Founded in 1914 and located in Los Angeles, Loyola Marymount is the only Jesuit/Marymount university in the southwestern United States. It is institutionally committed to Roman Catholicism and takes its fundamental inspiration from the traditions of its sponsoring religious orders. Loyola Marymount has always been, above all, a student centered university.

Mission

Loyola Marymount understands and declares its purpose to be: the encouragement of learning, the education of the whole person, the service of faith and the promotion of justice.

Therefore the University pursues quality in:

Curricula of All Academic Programs

Instruction in all disciplines and courses is to be challenging, intellectually stimulating, and current, including discussion, conducted in an atmosphere of academic freedom, of the important moral and other value questions of contemporary society; students are to acquire skills, knowledge, and the ability to use their skills and knowledge creatively now and in the future.

The undergraduate core curriculum is to be structured, integrated, and centered on the humanities especially philosophy and Catholic theology; students are to acquire the arts of precise and elegant expression, a sound and critical grasp of ideas, a familiarity with the modern world's ways of knowing itself, a personal understanding of this nation's history and multicultural heritage, and an appreciation of other cultures around the globe.

Concentrations in the liberal arts and sciences as well as in carefully-selected pre-professional programs are to give students not only technical knowledge and expertise, but also awareness of the larger human context which calls them to use their competencies for personal growth and service to others; similarly, the University's commitment to graduate and professional education is aimed at the formation of men and women of competence and conscience.

Co-curricular Programs and Support Services

Other campus activities - resident life, clubs and organizations, recreational and sports programs, social events, counseling and health services - are to complement academic pursuits; students are to have opportunities, experiences, and responsibilities that will assist and guide their struggle to become fully human.

University life as a whole is to be open to the subtle presence and activity of God, God's Word and Spirit; students are to find a campus environment, reinforced by specific programs, that nourishes faith and contemplation, seeks the integration of reason and faith, the religious and secular, and recognizes the implications of faith for right conduct and service.

All offices of the University - academic, student life, business, university relations, facilities management, campus ministry - are to be supportive of the University's efforts to graduate intelligent, faith-filled men and women for others.

Faculty, Administration, and Staff

The University is to recruit faculty who are supportive of its mission and goals, well-educated, well-trained in their fields, diverse, and committed to excellence in the classroom, significant scholarship and contributions to their disciplines; the University is to assist individual faculty members with the challenge of combining in one life dedicated teaching, close relationships with students, collegiality, and scholarly activity and achievement.

The University is to recruit and develop administrators and staff, of diverse backgrounds, who are supportive of its missions and goals, skilled, dedicated to their work, and collegial.

Students are to find in all who labor on behalf of the University examples of generosity, service, and personal integrity.

Students

The University is to recruit and attract literate, capable students, as academically prepared as possible, who are comfortable with its mission and goals, eager to study and to participate in campus life, searching to discover and follow a worthwhile direction for their own lives; the mix of the student body - interests, special talents, geographic origin, socioeconomic class, and, particularly, ethnicity - is to be as varied as reasonable and possible, manifesting always the biblical option for the poor.

From admission to commencement, inside and outside the classroom, the University is to encourage and challenge students as individuals to liberate their own minds and hearts and to develop their God-given abilities for service to others and God's greater glory.

The University is always to measure and judge its success with students by their lives as alumni - the quality of their personal lives, of their careers, of their influence and leadership, of their accomplishments.

Campus Life, Hospitality, and Service

All on campus - faculty, administration and staff, students - are to collaborate and share responsibility for the formation of an academic community based on mutual respect, friendship, and a shared commitment to the University's mission and goals; all are to expect from one another good work, disciplined behavior, and courtesy.

The University community is to be open and welcoming to others from off-campus who visit for intellectual stimulation and reflection, artistic events and programs, worship, or relaxation and recreation; those invited are to include, especially, alumni, parents and families, benefactors and friends, professional colleagues, neighbors, and church members, but also others whom the University can appropriately serve with its facilities, buildings, and grounds.

The University is to be known not only as an intellectual and cultural center which others can visit, but also as one which sends its members - faculty, administration and staff, students - into the community to learn, to teach, to minister, to labor, to participate in and lead efforts to create a more rational, faith-filled, just society.