Gonzaga University

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**Gonzaga University**

Motto	Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam
Established	1887
Type	Private (Roman Catholic)
President	Fr. Robert J. Spitzer, SJ
Faculty	348
Undergraduates	4,150
Postgraduates	2,225
Location	Spokane, Washington, United States
Conference	West Coast Conference
Nickname	Bulldogs (official), Zags (sports)
Mascot	Spike the Bulldog
Website	www.gonzaga.edu

Gonzaga University is a private Catholic university located in Spokane, Washington. Founded in 1887 by the Society of Jesus, it is one of 28 member institutions of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities and is named after the patron saint of youth, St. Aloysius Gonzaga. The campus has 87 buildings across 108 acres (437,000 m²) of grass land along the Spokane River, in a residential setting half a mile (800 m) from downtown Spokane. The university was founded by Father Joseph Cataldo, SJ, an Italian born priest and missionary who wished to create a Catholic school in the Northwest for the local Native Americans at the time.

1 Curriculum
2 Statistics
3 Famous alumni
4 Sports
5 Controversy
6 External links

[edit] Curriculum

Gonzaga's liberal arts tradition lies in its core curriculum, which integrates philosophy, religious studies, mathematics, literature, natural and social sciences, and extensive writing in each major discipline. In addition, Gonzaga offers programs in preparation for professional schools in education, dentistry, law, medicine, nursing and veterinary Medicine. Gonzaga also sponsors an Army ROTC program which has ranked best in the Western Region two consecutive years and is routinely ranked in the top 5 of the nation. Students may study abroad at Gonzaga's campus in Florence, Italy, or at other programs in England, France, Spain, Japan, China and Mexico. Biology majors have options for field studies in Australia, Baja-Mexico, British West Indies, Costa Rica and Kenya.

[edit] Statistics

The annual 2006-07 budget is listed on the university's website as being $120.64 million, with an annual payroll of $57.44 million. Average class size is 21, and there are 348 employed faculty. There are 44 Jesuits on campus, 24 employed by the University. There are 637 non-faculty employees. Enrollment in totality is estimated to be about 6,469 (about 4,150 undergraduate) students. Gonzaga's Law School is one of three law schools in Washington state. The other two are the University of Washington School of Law and Seattle University School of Law. According to U.S. News & World Report, Gonzaga's law school routinely ranks in either the third or fourth tiers. Gonzaga University has been ranked 3rd in the U.S. News rankings for Universities-Master's in the West for small liberal arts schools [1]. This is one small jump up from its previous position of being rated 4th [2]. More recently Gonzaga University has been ranked the 25th most fit school in the nation by Men's Fitness Magazine.

[edit] Famous alumni

Singer Bing Crosby, former Speaker of the House Tom Foley, and writer Sherman Alexie attended Gonzaga. Washington governor Christine Gregoire, the state's first female state attorney general, George Nethercutt, former Representative and 2004 Republican candidate for US Senate, and Barbara Madsen and Mary Fairhurst of the Washington State Supreme Court are alumni of Gonzaga Law School. In a recent election cycle in Washington state there was at least one Gonzaga graduate in almost every race, highlighting the quality of the university's education and the graduates that it produces. Along with various other well known political figures (ranging from senators to representatives to mayors to governors) Gonzaga also has many graduates who serve as judges - including state supreme court judges - along with a long line of distinguished individuals within the legal profession.

The Chad Mitchell Trio, a folk group famous in the 1960s, met at Gonzaga.

Among sports figures, John Stockton of NBA's Utah Jazz fame; the Portland Trail Blazers' Dan Dickau; the Houston Rockets' Richie Frahm; Los Angeles Lakers' Ronny Turiaf; Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder and 2004 National League Rookie of the Year Jason Bay; and MLS and U.S. international soccer player Brian Ching are all graduates. Ching now plays forward for the Houston Dynamo of Major League Soccer. Adam Morrison of the Charlotte Bobcats left for the NBA after his junior year.

Gary Polonsky, later founding President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, earned his M.A. degree at Gonzaga.

Barats and Bereta, a comedy team made up of Luke Barats (class of 2006) and Joe Bereta (class of 2005), formed at Gonzaga and have enjoyed meteoric success online with their viral comedy videos posted on YouTube. They recently signed an NBC contract to produce comedy material for the network.

[edit] Sports

Gonzaga University, whose players are officially nicknamed the Bulldogs but often called the Zags, is part of the NCAA Division I West Coast Conference. Its men's basketball team, which did not make its first appearance in the NCAA tournament until 1995 (more than a decade after John Stockton graduated), has become nationally prominent since making the regional finals of the NCAA tournament ("Elite Eight") in 1999. The storied men's cross country program has also been a perennial force in the WCC.

Gonzaga University basketball games are now held in the newly constructed McCarthey Athletic Center, in which the Gonzaga men's basketball team has never lost. Before the McCarthey Center was built, the Bulldogs played occasional high-profile nonconference games off campus at the larger Spokane Arena; today, the only game regularly played there is the annual meeting with local rival Eastern Washington. As of the end of the 2005-2006 NCAA Division I season, Gonzaga men's basketball team has won 43 consecutive home games, which holds up as the largest home winning streak in the nation. They have also won 25 consecutive games against other WCC teams.

Two of Gonzaga's most recent notable athletes are basketball players; center J.P. Batista (now playing in Lithuania) and Player of the Year candidate and third overall 2006 NBA Draft pick forward Adam Morrison (who was selected by the Charlotte Bobcats), regarded for his likeness to Hall of Famer Larry Bird and his infamous moustache. Head coach Mark Few has been the West Coast Conference coach of the year every year since 2001. Few became the head coach in the summer of 1999, following the departure of Dan Monson to Minnesota.

Like many smaller private universities, Gonzaga discontinued its football program during World War II, due to declining enrollment, but not before producing two Pro Football Hall of Famers: Tony Canadeo '41 of the Green Bay Packers, and Ray Flaherty '26, a coach of the Washington Redskins. The final season of Gonzaga football was 1941. Efforts to restart the program in 1946 were unsuccessful, and the football stadium was slowly torn down in 1949.

Gonzaga University also has a dominant Army ROTC Ranger Challenge team which has won 16 championships in the last 17 years (breaking a 14 year streak in 2005, but again winning 1st place in 2006) and is a multiple Winner of the Douglas MacArthur Award; an going to the best ROTC program in the Western United States.