Saint Louis University

Saint Louis University (SLU, ) is a private, co-educational Jesuit university located in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1818 by the Most Reverend Louis Guillaume Valentin Dubourg SLU is the oldest university west of the Mississippi River. It is one of 28 member institutions of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. The university is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. SLU's athletic teams compete in NCAA's Division I and the Atlantic 10 Conference. It has a current enrollment of 13,785 students representing all 50 states and more than 77 foreign countries. There are currently 8,406 undergraduate students enrolled in SLU as well as 2,437 graduate students and 2,942 professional students. This year’s enrollment marks the first year that SLU’s enrollment passed 13,000. Of all the students, 59 percent are from out of state. The university provides undergraduate, graduate and professional programs. Its average class size is 23 and the student-faculty ratio is 13:1.

Its Madrid, Spain campus has from 600–650 students, a faculty of 110, an average class size of 18 and a student-faculty ratio of 8:1.

Saint Louis University (SLU) is located on Lindell Boulevard, originally outside the City of St. Louis in an area originally called Lindell's Grove, and is the second-oldest Jesuit college in the nation. The first M.D. degree awarded west of the Mississippi was conferred by Saint Louis University in 1836.

History
Saint Louis University traces its origins to the Saint Louis Academy, founded on 16 November 1818 by the Most Reverend Louis Guillaume Valentin Dubourg, Bishop of Louisiana and the Floridas, and placed under the charge of the Reverend François Niel and others of the secular clergy attached to the Saint Louis Cathedral. Its first location was in a private residence located near the Mississippi River in an area now occupied by the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.

Already having a two-story building for the 65 students using Bishop Dubourg's personal library of 8,000 volumes for its printed materials, the name Saint Louis Academy was changed in 1820 to Saint Louis College (while the secondary school division remained Saint Louis Academy, now known as St. Louis University High School). In 1827 Bishop Dubourg placed Saint Louis College in the care of the Society of Jesus, not long after which it received its charter as a university by act of the Missouri Legislature. In 1829 it moved to Washington Avenue and Ninth at the site of today's America's Center by the Edward Jones Dome. In 1852 the university and its teaching priests were the subject of a viciously anti-Catholic novel, The Mysteries of St. Louis, written by newspaper editor Henry Boernstein whose popular paper, the Anzeiger des Westens was also a foe of the university.

In 1867 after the American Civil War the University purchased "Lindell's Grove" to be the site of its current campus. Lindell's Grove was the site of the Civil War "Camp Jackson Affair". 0n May 10, 1861 U.S. Regulars and Federally enrolled Missouri Volunteers arrested the Missouri Volunteer Militia after the militia received a secret shipment of siege Artillery, infantry weapons and ammunition from the Confederate Government. While the Militia was arrested without violence, angry local citizens rushed to the site, and rioting broke out, in which 28 people were killed. The Camp Jackson Affair lead to open conflict within the state, culminating with a successful Federal offensive in mid-June 1861 which expelled the state's pro-secession governor Claiborne Fox Jackson from the state capitol (Jefferson City). Jackson later led a Missouri Confederate government-in-exile, dying of cancer in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1862.

The first (and most iconic) building on campus, DuBourg Hall, began construction in 1888, and the college moved to its new location in 1889. During the early 1940s, many local priests, especially the Jesuits, began to challenge the segregationist policies at the city's Catholic colleges and parochial schools. After the Pittsburgh Courier, an African-American newspaper, ran a 1944 expose on St. Louis Archbishop John J. Glennon's interference with the admittance of a black student at the local Webster College, Father Claude Heithaus, professor of Classical Archaeology at Saint Louis University, delivered an angry sermon accusing his own institution of immoral behavior in its segregation policies. By summer of 1944, Saint Louis University had opened its doors to African Americans, after its president, Father Patrick Holloran, secured Glennon's reluctant approval.

Expansion
During the past 20 years, the University has seen the modernization and construction of campus buildings as well as the revitalization of surrounding Midtown St. Louis. Some of the highlights of Biondi's tenure at SLU include the investment of more than $840 million in enhancements and expansions including the major expansion of the John Cook School of Business; construction of McDonnell Douglas Hall, home to Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology; the Center for Advanced Dental Education; the Doisy College of Health Sciences Building and the expansion and renovation of the Busch Student Center. Part of this expansion was the closing of two blocks of West Pine Boulevard (the section between N. Vandeventer Ave. and N. Grand Blvd.) and two blocks of N. Spring Ave. (between Lindell Blvd. and Laclede Ave.), both public streets which the campus had previously expanded across, converting them into a pedestrian mall. Furthermore, the University completed construction of the $82 million Edward A. Doisy Research Center in 2007 and the on-campus Chaifetz Arena in 2008. In addition, for over 30 years the university has maintained a campus in Madrid, Spain with a student body of around 700. The Madrid campus was the first freestanding campus operated by an American university in Europe and the first American institution to be recognized by Spain's higher education authority as an official foreign university. In the early 1970s, the campus was the site of an emerging new stream of Bible-based liturgical music that has enjoyed a worldwide impact. The composers were known as the St. Louis Jesuits. After a 20-year hiatus, they released a new album in the fall of 2005.

Shift to majority lay board of trustees
In 1967, Saint Louis University became one of the first Catholic universities to increase layperson decision making power. At the time, then board chairman Fr. Paul Reinert, SJ, stepped aside to be replaced by layman Daniel Schlafly. The board also shifted to an 18 to 10 majority of laypeople. This was largely instituted due to the landmark Maryland Court of Appeals case, Horace Mann vs. the Board of Public Works of Maryland, in which grants to "largely sectarian" colleges were declared unconstitutional. The Second Vatican Council has also been mentioned as a major influence on this decision for its increased focus on the laity, as well as the decreased recruitment of nuns and priests since the council.

From 1985 to 1992 the Chairman of the Board of Trustees was William H.T. Bush (younger brother of former President George H. W. Bush). The younger Bush also taught classes at the school.

Since the move to lay oversight, debate has erupted many times over how much influence the Roman Catholic Church should have on the affairs of the university. The decision by the University to sell its hospital to Tenet Healthcare Corp. in 1997 met much resistance by both local and national Church leaders, but went ahead as planned.

Timeline

 * 1903—Theodore Roosevelt attends a Latin disputation at Saint Louis University. It is a "Grand Act" (a defense covering Philosophy and Theology) given by Spanish Jesuit Fr. Joachim Villalonga in celebration of the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase.
 * 1904—Both the World's Fair and the third Olympic Games of the modern era are held in St. Louis. Blue and White games are played before Exposition crowds. St. Louis (under Coach Martin Delaney) outscores its opponents 336 to 0 for the season, including a win over Kentucky by the score of 5–0, a 17–0 victory over the University of Missouri and a 51–0 trouncing of Arkansas. The Spaulding Athletic Almanac of 1905 offers this commentary: “The (Olympic) Department knew perfectly well that it would be unable to have an Olympic Foot Ball Championship, though it felt incumbent to advertise it. Owing to the conditions in American colleges it would be utterly impossible to have an Olympic foot ball championship decided. The only college that seemed absolutely willing to give up its financial interests to play for the World’s Fair Championship was the St. Louis University and there is more apparently in this honor than appears in this report. There were many exhibition contests held in the Stadium under the auspices of the Department wherein teams from the St. Louis University and Washington University took part and competed against other teams from universities east and west of the Mississippi River. The Missouri-Purdue game was played in the Stadium on October 28….. The Olympic College Foot Ball Championship was won by St. Louis University, St. Louis, Mo., by default.”
 * 1906—Bradbury Robinson throws the first legal forward pass in the history of American football to Jack Schneider, under the direction of SLU coach Eddie Cochems (September 5, against Carroll College of Waukesha).
 * 1943—Professor of Biochemistry Edward Adelbert Doisy shares (with Henrik Dam) the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on Vitamin K, which he had isolated in a pure form in 1939.
 * 1949—Jesuit Priests from SLU assist a teenage boy, Robbie Mannheim, believed to suffer from demonic possession. The boy's experience serves as the basis of the documentary In The Grip Of Evil and is dramatized in the 1971 novel The Exorcist followed by the 1973 film The Exorcist.
 * 1967—First lay incorporation of a Jesuit university in the United States. The membership of the Board of Trustees went from 13 Jesuit priests to 18 lay members and 10 Jesuits. Fr. Paul Reinert, S.J., yielded the chairmanship to Daniel L. Schlafly. (Reported in Time magazine, February 3, 1967: "A Louder Voice for Laymen.")
 * 2006—Cardinal Sfeir, Patriarch of the 12–15 million-member Maronite Catholic Church and one of the most important figures in the Middle East, was bestowed with Saint Louis University's highest honor, the Sword of Ignatius Loyola, on June 30, 2006.

Campus
SLU's campus consists of over 235 acre of land and 7.2 million GSF (7200000 ft2), with 131 buildings on campus.

Libraries and museums
Saint Louis University has four libraries. Pius XII Memorial Library is the general academic library. It holds over 1 million books, 6,000 journal subscriptions, and 140 electronic databases. Pius XII Memorial Library is currently under renovations, which were voted upon by the students in November 2011. These renovations, which are due to be completed in June 2012, includes more seating, more study areas, and designated noise zones. The Knights of Columbus Vatican Film Library holds a unique collection of microfilm focusing on the manuscripts housed in the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. The Omer Poos Law Library houses the law collection and is within the School of Law. The Medical Center Library serves the health and medical community at SLU.

Every year the Saint Louis University Library Associates present the St. Louis Literary Award to a distinguished figure in literature. Sir Salman Rushdie received the 2009 Literary Award. E.L. Doctorow received the 2008 Saint Louis Literary Award.

The University also has two museums, the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art (MOCRA) and the Saint Louis University Museum of Art (SLUMA). The Samuel Cupples House at the heart of campus features SLU's collection of art deco and art nouveau glass. In addition, Boileau Hall provides current students and faculty with space to display their work.

Housing
Saint Louis has both dormitory and apartment space on-campus. As part of the First Year Experience (FYE) program, resident freshman students are required to live on campus (unless a commuter from the Saint Louis area) for the first two years of their careers at SLU, before being released to move into Upperclassmen or off-campus housing. The sophomore residency requirement caused controversy when initiated in the 2009–10 school year, as the University lacked adequate housing to house all sophomores and upperclassmen who requested on-campus housing. Around 1000 juniors and seniors were pushed off campus when sophomores were granted access to traditionally Junior and Senior housing options. In the 2010–11 school year, the school announced the transfer of the Student Housing Scholarship (of $1,000 to $2,000) to Tuition Scholarship, which made off-campus housing more affordable and pursued by upperclassmen.

Freshman Year Experience options
The Griesedieck Complex (also known as "Gries", pronounced "greez") contains 16 stories of living space in its main building, which was completed in 1963, with additional dorm space in its two wings: Walsh, all girl wing, and Clemens, all guy wing. Gries is located in the heart of the campus, in front of the quad, and has an average freshman living space, 10' 7.5" by 18' 2", with community showers and bathrooms. Reinert Hall, named after Jesuit Father Paul C. Reinert, is located two blocks south of the main campus in a converted Marriott hotel. Where the building lacks in location it makes up for in living space, containing some of the largest dormitories across the country, 12' 1" by 27', complete with private full baths in each room, though each room houses three to four roommates. Reinert also has access to 24-hour in-building study/meeting rooms and its own dining hall. Other on-campus housing is the site of several different FYE Learning Communities, which allow freshmen to live and study with like-minded or like-majored peers.  Fusz Hall houses the Honors Learning Community, while Marguerite Hall houses both the Micah Program and the Business Learning Community.

Upperclass options
Several housing choices exist for sophomores, juniors and seniors. SLU has one Greek house; the Sigma Chi chapter owns a house located less than a block from campus, and DeMattias Hall acts as a Greek dormitory and de facto community House. Next to DeMattias Hall is Marguerite Hall, which offers 8 floors of suite-style two-occupancy dorm rooms. Continuing up West Pine Mall, is Pruellage (formerly Notre Dame Hall). While many honors students once chose to live here, in 2008 it was changed to "The Language Villa," where foreign students and language students can live together. The choice of moving the foreign and language students from the Language Houses on Laclede Street to Notre Dame Hall created some controversy in both the language and honors communities. The former Language Houses,once French,German, and Spanish, are now occupied by upperclassmen notably from the Micah Program. Another dorm option is Fusz Hall, catercorner to the University's Clocktower. It contains a food court.

Grand Forest, the Village, and the Marchetti Towers are the on-campus apartment options available. Because of its proximity to the Chaifetz Arena, many student-athletes live in Grand Forest. Similarly, the Village, just across from DeMattias, houses many Greeks. The Marchetti Towers are just west of Grand Forest and consists of two, 12-story towers. During the summer of 2008, Marchetti Towers underwent a $3.8 million renovation.

Edward A. Doisy Research Center
SLU recently completed building a $67 million, 10-story tall research center connected to its Medical Campus Building. It is designed to be a green building and is named for Edward Adelbert Doisy, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine laureate of 1943 and a long-time faculty member at SLU's medical school. With improvements to other research building facilities, the total cost of the project is forecast to be around $80 million. The building had its official dedication ceremony on December 7, 2007, with faculty and staff having begun to move in during the previous weeks.

In July 2010, the Edward A. Doisy Research Center became home to the Center for World Health and Medicine, a non-profit drug discovery group dedicated to developing therapies for orphan and neglected diseases.

Saint Louis University School of Law
The law school also unveiled plans for a new building. The law school was attempting to raise the estimated $30–35 million necessary, with the original estimation of groundbreaking in 2010. Plans for the new building were postponed indefinitely after the financial crisis of 2007–2010. The university later announced in January 2012 that Joe H. Scott Sr. had donated the building at 100 N. Tucker Blvd. to the university, and that they would move the law school into that building by August, 2012. The building is located near the Civil Courts and the Thomas F. Eagleton U.S. Courthouse.

Pevely Building Demolition
In 2008 Saint Louis University acquired the former Pevely Dairy complex. The University developed a plan to demolish the historic site in order to build an outpatient care center for its physicians' practice. However, the city Preservation Board originally denied the university's request to raze the eight-acre site. In February 2012 the St. Louis Planning Commission approved Saint Louis University's plan to demolish the Pevely Dairy complex. 

Chaifetz Arena
The multi-purpose arena, construction of which was completed in early April 2008 at a cost of $80.5 million, contains 10,600 seats for basketball, a training facility, state-of-the-art locker rooms, and a practice facility that can house an additional 1,000 spectators. It is located on the easternmost end of campus, just north of I-64/U.S. Highway 40. The arena replaced Scottrade Center as the University's primary location for large events, notably Commencement celebrations and varsity sports. On February 28, 2007, the arena was named in honor of University alumnus (1975) Dr. Richard A. Chaifetz, founder and CEO of ComPsych Corp., who made a $12 million naming rights gift to the Arena. The University's official dedication ceremony for the Arena was held on April 10, 2008.

Athletics


The Saint Louis Billikens are the collegiate athletic teams from Saint Louis University. This NCAA Division I program has teams in soccer, basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball, swimming and diving, cross country, tennis, track and field, and field hockey. They compete in the Atlantic Ten Conference (where they are the westernmost member, and both the first member located west of the Mississippi and in the Central Time Zone). The school has nationally recognized soccer programs for men and women. The school has heavily invested in its on-campus athletic facilities in the past twenty years with the creation of Hermann Stadium and Chaifetz Arena. Chris May is the current director of athletics.

The Saint Louis Billikens have a student-run fan club called the SLUnatics. This club supports all sporting Billiken athletic events focusing mostly on soccer and basketball. At Billiken basketball games, the SLUnatics have a large cheering section where they lead chants and cheers to engage the crowd. In order to encourage students to attend athletic events and be a part of SLUnatics, a program called Billiken Rewards was created. It is a free program where students collect credits at designated events to earn prizes. Through five different prize levels, students can earn a variety of Billiken merchandise.

Student organizations
Saint Louis University has a large number of student organizations that cover a variety of interests: student government, club sports, organizations focused on media and publications, performing arts, religion and volunteerism and service.



Student Organization Controversies
On several occasions, controversies have arisen when student groups organized events that SLU considered to be inconsistent with its Catholic, Jesuit mission. Controversial programming included:


 * The All of Us Campaign: In the spring of 2009, controversy arose when SLU's Rainbow Alliance, a student organization supporting and advocating for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender members of the SLU community, attempted to organize a straight ally program called the All of Us Campaign. The All of Us Campaign encouraged allies to pledge their support to the LGBT community by acknowledging and seeking to overcome straight privilege.  SLU administrators took issue with the campaign's position on same-sex marriage, which they argued to be contradictory to the Jesuit mission.  The conflict was resolved when organizers of the All of Us Campaign negotiated with administrators to develop a new pledge which was acceptable to both parties.


 * The Vagina Monologues: Beginning in 2007, SLU informed its feminist student organization, Una, that they would no longer be allowed to perform Eve Ensler's Vagina Monologues on campus. Since that time, Una has performed the Vagina Monologues off campus.  In 2010, in addition to the off campus production of Ensler's Monologues, Una produced the SLU Monologues, a collection of stories from the student body based on the style of the Vagina Monologues.

List of Rejected Speakers and Performances
SLU has rejected attempts by student organizations to host the following speakers, performances, and films on campus:


 * The Vagina Monologues
 * Julia Serano
 * Jessica Valenti
 * Kacie Starr Triplett
 * David Horowitz
 * Michael Ian Black
 * Andrea Gibson
 * Milk (film)
 * But I'm a Cheerleader

Non Social Greek student groups

 * Alpha Phi Omega (APO)- A co-educational service fraternity that promotes the values of leadership, friendship, and service. Being one of the largest chapters in the nation, SLU's chapter (founded in 1944) performed over 15,000 hours to the St. Louis community in the 2009–2010 academic year.
 * Delta Sigma Pi (DSP) – A co-ed professional business fraternity in the John Cook School of Business that promotes the study of business, commerce, and economics. The fraternity hosts professional events, participates in community service, and attends national conferences on a regular basis.
 * Collegiate Entrepreneurs' Organization (CEO)- An organization that increases entrepreneurship awareness through hands-on experiences and bringing a variety of speakers to campus. More information on CEO can be found at www.sluceo.com.
 * Philosophy Club – open to all "majors, minors, and lovers of wisdom."
 * Service Leadership – certificate program through the Business School where participants are encouraged to become leaders through service
 * College Republicans – SLU's chapter is one of the largest, most active chapters in the state. In 2006, the SLU College Republicans contributed over 1,400 hours to Senator Jim Talent's Re-election campaign. The College Republicans also hosted Governor Sarah Palin during the 2008 Presidential Campaign.
 * Bare Naked Statues – BNS is the award-winning all-male a cappella group on campus. They have 3 professionally recorded CDs and have been featured on the Voices Only A Cappella compilation CD.
 * Beyond All Reason – (also known as BAR) is SLU's premier all-female a cappella group. They were established in 2002. As of 2009, they are working on their first professionally recorded CD. In the meantime, you can hear them sing on campus and off campus at events including the Breast Cancer Walk and Cardinals games.
 * College Democrats – Support and campaign for Democratic candidates and causes at the local, state, and national level. Spearheaded a campaign in 2008 to obtain an on-campus polling place, resulting in a large increase in voter turnout among SLU students.
 * Forte – A student organization that runs programs to teach musical instruments to elementary school students throughout St. Louis.
 * Great Issues Committee – speaker's bureau; brings speakers to the University's campus, second most funded organization from SGA, recent speakers include Elie Wiesel, Cornel West, Vicente Fox, and Bill Nye
 * Golden Key International Honours Scoeity- The largest collegiate honors society. Membership is  by invitation only, to the top 15% of college/university 2nd, 3rd and 4th year students and top performing US graduate students in all fields of study
 * Parks Guard – Military drill team that competes in military drill competitions and conducts honor guard ceremonies for local events
 * RHA – Residence Hall Association – plans events on campus, advocates on-campus residents needs, and oversees the Residence Hall/Apartment Councils
 * Presidential Scholars Society – an undergraduate social organization and scholastic honor society whose members have received SLU's highest academic award, the Presidential Scholarship.
 * PRSSA- Public Relations Student Society of America
 * Rainbow Alliance – support and advocacy group for LGBT students and their straight allies.
 * SLUMUN - Saint Louis University Model United Nations, previously defunct but re-founded in the 2011-2012 school year.
 * Student Activities Board
 * Campus Kitchen – Program where student volunteers cook safe, unused food from campus dining facilities and deliver meals to low-income individuals and local community organizations.
 * SLU Students for Life – (also called SFL) The on-campus SLU organization arranged around pro-life values that contributes to a culture of life and respect for human dignity, especially that of the unborn. This group encourages attendance at the annual March for Life and occasionally holds events, particularly during Respect Life month.
 * S.U.F.A. – Students United For Africa is a student organization that focusses on the issue of world poverty and social justice.The main function of the club is to raise money to support their school in Kasena, Ghana (Current efforts are on building a library and finding books to fill it)
 * Just Earth! – An environmental student organization who mission it is to educate and serve. Host the yearly Spring Cleaning Salvage Drive which collects the usable items (furniture, clothes, etc.) students throw away for charitable organizations.

Greek life
Saint Louis has ten fraternities and six sororities on-campus. These fraternities and sororities serve as a social outlet to the undergraduate students of Saint Louis University. They provide students with various opportunities to interact with each other and meet make new friends. All fraternities and sororities individually host events and participate in philanthropy activities, while periodically throughout the year these fraternities and sororities come together to participate in all Greek events. The goal of Saint Louis University's Greek Life is to spread the bond of brotherhood and sisterhood within campus. Students are encouraged to get involved with Greek Life.

Student's involved in Greek Life can participate in a week long event called Greek Week. The sororities and fraternities are paired together to create six teams and compete to win Greek Week title. Teams earn points for attendance and participation. Each day a different event is hosted and throughout the week there is a profit share with restaurants near campus such as Pickleman's and Diablitos. The final event is called Greek-A-Palooza. All six teams make up a skit based on the year's theme and perform it in front of a panel of judges. After tallying up points the winner of Greek Week is announced at Greek-A-Palooza. Money is raised throughout the week for a charitable philanthropy. Each year the philanthropy is different. Greek Week brings together students in the Greek community to work together and as a whole.

Fraternities

 * Alpha Delta Gamma
 * Beta Theta Pi
 * Phi Delta Theta
 * Phi Kappa Theta
 * Sigma Alpha Epsilon
 * Sigma Phi Epsilon
 * Sigma Tau Gamma
 * Tau Kappa Epsilon
 * Delta Sigma Phi

Sororities

 * Alpha Delta Pi
 * Delta Gamma
 * Gamma Phi Beta
 * Kappa Delta
 * Sigma Kappa
 * Zeta Tau Alpha

Academia

 * George Hardin Brown, medieval literature
 * Jesse Grant Chapline, American educator and politician who founded distance learning college
 * Michael J. Garanzini, S.J. (B.A. 1971) – President of Loyola University of Chicago (since 2001), former president of SLU student government association, 1969–1970.
 * William P. Leahy, S.J. (M.A. 1972, 1975) – President of Boston College since 1996.
 * Dr. J. Bernard Machen (D.D.S. 1968) – President of the University of Florida since 2004.
 * Walter J. Ong, S.J. (M.A. 1941) – Cultural and religious historian, philosopher, and lecturer.

The Arts

 * Thomas P. Barnett (1886) – Prominent architect and American impressionist painter.
 * Richard Dooling (B.A. 1976; J.D. 1987) – Lawyer and author of four novels: Critical Care; White Man's Grave; Brain Storm; Bet Your Life.
 * Robert Guillaume (Attended) – Stage and television actor (Benson, Soap).
 * James Gunn (B.A. 1992) – Film director (Slither), screenwriter (Dawn of the Dead, Scooby-Doo), and novelist (The Toy Collector).
 * Andreas Katsulas (B.A.) – Actor, (The Fugitive, Babylon 5, Star Trek: The Next Generation).
 * David Merrick (J.D. 1937) – Broadway producer.

Business

 * Michael Bidwill (B.S. 1987) – President, Arizona Cardinals.
 * August Busch IV (B.S.; M.B.A.) – Former President and CEO of the Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc.
 * Mark Lamping (M.B.A.) – Former President of the St. Louis Cardinals.
 * Walden O'Dell (B.S.; M.S.) – CEO and Chairman of Diebold, Inc. (1999–2005).
 * Rex Sinquefield (B.A.) – Co-founder and co-chairman of Dimensional Fund Advisors; president of the Show-Me Institute.

Politics



 * Stephen R. Wigginton (J.D. 1988) – United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois (2010–Present)
 * Dave Barrett (M.S.W. 1956) – Premier of British Columbia, Canada (1972–1975).
 * Enrique Bolaños (B.A. 1962) – former President of Nicaragua.
 * Freeman Bosley, Jr. (B.A. 1976; J.D. 1979) – St. Louis, Missouri's first African-American mayor.
 * Jack W. Buechner (J.D. 1965) – U.S. Congressman, Missouri (1987–1991).
 * Quico Canseco (B.A., J.D.) – U.S. Congressman, Texas (2011–Present).
 * Alfonso J. Cervantes – Forty-third mayor of the City of St. Louis (1965–1973).
 * William Lacy Clay, Sr. (B.S. 1953) – U.S. Congressman, Missouri (1969–2001).
 * James F. Conway (B.S., M.B.A.) – Forty-fifth mayor of the City of St. Louis (1977–1981).
 * Joseph M. Darst – Forty-first mayor of the City of St. Louis (1949–1953).
 * Jason Grill – Representative in the Missouri House of Representatives, (2006–2010).
 * Robert Emmett Hannegan (1903–1949) (J.D. 1925) – Commissioner of U.S. Internal Revenue (1943–1945); Chairman, Democratic National Committee (1944–1947); U.S. Postmaster General (Truman administration, 1945–1947); President, St, Louis Cardinals (1947–1949).
 * Lester C. Hunt – Governor of Wyoming (1943–1949), U.S. Senator, Wyoming (1949–1954).
 * John M. Nations (J.D. 1988) – Mayor, Chesterfield, Missouri 2001 –
 * Mark Parkinson, Republican member of the Missouri House of Representatives
 * William F. Quinn – First Governor of Hawaii (1959–1963).
 * Richard J. Rabbitt – (B.S. and L.l.b) – Speaker of Missouri House of Representatives
 * David Safavian (B.A.) – Chief of Staff, General Services Administration (2002–2003).
 * Francis Slay (J.D. 1980) – Forty-ninth mayor of the City of St. Louis.
 * James F. Strother – Virginia House of Delegate (1840–1851), Speaker of the Virginia House (1851), U.S. Congressman, Virginia (1851–1853).
 * John B. Sullivan – U.S. Congressman, Missouri (1941–1943, 1945–1947, 1949–1951).
 * Joseph P. Teasdale (J.D.) – Governor of Missouri (1977–1981).
 * Harold L. Volkmer – U.S. Congressman, Missouri (1977–1997).
 * Stephen Webber - Democratic member of the Missouri House of Representatives

Science

 * Jan Garavaglia, MD – Star of Dr. G.: Medical Examiner.
 * Gene Kranz (B.S. 1954) – Lead NASA flight director during the Apollo 11 moon landing and leader of the Apollo 13 rescue mission.
 * Thomas S. Elias, Ph.D. 1969 – Director of United States National Arboretum, 1993-2009.
 * Héctor M. Hernández. Ph.D. 1986 – Systematic botanist, former Curator of the National Herbarium (Mexico) and Director, Institute of Biology, National University of Mexico (UNAM).

Sports

 * Andy Benes - All-Star Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher. Played 14-years in Major League Baseball, from 1989 to 2002, and with four different teams: the San Diego Padres, the Seattle Mariners, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Arizona Diamondbacks.
 * Anthony Bonner – SLU's all-time leading scorer in men's basketball and played six seasons in the NBA for the Sacramento Kings, New York Knicks and the Orlando Magic.
 * Jim Petersen – Left Striker for the United States 2010 World Cup Team.
 * Richard Boushka — Basketball All-American in 1954–55, Olympic gold medalist in 1956. Drafted by the Minneapolis Lakers.
 * Bob Ferry – Basketball All-American in 1958–59, enjoyed a ten-year career in the NBA with the St. Louis Hawks, Detroit Pistons, and Baltimore Bullets. Former assistant coach and general manager of the Baltimore Bullets; NBA Executive of the Year in 1979 and 1982.
 * Larry Hughes – NBA basketball player – attended but never graduated, was drafted after his freshman year into the NBA by the Philadelphia 76ers. Currently out of the league.
 * Pat Leahy – Placekicker for the New York Jets from 1974 to 1990, played soccer at SLU
 * Ed Macauley (1949) – NBA Hall of Famer
 * Brian McBride – First American to score in more than one FIFA World Cup tournament, doing so once in 1998 (vs. Iran), and twice in 2002 (game-winners vs. Portugal and Mexico). He is also SLU's all-time leading goal-scorer and held the freshman scoring record until 2003, when he was surpassed by Vedad Ibišević.
 * George Michael – Emmy-winning sportscaster, creator and host of The George Michael Sports Machine
 * Tim Ream – Current defender for the Bolton Wanderers and United States Men's National Team
 * Jerry Trupiano – Former Boston Red Sox Radio Broadcaster
 * Ty Keough – Prominent amateur and professional soccer player and college coach; broadcaster with TNT, ESPN, and ABC
 * Brad Davis – attended but never graduated, was drafted after his sophomore year into the MLS by the Metrostars, currently plays for the Houston Dynamo.

Miscellaneous

 * Thomas Anthony Dooley – (M.D. 1958) – humanitarian who worked in Southeastern Asia; author of Deliver Us from Evil, The Edge of Tomorrow, and The Night They Burned the Mountain.
 * John Kaiser – M.H.M. (B.A. 1960) – Mill Hill Missionary died under suspicious circumstances while serving in Kenya. Received an Award for Distinguished Service in the Promotion of Human Rights from the Law Society of Kenya prior to his death.
 * Bradbury Robinson (B.S. & M.D. 1908) – Threw the first legal forward pass in football history for SLU in 1906. Captained SLU's baseball and track teams. Practiced surgery at the Mayo Clinic (1908–1910) and served on the staff of Surgeon General Hugh S. Cumming (1920–1926). Twice elected mayor of St. Louis, Michigan (1931 and 1937).
 * Sister Rose Thering, O.P. (Ph.D. 1961) – Dominican nun whose campaign against anti-Semitism in Catholic textbooks is the subject of the Oscar-nominated 39-minute documentary film directed by Oren Jacoby, Sister Rose's Passion.
 * Bobby Wilks, (M.A. 1954) – First African American Coast Guard aviator, the first African American to reach the rank of captain in the Coast Guard and the first African American to command a Coast Guard air station.

Past

 * Vernon Bourke, (1931–1975) Philosopher and author, considered an authority on Thomistic moral philosophy; first hockey coach of the university.
 * Edward Adelbert Doisy, (November 3, 1893 – October 23, 1986) Biochemist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1943 with Henrik Dam for their discovery of vitamin K and its chemical structure.
 * Marshall McLuhan, (1937–1944) well known for coining the expressions "the medium is the message" and the "global village".
 * Kurt Schuschnigg, (1948–1967) Chancellor of Austria from 1934 to 1938. An ally of Mussolini who advocated an Austrian, as opposed to a Nazi form of fascism, he was notorious for his intolerance of Jews and his suppression of political opposition. He was interned by the Nazis in the Dachau concentration camp.
 * Thomas Shippey – Author and former faculty member of Oxford University, where he taught Old English. Widely considered one of the leading academic scholars of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Present

 * Clarence H. Miller, Emeritus Professor of English known for his contributions to the study of Renaissance literature, including his translations of St. Thomas More's Utopia and Erasmus's Praise of Folly.
 * Donald T. Critchlow, twentieth-century American political historian and is the author of more than thirteen books.
 * John F. Kavanuagh S.J., Professor of Philosophy, known for his contributions to the debate concerning personhood and the ethics of killing. He is a regular columnist for America Magazine and is a frequent winner of the Catholic Press Association award for best regular column.
 * Thomas W. Hungerford, mathematician and author of many textbooks including Abstract algebra: an introduction
 * Thomas Madden, historian of Venice and the crusades; author of The New Concise History of the Crusades and Enrico Dandolo and the Rise of Venice