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MAR 2504 ENGH APPOINTED DEAN OF BELLARMINE


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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

MICHAEL ENGH, SJ, APPOINTED DEAN OF BELLARMINE COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS AT LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY IN LOS ANGELES

March 25, 2004 – Michael E. Engh, SJ, acting dean of the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts at Loyola Marymount University, has been appointed dean of the college, effective June 1. Engh, who has been associated with LMU since 1988, was selected after a national search to head the university’s largest college.

"As part of the Jesuit commitment to humanistic education, Bellarmine College stands at the core of the university, and I am pleased to make this announcement," said Robert B. Lawton, SJ, president. "Fr. Engh’s long association with Jesuit education, with Los Angeles, and with LMU created a compelling case for his leadership as we implement our strategic plan goal of becoming one of the nation’s distinguished Catholic institutions. The university’s aspirations include many initiatives designed to fulfill Bellarmine College’s promise to the city, the Church, and greater society."

A third-generation Angeleno, Engh is an associate professor of history at LMU and the institution’s unofficial historian. He graduated from then-Loyola University of Los Angeles in 1972 and was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1981. He completed his graduate studies in the history of the American West at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1987 and began teaching at LMU in 1988. He was active in founding LMU’s Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Center for the Study of Los Angeles and the university’s Center for Ignatian Spirituality.

Bellarmine College has 1,900 students in 12 departments and 18 programs, with 140 faculty. "The college has much to contribute to the education of our students for the advancement of the community and for social justice," Engh said. "In addition, our diverse study body has tremendous potential for leadership and service."

Two of his priorities are to expand undergraduate research in partnership with faculty research and to enhance service learning opportunities in collaboration with LMU’s Center for Service and Action. "We have a long tradition of service," he said, " and now it’s our opportunity to bring these experiences into the classroom. It’s important that our students be able to analyze in the class what they learn in the community."

Engh co-founded the Los Angeles History Seminar at the Huntington Library in 1991, a group he has co-chaired since its inception. He is the author of Frontier Faiths: Church, Temple, and Synagogue in Los Angeles (1992). He has published 18 articles or chapters in books on the history of Los Angeles, the Catholic Church in the American West, and the history of LMU, and has co-edited a documentary volume, The Frontiers and Catholic Identities (1999). His current project is a biography of Mary Julia Workman, a Los Angeles social activist from 1890 to 1960.

Engh edited two publications of LMU’s Center for the Study of LA, Fritz B. Burns and the Development of Los Angeles, by James T. Keane (2000) and Richard Riordan and Los Angeles Charter Reform, by Matthew J. Parlow and James T. Keane (2001). He served as co-chair and organizer of the March 2002 conference at the Huntington Library, "Behind the Cliches, Beyond the Hype: Race, Place and Community in Los Angeles." He also has worked as a member of the board of editors for the Western Historical Quarterly and Southern California History.

Rector of LMU’s Jesuit Community from 1994 to 2000, Engh served on the university’s Board of Trustees for six years and chaired the presidential search committee that brought Fr. Lawton to LMU five years ago. He is in his seventh year as a member of the school board for Dolores Mission Grammar School in Boyle Heights.

About Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles
Founded in 1911, Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles is the eighth largest of the nation’s 28 Jesuit colleges and universities. With a strong base in the liberal arts, LMU serves more than 5,300 undergraduates and nearly 3,000 graduate students. LMU includes four colleges: the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts, the College of Business Administration, the College of Communication and Fine Arts, and the College of Science and Engineering, as well as the School of Education, the School of Film and Television, the Graduate Division, Continuing Education, and Loyola Law School. For more information, visit the LMU website at www.lmu.edu.

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