St. Martin's University

Infobox University
name = Saint Martin's University
motto = "Be the spirit"
established = 1895
type = Private
president = David Spangler, Ph.D.
city = Lacey
state = Washington
country = United States
undergrad = 1,334
postgrad = 271
postgrad_label = graduate
faculty = 102
campus = Suburban, convert|300|acre|km2
endowment = 12,820,445
free_label = Conference
free = Great Northwest Athletic Conference, NCAA Division II
mascot = Saints
website = [http://www.stmartin.edu/ www.stmartin.edu]

Saint Martin's University (formerly Saint Martin's College) is a private, coeducational Catholic liberal arts, university in the United States. Located in Lacey, Washington, it was founded in 1895 as an all-boys boarding school by monks of the Benedictine Order. Saint Martin's began offering college-level courses in 1900 and became a degree-granting institution in 1940. The college became coeducational in 1965. In 2005, it changed its name from Saint Martin's College to Saint Martin's University. The school motto is "Be the spirit." According to US News, the college is the 44th best masters college in the western United States [http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/t1univmas_w_brief.php] , and has a reputation for its diversity and small class sizes. It is one of the only schools in the country to have a functioning Benedictine monastery (with some members of the monastic community also serving as professors) on school grounds. The school has one of the lowest tuitions for private schools in the Northwest at $23,810. Many students benefit from generous financial aid packages.

History

Saint Martin's patron saint is Saint Martin of Tours, a fourth century Gregorian missionary and later Bishop of India. The University and its founder, Saint Martin’s Abbey, sit on convert|300|acre|km2 of woodlands, trees, rocks, and meandering trails. The site was selected in 1893 by Abbot Bernard Locnikar, O.S.B., of Minnesota's Saint John's Abbey, Saint Martin's Abbey’s mother house. At a public auction on April 21, 1894, the wooded parcel that would become the Saint Martin’s campus was purchased for $6,920. Work began on Saint Martin’s first building in January 1895, and by late summer, a four-story structure housing both the school and a monastery was completed.

Academics

The college offers 21 baccalaureate programs and six graduate degree programs but it is best known for its engineering (civil and mechanical), business administration and education programs. The University has extension campuses at Fort Lewis Army Post, McChord Air Force Base, Centralia Community College, Tacoma Community College and Olympic College (Bremerton, WA) as well as a campus in Hong Kong. The school's education is based around a Liberal Arts core with Benedictine values. All first-year students take a freshman seminar class to introduce them to college life. Classes have a 15:1 student to teacher ratio. For the last three years, the college has offered a Summer Bridge Program, which serves as a college writing workshop. General education requirements are as follows:
* Freshman Seminar
* College Writing
* Philosophy
* Religion
* Physical Education
* U.S. History and International History
* Literature
* Fine Arts
* Science with Lab
* Computer Science
* Basic Mathematics (depends on major)

Colleges and schools

* School of Engineering
* School of Business
* Humanities, Art, and Music
* [http://www.stmartin.edu/education/ College of Education]
* Natural Sciences

Athletics

The school's sports teams participate in the NCAA's Great Northwest Athletic Conference at the Division II level. The women's basketball team qualified for the NCAA Division II tournament in 1992 and 2008. In the 1940s and 1950s, Saint Martin's had a men's college football team and a boys' high school football team, which won the Washington Class A championship. In the 1990s, the name of the mascot was almost changed to the Ravens.

Residence halls

* Baran Hall
* Burton Hall
* Spangler Hall
* Parsons Hall

Student life and demographics

Most Saint Martin's students are from Washington state, but other states are well-represented, including Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, Nevada and Hawaii. With its active international program, Saint Martin's also welcomes students from China, Korea, Japan and many other nations.

Roughly thirty percent of Saint Martin's student body is of color. To support diversity on campus, the University features an Office of Intercultural Initiatives and hosts many clubs, such as the Black Student Union and a Hawaiian Club.

Saint Martin's University does not have Greek life and its campus is dry.

Presidents

* 1955-1959 Father Damian Glenn, OSB
* 1959-1964 Father Dunstan Curtis, OSB
* 1964-1971 Father Michael Feeney, OSB
* 1971-1975 Father Matthew Naumes
* 1975-1980 Father John Scott, OSB
* 1980-1984 Dr. John Ishii
* 1984-2005 Dr. David Spangler
* 2005-2008 Dr. Douglas Alstolfi
* 2008-2008 Bryan M. Johnston, J.D. (Deceased; never formally inaugurated)
* 2008-Present Dr. David Spangler (Interim)

Traditions

* Annual Food and Wine Festival
* Graduation Walk down the grand staircase with traditional Scottish bagpipe music
* Scholars Day, in which students can present research projects
* Hawaiian Luau for all students that features traditional foods and dancing
* Student Liturgy every Sunday in the Abbey Church
* Evergreen State College Rivalry in Basketball
* Annual Basketball Exhibition between a NCAA Division 1 Team. Played Washington Huskies and Oregon Ducks
* "The Belltower," the student-run newspaper

Engineering

Tapas K. Das, Ph.D., P.E., adjunct faculty member of Saint Martin’s University School of Engineering, has been named the recipient of the Development Organization for Sustainable Transformation (DOST) Professor S. K. Sharma Medal and CHEMCON Distinguished Speaker Award for 2007. The Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers recently conferred the award upon Das to recognize his contributions to the profession of chemical engineering.

External links

* [http://www.stmartin.edu/ Saint Martin's University's home page]