About the Centennial

It is a common and accepted practice for institutions of higher education in the United States to date their founding to the day and year when the first instruction was offered. LMU began when the Society of Jesus opened the high school division of their newly founded Los Angeles College on September 11, 1911 with 80 boys of high school age. It changed names three times by the time it became Loyola University of Los Angeles in 1930 on a third site (our present Westchester campus). With the merger of Loyola University and Marymount College in 1973 the name changed again. Loyola Marymount University’s centennial will begin with commencement in 2011 and conclude with Commencement in 2012, naming graduates of both classes as “Centennial Classes.”