Students, faculty and alumni, save the date for April 15, when we celebrate Loyola University’s 100th anniversary. Accompany others as they attend musical concerts, fireworks and a display of the time capsule.

In 1911, Loyola College was transformed into a post-secondary institution as the first classes were held inside Marquette Hall. In 1912, Loyola College was chartered by the state of Louisiana as Loyola University.

One hundred years later, mark the event that Loyola’s Marketing and Communications department and Annual Giving have spent over two years planning.

Bill Bishop, the vice president of Institutional Advancement, is in charge of the Centennial Committee, comprised of 29 representatives from University Ministry, and every college and administrative department.

The official theme surrounding the entire next year’s events will be “Celebrating Our Past, Embracing the Future.” The celebration will begin April 2012 and will last a year, ending with commencement in 2013, Bishop said.

Bernard Cook, history professor, is in the process of writing a history of Loyola that will be distributed for the centennial.

“The centennial commemorates the chartering of Loyola University by the state of Louisiana in 1912. It is an opportunity to celebrate all that has been accomplished at Loyola in the past 100 years, and to rededicate the Loyola community to the values which inspired its Jesuit founders,” Cook said.

The kick-off week for the centennial will take place April 7 to 13, 2012 and feature a president’s forum on Loyola’s role in desegregation in the 1950s and 1960s, a time capsule presentation from the Class of 2012 and a centennial concert coordinated by Student Government Association, University Planning Board and the Office of Co-Curricular Programs.

The kick-off of a year of historically focused events will culminate with the weekend of April 13 to 15, which will coincide with Alumni Weekend. It will include class reunions, a centennial exhibition in the library, a welcome reception, campus tours, a centennial history lecture and a book signing by Cook as well as Founders Day activities, Bishop said.

Bishop also said on Founders Day, there will be a centennial Mass followed by a festival-style celebration for the Loyola community on the Marquette lawn. It will include picnic food, interactive programming, live music and a fireworks finale.

Along with the events planned for the kick-off in April, the committee is also planning a centennial-themed commencement with “enhanced production and a celebratory send-off,” for the centennial class of 2012, Bishop said.

To continue celebrations, there are plans for a centennial celebration for Family Weekend in October 2012, a roster of lectures with centennial themes throughout the year, a special Loyola Centennial Float in the Loyola student-founded Krewe of Tucks parade during the 2013 Mardi Gras season, another Founders Day Celebration in April 2013 and commencement in May where the university will give special recognition to the Class of 2013.

“Loyola’s moving forward into the next century,” Bishop said.

Along with the university’s planning, students have come together to create their own centennial committee that is creating more events for the centennial celebrations for spring 2012.

“As a member of the class of 2012, I brought this up in the centennial committee and I have been spearheading some ideas with a committee of students on ways we can incorporate not only the centennial class, but the rest of the university as well,” said Michael Morin, SGA president and music education senior.

Some of their ideas include a student centennial party on the Natchez steamboat, making class t-shirts and sunglasses, re-taking the senior class photo and giving out copies to seniors, making a yearbook and holding the centennial concert on campus.

“I am very excited,” Morin said. “This is such a huge milestone for the university and the fact that I get to help plan the events makes me much more involved, a little more stressed out, but overall I can’t wait for it all to begin unfolding.”

Kristen Himmelberg can be reached at [email protected]

Kristen Diaz can be reached at [email protected]