Loyola University Chicago

Loyola University Chicago (Loyola /lɔɪˈoʊlə/ or LUC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1870 by the Society of Jesus, Loyola is one of the largest Catholic universities in the United States. Its namesake is Saint Ignatius of Loyola. Loyola's professional schools include programs in medicine, nursing, and health sciences anchored by the Loyola University Medical Center, and the Loyola University Chicago School of Law. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research spending and doctorate production".

Comprising thirteen colleges and schools, Loyola offers more than 80 undergraduate and 140 graduate/professional programs and enrolls approximately 17,000 students. Loyola has five campuses across the Chicago metropolitan area, as well as a campus in Rome. Another guest program in Beijing was closed in 2018. 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 (11.3 km) north of the Loop.

Loyola's athletic teams, nicknamed the Ramblers, compete in NCAA Division I as members of the Atlantic 10 Conference. Loyola won the 1963 NCAA men's basketball championship and remains the only school from Illinois to do so. The Ramblers are also two-time (2014, 2015) NCAA champions in men's volleyball.

On June 30, 1870, Jesuit priest and educator Arnold Damen established St. Ignatius College. 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.

Major capital campaigns, since the turn of the century, have greatly enhanced Loyola's academic profile and campuses. 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, a 100-acre (40 ha) 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.