, Mother Marie Kernaghan * 1944 – First university in Missouri to establish an official policy admitting African-American students, integrating its student body * 1949 – First co-ed classes, in the College of Arts and Sciences * 1956 – Marguerite Hall, first women's hall of residence, opens. * 1959 – First dual credit program west of the Mississippi, named the 1818 Project and now known as the 1818 Advanced College Credit Program * 1967 – First major Catholic university to give lay and clergy people combined legal responsibility for institutional policy on its board of trustees. * 1972 – First human heart transplant in Missouri * 2013 – First

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

(Ph.D.) degree in aviation in the world awarded

Campus

SLU's campus in

Midtown, St. Louis Midtown is a neighborhood in St. Louis, Missouri. It is located west of the city riverfront at the intersection of Grand and Lindell Boulevards. It is home to the campus of Saint Louis University and the Grand Center Arts District. Historic sta ...

consists of over of land, with 129 buildings on campus. This area is split between two locations along Grand Boulevard. The north campus (or Frost Campus), located just north of

I-64 Interstate 64 (I-64) is an east–west Interstate Highway in the Eastern United States. Its western terminus is at I-70, U.S. Route 40 (US 40), and US 61 in Wentzville, Missouri. Its eastern terminus is at an interchange ...

, is the site of most undergraduate learning, and is also home to the university's

residence hall A dormitory (originated from the Latin word ''dormitorium'', often abbreviated to dorm) is a building primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people such as boarding school, high school, college or university ...

s. The south campus, located just south of Chouteau Avenue, is the site of the

Saint Louis University Hospital Saint Louis University Hospital (SLU Hospital) is a 356-bed non-profit, research and academic medical center located in St. Louis, Missouri, providing tertiary care for the east Missouri region. The medical center is a part of the SSM Health Syste ...

, the Doisy Research Center, and some athletic facilities. Most health science instruction takes place on the south campus. The

Saint Louis University School of Law Saint Louis University School of Law, also known as SLU LAW, is a private American law school located in St. Louis, Missouri. It is one of the professional graduate schools of Saint Louis University. The University hosted a law school briefly fr ...

is located in downtown St. Louis in Scott Hall. Since 1967, the university has also maintained a campus in

Madrid, Spain Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

. Saint Louis University Madrid has over 900 students from more than 50 countries. Many undergraduates from the

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

campus who

study abroad International students, or foreign students, are students who undertake all or part of their tertiary education in a country other than their own and move to that country for the purpose of studying. In 2019, there were over 6 million internat ...

choose to take classes in Madrid, as the

college credit A credit is the recognition for having taken a course at school or university, used as measure if enough hours have been made for graduation. University credits United States Credit hours In a college or university in the United States, students ...

s are easily transferrable. Slu clock tower

Clock tower

Built in 1993, Saint Louis University's clock tower closed off the campus from the remainder of West Pine Avenue. The surrounding plaza has become a center of campus life, host to social gatherings, protests, and philanthropic events. In 2011, the clock tower and the area around it were renamed for a prominent alumnus as the Joseph G. Lipic Clock Tower Plaza. Additionally, on 25 October 2021, the amphitheater adjacent to the plaza was renamed in honor of Jonathan Smith, a former faculty member who had died earlier that year. In October 2014, the clocktower plaza became the focal point for a student-led demonstration known as OccupySLU. Hundreds of students descended on the plaza to engage in teach-ins, peaceful protest, and conversation in the aftermath of the

shooting of Michael Brown On August 9, 2014, 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. Brown was accompanied by his 22-year-old male friend Dorian Johnson, who later stated that Brow ...

and the shooting of Vonderrit Myers Jr. Students and community leaders peacefully occupied the plaza for six days. During this time, newly-chosen university president

Fred Pestello Fred P. Pestello (born 1952) is an American sociologist and administrator in higher education. He currently serves as the 33rd President of Saint Louis University (SLU) in St. Louis, Missouri. Prior to this, he was the 13th President of Le Mo ...

negotiated with demonstrators to end the occupation. These efforts culminated in the Clocktower Accords, in which Pestello promised to take concrete action to address the demands of demonstrators.

Major campus construction and renovation

Edward A. Doisy Research Center

In 2007, SLU completed a $67 million, 10-story research center connected to its Medical Campus Building, a

green building Green building (also known as green construction or sustainable building) refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from planni ...

named for

Edward Adelbert Doisy Edward Adelbert Doisy (November 13, 1893 – October 23, 1986) was an American biochemist. He received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1943 with Henrik Dam for their discovery of vitamin K (K from "Koagulations-Vitamin" in German) an ...

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine ( sv, Nobelpriset i fysiologi eller medicin) is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute, Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or ...

laureate of 1943 and a long-time faculty member at SLU's medical school. The building contains 80 labs that are used in the development of

vaccines A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious or malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verified.< ...

and in research initiatives studying cancer, liver disease, and other health conditions. The building now mainly hosts the Edward A. Doisy Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Saint Louis University School of Law

Saint Louis University School of Law, founded in 1843, is the oldest law school west of the Mississippi River.School of Law History
Law students attend classes in Scott Hall, which is in downtown

. Scott Hall was bought and renovated by the university between 2012 and 2013, as the law school had outgrown its former site on SLU's midtown campus. The newly renovated building opened in 2013. Slu law

Chaifetz Arena

The multi-purpose

Chaifetz Arena Chaifetz Arena ( ), located on the campus of Saint Louis University, is a 10,600 seat multi-purpose arena in St. Louis, Missouri, that began construction on August 28, 2006 and opened on April 10, 2008. In February 2007, Chicago-based businessm ...

, built for $80.5 million in 2008, is a 10,600-seat stadium located on-campus. The arena also contains training facilities, locker rooms, and a practice facility that can house 1,000 spectators. It is on the eastern end of the north campus. The arena replaced

Enterprise Center The Enterprise Center is an 18,096-seat arena located in downtown St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Its primary tenant is the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League, but it is also used for other functions, such as NCAA basketball, NC ...

as the university's primary location for large events, notably

commencement Graduation is the awarding of a diploma to a student by an educational institution. It may also refer to the ceremony that is associated with it. The date of the graduation ceremony is often called graduation day. The graduation ceremony is al ...

celebrations and varsity sports. The arena is named for alumnus

Richard Chaifetz Richard A. Chaifetz (born August 1953) is an American billionaire businessman, investor, licensed neuropsychologist, and philanthropist. He is the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Chicago-based ComPsych Corporation, the world's la ...

, founder and CEO of ComPsych Corp., who gave $12 million to the university for the arena's

naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization whereby a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event, typically for a defined period of t ...

. The Arena was named on February 28, 2007, and dedicated on April 10, 2008.

Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building

In the fall of 2020, the university opened a new, 90,000-square-foot, three-story building featuring "innovative teaching environments and flexible lab spaces." The building supplements bioinformatics, biology, biomedical engineering, chemistry, neuroscience and computer science courses that support all science, engineering, nursing and health science majors at SLU.

Housing

Saint Louis has residence halls and student apartment space on campus. As part of the university's First Year Experience (FYE) program, students are required to live on campus for their first four semesters at SLU, unless they are a commuter from the

St. Louis metropolitan area Greater St. Louis is a bi-state metropolitan area that completely surrounds and includes the independent city of St. Louis, the principal city. It includes parts of both Missouri and Illinois. The city core is on the Mississippi Riverfront on t ...

. For the 2018–19 school year, the university installed 2,300 Echo Dots, the hardware for Amazon's "smart assistant," Alexa, in students' dorm rooms. SLU is the first college or university in the United States to bring an Amazon Alexa-enabled device into every student apartment or student residence hall room on the campus.

Residence halls

The Griesedieck Complex (also known as "Gries", pronounced "greez") has 16 stories of living space in its main building, as well as 9 additional floors of space attached on its west and east sides as Clemens Hall and Walsh Hall, respectively. Both halls were renovated and repainted (Walsh in 2019 and Clemens in 2020) to accommodate future larger freshman classes, and to house sophomores as needed. Spring Hall and Grand Hall, built in 2016 and 2017 respectively, added nearly 1,000 beds for first and second-year students in addition to a dining hall, more classrooms, and further office space for administrators. DeMattias Hall (colloquially known as "DeMatt"), located just east of Vandeventer Boulevard, provides themed housing to students participating in Greek Life. Next door to DeMattias is Marguerite Hall (also known as "Marg"), with seven floors of double suite-style rooms mainly for first-year students and sophomores. SLU Village Apartments

On-campus apartments

Grand Forest, the Village, and the Marchetti Towers are on-campus apartment options available to sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Grand Forest and Marchetti Towers are located east of Grand Boulevard and just west of

. The Village apartments are located between Vandeventer Boulevard and Grand Boulevard. The complex houses up to 480 students at a time. Apartments in the Village come in one, two, three and four-bedroom layouts.

St. Francis Xavier College Church

Located at the corner of Grand Boulevard and Lindell Avenue is the university's official parish,

. Built between 1888 and 1894 by architect Thomas Walsh, who also designed DuBourg Hall, the church was the first English-speaking parish in the city of

. The church has held a weekly Sunday Evening Student

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different element ...

for SLU students since 1990.

Libraries and museums

Saint Louis University has three libraries in

, and one on its campus in

: the Pius XII Memorial Library on the north campus, the Medical Center Library on south campus, the Vincent C. Immel Library at the

law school A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction. Law degrees Argentina In Argentina, ...

in downtown

, and the library in San Ignacio Hall in

. Pius XII Memorial Library is the general academic library. It houses over 2.2 million

books A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physica ...

and

e-books An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Al ...

, and has 48 study rooms for students to use. Recent renovations to the library include more seating and study areas, designated noise zones and the creation of an Academic Technology Commons on the first floor. Housed within Pius XII Memorial Library is the Knights of Columbus Vatican Film Library, which holds a unique collection of microfilm focusing on the manuscripts housed in the

Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana The Vatican Apostolic Library ( la, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, it, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City. Formally es ...

. In 1964, SLU president Rev. Paul Reinert established the Saint Louis University Library Associates. The Associates are a group of "civic-minded St. Louisans...dedicated to the growth of the university libraries." Since 1967, the organization has presented the

St. Louis Literary Award The St. Louis Literary Award has been presented yearly since 1967 to a distinguished figure in literature. It is sponsored by the Saint Louis University Library Associates. Winners Past Recipients of the Award: *2023 Neil Gaiman *2022 Arundhati ...

to a distinguished figure in

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to inclu ...

. Notable recipients of the award include Sir Salman Rushdie, E.L. Doctorow, and

Joan Didion Joan Didion (; December 5, 1934 – December 23, 2021) was an American writer. Along with Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson and Gay Talese, she is considered one of the pioneers of New Journalism. Didion's career began in the 1950s after she won a ...

. The university also has three museums: the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art (MOCRA), the Saint Louis University Museum of Art (SLUMA), and the Samuel Cupples House.

Academics and rankings

SLU offers 89 undergraduate majors and 86 graduate disciplines. Additionally, 13 undergraduate and 21 graduate degree programs are also offered entirely

online In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed "on line" o ...

. The average class size for undergraduates is 26 and the student-faculty ratio is 9:1. The university operates 13 schools and colleges: the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Philosophy and Letters, the Doisy College of Health Sciences, the

School of Medicine A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, or part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS, MB ...

, the Trudy Busch Valentine School of Nursing, the College for Public Health and Social Justice, the School of Social Work, the Richard A. Chaifetz School of Business, the School of Education, the

School of Law A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction. Law degrees Argentina In Argentina, l ...

, the

Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology is a college within Saint Louis University. History de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver restored by Parks students in 1991 Founding Parks Air College was founded by Oliver Parks in the city o ...

, the School for Professional Studies, and Saint Louis University Madrid. In addition, the university also operates the degree-granting Center for Advanced Dental Education.

Athletics

The

Saint Louis Billikens The Saint Louis Billikens are the collegiate athletic teams that represent Saint Louis University, located in St. Louis, Missouri. The Billikens compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as a member of the Atl ...

are the collegiate athletic varsity teams of Saint Louis University. This

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athleti ...

program fields teams in men's soccer,

women's soccer Women's association football, more commonly known simply as women's football or women's soccer, is a team sport of association football when played by women only. It is played at the professional level in multiple countries and 176 national te ...

, men's basketball,

women's basketball Women's basketball is the team sport of basketball played by women. It began being played in 1892, one year after men's basketball, at Smith College in Massachusetts. It spread across the United States, in large part via women's college compet ...

, men's baseball, women's softball, women's volleyball, men's swimming and diving, women's swimming and diving, men's cross country, women's cross country, men's tennis, women's tennis, men's track and field, women's track and field, and women's field hockey. The university competes in the

. In 2016, the women's basketball team made their second trip to the

Women's National Invitation Tournament The Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) is a women's national college basketball tournament with a preseason and postseason version played every year. It is operated in a similar fashion to the men's college National Invitation Tourname ...

. Chris May is the current director of athletics.

Travis Ford Travis Ford (born December 29, 1969) is an American college basketball coach, who is currently the head coach of the Saint Louis Billikens men's basketball team. He was also previously the head coach at Campbellsville University, Eastern Kent ...

was hired as the men's basketball coach in March 2016.

Student life

Campus Ministry

The university's Campus Ministry presents a variety of activities and events, including opportunities to attend

Holy Mass The Mass is the central liturgical service of the Eucharist in the Catholic Church, in which bread and wine are consecrated and become the body and blood of Christ. As defined by the Church at the Council of Trent, in the Mass, "the same Christ ...

and numerous spiritual retreat opportunities. The ministry also hosts "immersion trips" that are aimed at exposing students to the social injustices and inequities present around the

. Immersion experiences involve a week-long trip, and reflection sessions after. Destinations for these trips include: Mobile, Alabama,

Navajo Nation The Navajo Nation ( nv, Naabeehó Bináhásdzo), also known as Navajoland, is a Native Americans in the United States, Native American Indian reservation, reservation in the United States. It occupies portions of northeastern Arizona, northwe ...

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wo ...

, and

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

. Student leadership training is also offered in conjunction with these experiences.

Learning Communities

SLU has nine Learning Communities (LCs), which allow first-year and second-year students to live in the same residence hall and take classes that are centered around a particular major, aspect of social identity and experience, or academic interest. As of 2022, about half of all SLU first-years choose to participate in a Learning Community.

Center for Social Action

The Center for Social Action works with campus ministry and student organizations to promote community service. The center also works with university instructors to incorporate service into their curriculum wherever possible. Students at SLU ranked 4th among the universities in the country in hours of community service in 2015, according to the ''Washington Monthly'' report. The center also partners with dozens of community organizations to provide students with consistent volunteer opportunities.

Student organizations

Saint Louis University has over 240 student organizations that cover a variety of interests, including: student government, club sports, media and publishing, performing arts, and religion and volunteerism and service. *

Alpha Epsilon Delta Alpha Epsilon Delta () is a U.S. health preprofessional honor society. The organization currently has more than 144,000 members within 186 chapters at universities throughout the United States, making it the world's largest Honor Society serving ...

(ΑΕΔ) – Pre-health honor society hosting medically oriented speakers and providing information, guidance, and resources to pre-medical and other pre-health students. *

Alpha Kappa Psi Alpha Kappa Psi (, often stylized as AKPsi) is the oldest and largest business fraternity to current date. Also known as "AKPsi", the fraternity was founded on October 5, 1904, at New York University and was incorporated on May 20, 1905. It is cu ...

(ΑΚΨ) – A co-educational professional business fraternity, it is the oldest and largest professional business fraternity to current date. *

Alpha Phi Omega Alpha Phi Omega (), commonly known as APO, but also A-Phi-O and A-Phi-Q, is a coeducational service fraternity. It is the largest collegiate fraternity in the United States, with chapters at over 350 campuses, an active membership of over 25,00 ...

(ΑΦΩ) – A co-educational service fraternity that promotes the values of leadership, friendship, and service. * Campus Kitchen – Program where student volunteers cook safe, unused food from campus dining facilities and deliver meals to low-income individuals and local community organizations. *

Delta Sigma Pi Delta Sigma Pi () (officially the International Fraternity of Delta Sigma Pi, Inc.) is a Mixed-sex education, coeducational Professional fraternities and sororities, professional business Fraternities and sororities, fraternity and one of the l ...

(ΔΣΠ) – A co-ed professional business fraternity in the Richard A. Chaifetz School of Business that promotes the study of business, commerce, and economics. *

Global Brigades Global Brigades (GB) is a nonprofit health and sustainable development organization that works with volunteers from North American and European universities, as well as local staff in Central America and West Africa to partner with communities ...

– International student led organization that focuses on holistic and sustainable development working with global communities in need. Saint Louis University sends groups to Nicaragua, Panama, and Honduras. * KSLU – Student-run

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

, broadcasting 24/7. Kslu9

* Parks Guard – Military drill team that competes in competitions and conducts honor guard ceremonies for local events. * SLUnatics – Designated student fan club for university sports. * The University News (or UNews) – Student-run news publication covering topics pertaining to the Saint Louis University community since 1921.

Greek life

Saint Louis has six

North American Interfraternity Conference The North American Interfraternity Conference (or NIC; formerly known as the National Interfraternity Conference) is an association of intercollegiate men's social fraternities that was formally organized in 1910, although it began at a meeting ...

fraternities A fraternity (from Latin '' frater'': "brother"; whence, " brotherhood") or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club or fraternal order traditionally of men associated together for various religious or secular aims. Fraternity ...

and seven

National Panhellenic Conference The National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) is an umbrella organization for 26 (inter)national women's sororities throughout the United States and Canada. Each member group is autonomous as a social, Greek-letter society of college women and alumn ...

sororities and female fraternities on campus.

=Fraternities

= *

Alpha Delta Gamma Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἄλφα, ''álpha'', or ell, άλφα, álfa) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter aleph , whic ...

Beta Theta Pi Beta Theta Pi (), commonly known as Beta, is a North American social fraternity that was founded in 1839 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. One of North America's oldest fraternities, as of 2022 it consists of 144 active chapters in the Un ...

Alpha Iota Omicron Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἄλφα, ''álpha'', or ell, άλφα, álfa) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter aleph , wh ...

Sigma Chi Sigma Chi () International Fraternity is one of the largest North American fraternal literary societies. The fraternity has 244 active (undergraduate) chapters and 152 alumni chapters across the United States and Canada and has initiated more tha ...

Sigma Tau Gamma Sigma Tau Gamma (), commonly known as Sig Tau, is a United States college social fraternity founded on June 28, 1920, at the University of Central Missouri (then known as Central Missouri State Teachers College). The fraternity was founded as a re ...

Tau Kappa Epsilon Tau Kappa Epsilon (), commonly known as or Teke, is a social college fraternity founded on January 10, 1899, at Illinois Wesleyan University. The organization has chapters throughout the United States and Canada, making the Fraternity an internat ...

=Sororities

= *

Alpha Delta Pi Alpha Delta Pi (), commonly known as ADPi (pronounced "ay-dee-pye"), is an International Panhellenic sorority founded on May 15, 1851, at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia. It is the oldest secret society for women. Alpha Delta Pi is a mem ...

Delta Gamma Delta Gamma (), commonly known as DG, is a women's fraternity in the United States and Canada with over 250,000 initiated members. It has 150 collegiate chapters and more than 200 alumnae groups. The organization's executive office is in Columbus ...

Gamma Phi Beta Gamma Phi Beta (, also known as GPhi or Gamma Phi) is an international college sorority. It was founded in Syracuse University in 1874, and was the first of the Greek organizations to call itself a sorority. The main archive URL iThe Baird's Ma ...

Kappa Alpha Theta Kappa Alpha Theta (), also known simply as Theta, is an international women’s fraternity founded on January 27, 1870, at DePauw University, formerly Indiana Asbury. It was the first Greek-letter fraternity established for women. The main arc ...

Kappa Delta Kappa Delta (, also known as KD or Kaydee) was the first sorority founded at the State Female Normal School (now Longwood University), in Farmville, Virginia. Kappa Delta is one of the "Farmville Four" sororities founded at the university, whi ...

Zeta Tau Alpha Zeta Tau Alpha (known as or Zeta) is an international women's fraternity founded on October 15, 1898 at the State Female Normal School (now Longwood University) in Farmville, Virginia. Its International Office is located in Carmel, Indiana. It ...

Phi Mu Phi Mu () is the second oldest female fraternal organization established in the United States. The fraternity was founded at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia as the Philomathean Society on , and was announced publicly on March 4 of the same ...

Notable alumni, faculty, and school presidents

References

External links

*
Saint Louis Athletics website
{{Authority control Jesuit universities and colleges in the United States Schools of public health in the United States Educational institutions established in 1818 Private universities and colleges in Missouri Catholic universities and colleges in Missouri Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis 1818 establishments in Missouri Territory Midtown St. Louis