The story
Founding of St. Vincent's College
The university was originally known as St. Vincent's College for Boys, founded and run by the Vincentians until 1911. The university served as the first institution of higher learning in Southern California. In 1865, the Vincentians were commissioned by Thaddeus Amat y Brusi to found the school in Los Angeles. 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 campus building remained under construction. The historic building, donated by Don Vicente Lugo, was one of few two-story adobes in the city at the time, standing across Alameda Street between the Plaza and Union Station (near Olvera Street).
The new 7th Street campus, a stone building now called St. Vincent's Place, encompassed a block bounded by Fort (Broadway), 6th, Hill, and 7th streets. In 1869, St. Vincent's was accredited by the state. In 1887, the college moved to a new campus, bordered by Grand Avenue, Washington Boulevard, Hope Street, and 18th. The campus had a chapel, residence hall, cottages, and traditional brick-and-ivy complex housing classrooms and lecture halls. The new campus retained a tall, central tower topped with St. Vincent's trademark mansard roof.
Alongside campus expansion, the athletic program grew, and the Catholic Collegiates competed against Occidental College's Presbyterians and the University of Southern California's Methodists. St. Vincent's athletes were also recruited into professional sports. During this era, from St. Vincent's College graduated numerous notable alumni, including Isidore Dockweiler, Eugene Biscailuz and Leo Carrillo.
Loyola College
In 1911, the Vincentians left educational ministry. Thomas James Conaty appointed the Jesuits as the Vincentians replacement. The group moved the college to a larger property and renamed the school Los Angeles College. The campus consisted of several bungalows at Avenue 52, Highland Park, Los Angeles. 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 developments such as the Grand Olympic Auditorium (1924) and parking lots. Richard A. Gleeson was the first Jesuit president of the institution.
Rapid growth prompted the Jesuits to seek a new campus on Venice Boulevard in 1917. Graduate instruction began in 1920 with the foundation of a separate law school, the only program into which women were admitted. The law school was the second in Los Angeles after USC to admit Jewish students. In 1928, the undergraduate division of Loyola relocated to the present Westchester campus in 1930, becoming Loyola University of Los Angeles. Loyola Law School did not move with the rest of the university, but in 1964 was reestablished at a Frank Gehry-designed campus in downtown Los Angeles.
As enrollment dropped during World War II, university president Edward Whelan brokered a deal with the US Army to form an officer training program for both Army and Navy officers. The contract allowed the university to remain open during the war. Enrollment hit all-time highs as returning veterans took advantage of the G.I. Bill in the mid-to-late 1940s. During World War II, President Whelan was openly critical of the treatment of Japanese Americans and the establishment of Japanese internment camps.
In 1949, Charles Cassassa, S.J. was named president. His work included the formation of a graduate division on the Westchester campus in June 1950 and the establishment of the Teacher Education Program during the preceding two years. Cassassa also expanded campus infrastructure and established the Institute of Human Relations to promote improved racial relations in business and government. In 1950, he ordered the school's football team to forfeit an away game against Texas Western since the school's rules prevented African-American players, including Loyola team member Bill English, to play on their field. With several notable exceptions, Loyola University continued as an all-male school until its merger with Marymount College in 1973.
At the time of the Watts riots in 1965, Loyola and Marymount were predominantly white institutions. In response to the riots and the evolving local civil rights movement, Black students organized a Black students' union in 1968. In response, Loyola president Fr. Casassa issued policies on 'unlawful student protests'. Despite Fr. Casassa's lack of cooperation, the Black Student Union of Loyola pledged that it would "work through established channels, to dialogue, and to present our case in an intelligent, cohesive, and non-violent fashion." When the campus newspaper The Loyolan surveyed students, most were generally supportive of introducing inclusive courses such as Black history.
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Founding of Marymount
The Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary began teaching local young women in 1923. After invitation by John Joseph Cantwell, seven sisters of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary, led by Mother Cecilia Rafter, formed an elementary school which developed into Marymount High School. Within a decade, high student demand prompted the Marymount sisters to open Marymount Junior College in Westwood in 1933.
Mother Gertrude Cain was the first president of the junior college and guided its development into a four-year college. In 1948, the college assumed the name Marymount College of Los Angeles. In 1960, having outgrown its shared Westwood campus, Marymount College moved its programs to the Palos Verdes Peninsula in southwestern Los Angeles, becoming Marymount California University.
In 1967 Raymunde McKay, president of Marymount College, alongside Mary Felix Montgomery General Superior of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Orange, merged Marymount College with St. Joseph College of Orange. St. Joseph College was originally formed as St. Joseph Teacher's College, a junior college affiliated with The Catholic University of America in 1953. In 1959 it was incorporated as an autonomous, four-year institution, and assumed the St. Joseph College name. However, in 1968 Marymount and St. Joseph's Colleges merged under the Marymount name with an agreement that the traditions and heritage of both the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange would be retained.
Subsequently, the institution was renamed Marymount College of Orange. During the academic year, it remained a college for women religious seeking their baccalaureate degrees; college courses were offered to men and women during the summers at the Orange campus. However, in the same year, Marymount College began its affiliation with Loyola University, moving its four-year program at the Palos Verdes campus to the Westchester campus of Loyola University.
Loyola-Marymount merger and expansion
By the mid-1960s, Loyola University of Los Angeles had unsuccessfully petitioned the Archbishop of Los Angeles, James Francis McIntyre, to allow coeducation for several years. In 1967, McIntyre permitted McKay to begin an affiliation with Loyola University. In 1968 when Marymount's baccalaureate program moved to Loyola's Westchester campus; this arrangement of two independent schools on one campus continued for five years. In 1970, the Student Governments of Loyola University (ASLU—Associated Students of Loyola University) and Marymount College (ASMC—Associated Students of Marymount College) joined to form the Associated Students of Loyola and Marymount (ASLM).
Loyola University and Marymount College officially merged and assumed the name Loyola Marymount University in 1973. The expanded university retained its roots of Catholic higher education and incorporated the educational traditions of the Jesuits, Marymount sisters, and Orange sisters into one institution. The ASLM became known as the Associated Students of Loyola Marymount University (ASLMU). Donald Merrifield, who first assumed the presidency of Loyola University in 1969, continued his role after the merger. The academic vice president of Marymount College, Renee Harrangue, became the provost. During Merrifield's tenure, thirteen new buildings were constructed on Loyola Marymount's main campus. Merrifield oversaw the expansion of Loyola Law School's campus in Pico-Union, near downtown Los Angeles. Merrifield and the university commissioned architect Frank Gehry to design the new campus, which was needed to accommodate increased enrollment.
Merrifield also implemented a number of programs to increase minority enrollment, such as financial aid packages and scholarships, and added African American and Latino studies programs. He stepped down as president of Loyola Marymount in 1984, but remained the university's chancellor until 2002.
Recent history
In 2007, the university reestablished its presence in Orange County, California when the Theological Studies Department began offering a two-year master's program in Pastoral Theology in Orange, California. The first cohort graduated in the spring of 2009 with three additional cohorts completing a three-year master's degree in Pastoral Theology until the cohort program ended in 2018. The classes were held in the Marywood offices of the Diocese of Orange and then at the Diocese's Christ Cathedral campus, each nearby the former Orange Campus of the university.
In 2010, Loyola Marymount President Robert B. Lawton announced his retirement. Lawton cited health problems, including a slow recovery from a 2009 back surgery, as the main reason for his departure. He had served as president since 1999.
David W. Burcham became the first lay president in the school's history. Burcham held the office from 2010 to 2015. Timothy Law Snyder became the 16th president in 2015. Thomas Poon became the 17th president in 2025.
Faculty Union
During Summer of 2024, the Non-tenured track faculty at three of the university's colleges voted 227–29 to unionize. In November, the Visiting Assistant Professors across all six colleges likewise voted to unionize. Loyola Marymount University recognized both unions and raised no objections to their certification.
Between December 2024 and Summer 2025, the new faculty unions presented proposals to Loyola Marymount University. Rather than provide counter-proposals regarding compensation, the school's Board of Trustees unanimously decided to cease recognition of the union on September 12, 2025, under the pretext of a "religious exemption."
On September 30, the non-tenured track faculty and visiting assistant professors overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike, though no strike date was announced at that time. As of October 2025, this issue is ongoing.
From Wikipedia’s article on Loyola Marymount University, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5