St. Mary's University, Texas

St. Mary’s University

Type	Private
Established	1852
Endowment	$116.5 million
President	Thomas Mengler, J.D.
Undergraduates	2,437
Postgraduates	1,517
Location	San Antonio , Texas , USA 29.4531°N 98.5623°W / 29.4531; -98.5623
Campus	Urban, 135 acres (0.55 km2)
Endowment	$163 million
Colors	Gold and Blue
Nickname	Rattlers
Mascot	Rattler Man
Website	www.stmarytx.edu

St. Mary's University is a Catholic and Marianist liberal arts institution located on 135 acres (0.55 km²) northwest of Downtown San Antonio, Texas, United States. St. Mary’s is a nationally recognized master’s level school ranked among the top colleges in the west for best value and academic reputation by U.S. News and World Report. In 2010, St. Mary's was named by Washington Monthly as first in the nation in the category of Master’s Universities for promoting an ethic of service to country; fostering scientific and humanistic research; and performing as an engine of social mobility.

Founded by the Society of Mary (Marianists) in 1852, St. Mary’s is the oldest Catholic university in Texas and the American Southwest. With a diverse student population of nearly 4,000, St. Mary’s is home to five schools: Humanities and Social Sciences; Science, Engineering and Technology; Bill Greehey School of Business; Graduate; and Law.

History

St. Mary's University, founded in 1852 by Marianist brothers and priests, is the first institution of higher learning in San Antonio and the oldest Catholic university in Texas and the American Southwest. Founded as St. Mary's Institute, the school opened on Aug. 25, 1852, with a faculty of five and an enrollment of 12 boys. It relocated to a location on College Street along the east bank of the San Antonio River in 1853 and in 1882 changed its name to St. Mary's College. In 1891, 75 acres located in Woodlawn Hills northwest of downtown were purchased as a new campus. In 1894, the new school, St. Louis College opened for boarding students and while St. Mary's College remained open for day students. St. Louis College received junior college status from the State of Texas in 1895. In 1921 all college classes were transferred from downtown to the St. Louis College campus. In 1923, St. Louis College became St. Mary’s College with an enrollment of 12 in the freshman class. Grade school and high school students remained at the downtown school, which adopted the name St. Mary’s Academy. The new St. Mary's College quickly gained senior college status and in 1927 the first class of bachelor's degree candidates graduated from the newly renamed St. Mary's University. In 1932, the high school programs at St. Mary's Academy would relocated from the College Street campus to become Central Catholic High School. Personal attention and powerful academic programs have made St. Mary's, located on 135 acres (0.55 km²) 3 miles northwest of Downtown San Antonio, a nationally recognized liberal arts institution with a diverse student population of nearly 4,000 of all faiths and backgrounds.

Academic programs

St. Mary’s offers 44 academic programs, in addition to pre-professional programs in medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, allied health, and law. St. Mary's Graduate School offers 24 master's programs and 2 Ph.D. programs. A student-faculty ratio of 13 to 1 assures personal attention designed to help students excel in their chosen fields. St. Mary’s has some 200 full-time faculty members, 94 percent of whom hold doctorate or terminal degrees.

St. Mary’s University integrates liberal arts and professional studies in each student's degree. The School of Humanities and Social Sciences is the largest school at the University.

St. Mary's is accredited through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. In addition, the Bill Greehey School of Business is accredited by AACSB International, [Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business], making St. Mary’s the only Catholic university in Texas to achieve this status. Electrical and industrial engineering programs in the School of Science, Engineering and Technology are recognized through accreditation by ABET [Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology].

Law School

Main article: St. Mary's University School of Law

In October 1927, the San Antonio Bar Association established the San Antonio School of Law, and for seven years after its founding was administered by a board of governors under the control of the bar association. Until the School of Law became associated with a physical campus, classes were held at the Bexar County Courthouse. In an attempt to maximize educational and material resources of the fledgling institution, the Board of Governors negotiated with St. Mary's University regarding a transfer of the School of Law's administrative control. The transfer was completed on October 1, 1934, and St. Mary's University School of Law was officially established. The School of Law was then housed at St. Mary's University's then downtown campus at 112 College Street, situated near the San Antonio River Walk. Possessing several military bases, San Antonio experienced a surge of population and industry in the years immediately following the World War II. This exponential growth resulted in more law students. To meet these new demands adequately, the School of Law organized itself to meet the requirements of the American Bar Association and the Association of American Law Schools. It received accreditation from the ABA in February 1948 and became a member of the AALS in December 1949. On December 19, 1967, the School of Law relocated from the College Street campus to join the main campus of St. Mary's. A multi-million dollar expansion project had provided for the addition of eight new buildings to the main University campus, including a lecture hall, law library, and faculty building comprising the Law Center. The school held its first classes the next month, in January 1968. Since 1968, the school has had several structures rededicated, renovated, or expanded, including the Law Administration Building, housing the office of the dean; the Law Classroom Building; and the Sarita Kenedy East Law Library, dedicated in 1984 after the John G. and Marie Stella Kenedy Memorial Foundation gave the School of Law $7.5 million to fund its construction in January 1982.

Research

Students at St. Mary’s have an opportunity to participate in undergraduate research and impact the world of science. They are conducting progressive research and using critically emerging technology in robotics, bioengineering and biology. Research is used as a teaching tool for students who contribute their knowledge and skills in artificial intelligence, diabetes therapy and hip stem replacement research.

Internationally-oriented degrees and study-abroad programs encourage a global consciousness on the part of both faculty and students. Study abroad programs are designed to take academic or service experiences to a new level, stretch the imagination, deepen a student’s understanding of the world that surrounds him and create memories that will last a lifetime.

An involved student community

St. Mary’s promotes a campus culture of service and change in the community. Students who live on campus become a part of more than just the campus community as organizations offer academic, political, cultural, social and community service activities. Students also actively participate in 60 University-sponsored clubs and organizations, or in programs such as R.O.T.C., the Ethics Bowl, and Coffee and Politics.

University Ministry fosters a spirit of community and faith. All members of the University community are invited to participate in liturgical ministries, retreat planning, Bible study, Sacramental preparation, community service projects, faith-sharing groups, and much more.

Athletics

St. Mary’s University is a member of NCAA Division II and the Heartland Conference and sponsors 12 men's and women's sports at the varsity level. St. Mary's has won four team national championships in men’s basketball (1989), baseball (2001), softball (1986 and 2002), and one individual national title in men's golf (2006).

Interscholastic athletics competition began with baseball in 1902. Before St. Mary’s was recognized as a senior college in 1925, there was no formal conference competition, so the rivalry between the downtown and Woodlawn campuses was fierce. The colorful history of St. Mary’s athletics includes a stellar 1910 baseball team, which lost only to Ty Cobb’s Detroit Tigers in an exhibition game, and a stint by future President Eisenhower as coach of the 1916 football team.

St. Mary’s was an all-male school for more than a century, so it’s not surprising that its two longest-running sports are baseball and men’s basketball. But from 1925 until 1941, football – with its flashy uniforms and players, and even more flamboyant managers and coaches. In 1939, both Collier's and Life magazines feature full-page spreads on the St. Mary's football team and their cross country trips in a ragged bus, the "Blue Goose." Unfortunately the football team had to be disbanded due to World War II.

Records show the 1902 baseball team went 6–0, and the 1910 squad also went undefeated except for the aforementioned game against the Tigers. With the onset of the Depression, intercollegiate baseball disappeared only to be resurrected in 1947 by then-athletics director Brother Bill Siemer, S.M.

Over the years, St. Mary’s baseball has won local, regional and national fame. Accomplishments include 24 conference championships, four NAIA College World Series appearances and, most recently, the 2001 NCAA Division II conference, regional and national championships.

The St. Mary’s University men's basketball program also has enjoyed success over many years. In 1926, the school’s first intercollegiate basketball team posted a 12–7 record. In the late 1930s and early ’40s, the Rattlers, with their big man Ken “Arky” Croswell (B.A. ’42), dominated the short-lived Alamo Conference. Since 1951, men’s teams have captured 26 Big State and Heart of Texas conference championships and made 16 NAIA National Tournament appearances, including winning the 1989 NAIA National Championship. After entering NCAA Division II competition, the Rattlers won the Heartland Conference co-championship and advanced to the regional tournament in 2001, the team’s first year of post-season competition eligibility.

Women’s intercollegiate athletics, begun in 1968, also have enjoyed many triumphs. The softball team has led the way, winning several conference titles, playing in the NAIA and NCAA Division II national tournaments, and winning the 1986 NAIA National Championship and the 2002 Division-II National Championship.

St. Mary's first individual national championship came in 2006, when Jamie Amoretti won the NCAA Division II Men's Golf title. The Men's Golf team would be named the Golf Coaches Association of America 2008-2009 Academic National Champions, a title which St. Mary's treats as a fifth team national championship.

Following the end of intercollegiate football at the start of World War II, there have been at least three attempts to revive full-contact sports on campus: a club football team in the early 1970s, a club rugby team in the early 1990s, and a Texas Rugby Union Collegiate Division III team formed in Fall 2010.

The school hosted the NCAA Women's Division II Basketball Championship at Bill Greehey Arena in 2009 and 2012.

Athletics Honors

Three coaches and two players from St. Mary's have been inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame: Coach Elmer Kosub (1972), Coach Ed Messbarger (1990), Coach Buddy Meyer (2010), Leticia Morales-Bissaro (2000) and Robert Reid (1986).

The Mascot

The Rattler mascot has its own stories of how it came to be. Legend holds that the football practice field had to be cleared of diamondback rattlesnakes on a regular basis, thus leading to the designation. The truth is that Brother Kinsky thought “Rattlers” would be fitting because there was already on campus Rattler Club whose members had recently begun The Rattler newspaper. There was debate as to whether the name was being run into the ground, but the students quickly said they wanted the Rattler nickname.

Alton Seekatz (B.S.C. ’32), a member of the Rattler Club, described the organization as a spirit and social organization. “It was called the Rattler Club when I got here in 1926, and I’m not sure how it got its nickname,” he said, although his stories of the club members’ antics and efforts to raise school spirit would certainly “rattle” some and “shake” up others.

Notable alumni

Politics, Law, and Service

• Fernando Andrade, M.A. 1979, current Congressman at the Congress of the Republic of Peru and former Mayor of the Miraflores District, Lima
• Stuart Bowen, J.D. 1991, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction
• Marc A. Cisneros, B.B.A. 1961, U.S. Army lieutenant general, fmr. commander, United States Army South, and fmr. president, Texas A&M University–Kingsville
• James R. Clapper Jr., M.S. 1970, Political Science, Director of National Intelligence
• Tom Corbett, J.D. 1975, current governor of Pennsylvania and the state's former attorney general
• John Cornyn, J.D. 1977, U.S. Senator from Texas; former justice, Texas Supreme Court; St. Mary's Distinguished Law School Graduate (1994)
• David Alan Ezra, B.B.A. 1969, J.D., 1972, Senior Judge, United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, former Chief Judge, United States District Court for the District of Hawaii
• Blake Farenthold, J.D. 1989, U.S. Representative for Texas's 27th congressional district.
• Delia Garcia, M.A., 2004, First Latina and youngest female legislator at age 27 elected to the Kansas House of Representatives, 2004
• Charlie Gonzalez, J.D. 1972, U.S. Congressman
• Henry B. Gonzalez, LL.B. 1943, former U.S. Congressman
• Paul W. Green, J.D. 1977, Texas Supreme Court Justice
• Joe A. Guerra, B.S. 1957, Laredo businessman and city councilor
• Thad Heartfield, B.A. 1962, J.D. 1965, chief judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas
• Peter Kinder, J.D. 1979, lieutenant governor of Missouri
• Alma Lopez, J.D. 1968, Chief Justice, Texas Fourth Court of Appeals
• Frank L. Madla, B.A. 1959, M.A. 1962, Texas state senator and representative
• Marina Marmolejo, M.A., J.D. 1996, District Judge, United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas
• Michael McCaul, J.D. 1987, U.S. Congressman
• Scott McInnis, J.D. 1980, U.S. Congressman
• Mario G. Obledo, LL.B. 1960, co-founder of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund
• Tony Sanchez, B.A. 1965, J.D. 1969, unsuccessful candidate for governor of Texas, 2002 gubernatorial election
• Frank M. Tejeda, B.A. 1970, Texas state representative, Texas state senator, U.S. Congressman
• Alfred Valenzuela, B.A. 1970, M.A. 1979, United States Army major general
• Don S. Wenger, U.S. Air Force major general

Business

• Frank A. Bennack Jr., Class of 1960, vice chairman and CEO of the Hearst Corporation
• Benjamin Biaggini, B.S. 1936, former president of the Southern Pacific Company, parent company of Southern Pacific Railroad
• Bill Greehey, B.B.A 1960, chairman of NuStar Energy, former chairman of Valero Energy Corporation
• Felix Stehling, co-founder of Taco Cabana

Religion

• Richard Gaillardetz, M.A. 1984, Joseph McCarthy Chair of Catholic Systematic Theology at Boston College
• The Most Rev. Raymond Roussin, S.M., B.A. 1960, first Marianist archbishop, Archbishop of Vancouver 2004-09
• The Most Rev. J. Arturo Cepeda, M.A. 2001, Auxiliary Bishop of Detroit
• The Most Rev. Bernard Ferdinand Popp, M.A. 1975, Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus of San Antonio

Athletics

• Melvin Allys "Bert" Gallia, Class of 1911, former Major League Baseball pitcher for the Washington Senators, St. Louis Browns and Philadelphia Phillies
• Danny Heep, former Major League Baseball outfielder and 1988 World Series Champion
• Jeff Kubenka, B.A. 1996, former Major League Baseball pitcher
• Robert Reid, B.A. 1977, former National Basketball Association player for the Houston Rockets, Charlotte Hornets, Portland Trail Blazers, and Philadelphia 76ers

Arts, Entertainment, and Media

• Theodore Albrecht, B.M.E. 1967, musicologist
• Brian Anderson, broadcaster for the Milwaukee Brewers
• Florentino "Tino" Duran, Class of 1963, M.A. 1977, publisher of La Prensa, a bilingual San Antonio newspaper he founded in 1989
• Charles Fincher, J.D. 1971, American cartoonist ("Thadeus & Weez")
• Michele Lepe, stage name of Michelle Ockenfels, Class of 1997, Emmy Award-winning host of The Good Night Show, a program on PBS Kids Sprout, a 24-hour cable channel for preschoolers
• Larry Levinson, B.A. 1979, executive producer of more than 160 made-for-television movies
• Bobby Pulido, Class of 1995, Mexican-American Tejano music recording artist
• John Quiñones, B.A. 1974, ABC News correspondent and co-anchor of ABC News' Primetime

Education

• José Ángel Gutiérrez 1968, attorney, co-founder of the Mexican American Youth Organization, president of Raza Unida Party, professor at the University of Texas at Arlington

Science, medicine, and technology

• Homer A. Ahr, B.S. 1968, retired IBM Corporation Consulting Architect, Mission Control operator for Apollo 11, Apollo 13
• Giovanni G. Fazio, B.S. 1954, B.A. 1954, Ph.D., senior physicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
• Roberto L. Jimenez, M.D., clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas Health Science Center, and former chairman of the board of managers for University Health Systems, the public hospital district for Bexar County

See also: St. Mary's University School of Law

Student organizations

There are a total of 68 registered organizations:

• Honor societies: Alpha Sigma Lambda, Beta Beta Beta, Beta Gamma Sigma, Gamma Sigma Alpha, Omicron Delta Epsilon, Order of Omega, Phi Alpha Theta, Phi Beta Delta, Phi Eta Sigma, Phi Sigma Iota, Phi Sigma Tau, Pi Sigma Alpha, Psi Chi, Society of Honor Scholars.
• Religious organizations: University Ministry. Catholic Student Group.
• Minority and international student organizations: Black Student Union, Indian Student Association, International Students Association, League of United Latin American Citizens, Mexican Student Association, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Students for Native American Affairs, Hispanic Law Students Association, Muslim Student Association.
• Other organizations: IEEE Student Branch, Inter-Fraternity Council, National Panhellenic Council, Lambda Chi Alpha, Chi Phi, Sigma Phi Epsilon, Alpha Sigma Tau, Alpha Phi, Sigma Sigma Sigma, Delta Zeta, Alpha Phi Omega, Omega Delta Phi, Kappa Delta Chi, Beta Sigma Phi, Delta Sigma Pi, Kappa Theta Chi, Residence Hall Assoc., Student Bar Assoc., Student Government Assoc., Cheerleaders, Code Blue Dance Team, Emerging Leaders, President’s Ambassadors, University Programming Council, Accounting Club, American Chemical Society of Students, Criminal Justice Student Assoc., Finance Club, Graduate International Relations Society, International Business Club, Psychology Club, Society of Physics, St. Mary’s Society of Mathematicians (SM)^2, Student Educators Assoc. for Dynamic Leadership, Women in Science & Engineering, Amnesty International, Habitat for Humanity, Capoeira Club, Chess Club, Coro Santa Maria, Non-traditional Students, Society of Poets & Writers, Swim Club, Fiesta Physics, Society for Applied Ethics.

External links

• St. Mary’s University
• St. Mary’s University Athletics
• St. Mary’s University from the Handbook of Texas Online