Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. It is located on the west side of the city near Playa Vista. LMU is the parent school to Loyola Law School, which is located in downtown Los Angeles.
LMU offers 55 major and 59 minor undergraduate degrees and programs across six undergraduate colleges. The Graduate Division offers 47 master's degree programs, one education doctorate, one doctorate in juridical science, a Juris Doctor and 13 credential programs.
LMU's sports teams are called the Lions and compete at the NCAA Division I level as members of the West Coast Conference in 20 sports.
History
Loyola Marymount University is the product of a merger in 1973 between Loyola College, founded in 1917, and Marymount College, founded in 1932, with its roots in Marymount School which was founded in 1923.
St. Vincent's College
The present university is the product of the first institution of higher learning in Southern California, St. Vincent's College, which was founded and run by the Vincentians until 1911.
In 1865, the Vincentian Fathers were commissioned by Bishop Thaddeus Amat y Brusi to found St. Vincent's College for Boys in Los Angeles. Father John Asmuth was the first President Rector. Classes were held for two years in the Lugo Adobe on the east side of the Plaza while a new building was being finished. The historic home, aptly donated by Don Vicente Lugo, was one of few two-story adobes then in town. The house stood in the empty lot across Alameda Street between the Plaza and Union Station (near Olvera Street).
Later, the brick building was replaced with a larger one in stone. The 7th Street property, now called St. Vincent's Place, took up the block bounded by Fort (Broadway), 6th, Hill, and 7th streets. When St. Vincent's later moved to a new campus, the old building became US Army Headquarters, and in 1907, the large Bullock's department store was built and operated here until 1983. In 1869, St. Vincent's was accredited by the state.
In 1887, the college moved to a new, more majestic campus—bounded by Grand Avenue, Washington Boulevard, Hope Street, and 18th—which would have a chapel, residence hall, cottages, and a traditional brick-and-ivy complex housing classrooms and lecture halls. Like the second college building by Pershing Square, the new retained a tall, central tower topped with St. Vincent's trademark mansard roof.
While the campus underwent many expansions, the athletic program grew, and the Catholic Collegiates competed against Occidental's Presbyterians and USC's Methodists. St. Vincent's athletes were also recruited into professional sports. During this era, from St. Vincent's College graduated many alumni who would become famous in the history of Los Angeles, among whom were Isidore Dockweiler, Eugene Biscailuz and Leo Carrillo.
In 1911, the Vincentians, who had led the college since its founding the century before, were replaced with the Jesuits, who quickly moved the college to a larger property. As planning began on developing a 20th-century university, enrollment was folded into a new college, briefly called "Los Angeles College" that would soon evolve into Loyola. The old campus became St. Vincent's School. In 1922, St. Vincent's campus was sold. Over time, the historic buildings of old St. Vincent's College have been torn down and replaced by, for example, the Grand Olympic Auditorium (1924) and large, open parking lots.
Beginnings of Loyola in L.A. When the Vincentians pulled out of educational ministry in Los Angeles in 1911, Bishop Thomas Conaty asked the Jesuits to come to Los Angeles and take over St. Vincent's College. Not wishing to assume any of the college's debt, the Jesuits instead founded Los Angeles College in 1911. They simultaneously opened their high school division (Loyola High School) and folded the board, faculty, and students of St. Vincent's College into Los Angeles College at a new location made up of several bungalows at Avenue 52, Highland Park, Los Angeles.
Father Richard A. Gleeson was the first Jesuit President but the board of the college was initially composed of Vincentian Fathers. Rapid growth prompted the Jesuits to seek a new campus on Venice Boulevard in 1917; with this move, the name of the school was changed back to St. Vincent's College. However, in 1918 the name was once again changed to Loyola College of Los Angeles.