Xavier University of Louisiana

Through the years, as needs dictated, the campus gradually expanded:

• Administration Building (1933)
• Old Library, now music department (1937)
• Gymnasium (1937)
• Saint Michael's Hall men's dorm (1955)
• Old Student Center (1962)
• Saint Joseph's Hall women's dorm (1965)
• House of Studies (1967)
• Saint Katharine Drexel Hall women's dorm (1969)
• College of Pharmacy (1970)
• Norman C. Francis Academic/Science Complex (1988)
• Xavier South office building purchased (1990)
• Library/Resource Center and College of Pharmacy Addition (1993)
• Peter Claver women's dorm (1994)
• Norman C. Francis Science Complex addition (1998)
• The Living Learning Center upperclassmen coed residence (1998)
• University Student Center (2003)
• St. Martin de Porres upperclassmen residence (2003)
• Qatar Pharmacy Pavilion (2010)
• Convocation Academic Center (2012)
• Saint Katharine Drexel Chapel (2012)
• Fitness Center (2015)

In 2018, Xavier had an endowment of approximately $171 million, which is the fourth highest of Louisiana's colleges and universities.[9]

The campus of Xavier University of Louisiana is often referred to as "Emerald City" due to the various buildings on campus that have green roofs. These include the Library/Resource center, the Norman C. Francis science addition, the University Center, the Living Learning Center, the Saint Martin De Porres hall and the Katharine Drexel hall.

The Blessed Sacrament Sisters remain a vital presence on campus, providing much-needed staffing and some financial assistance, but today Xavier is governed by a multicultural Board of Trustees. In 1987, Pope John Paul II addressed the presidents of all U.S. Catholic colleges from the courtyard of the Xavier administration building. Norman C. Francis retired in 2015, after 47 years as president of the university.

In May 1961, the civil rights activist group known as the Freedom Riders arrived in New Orleans by plane after bus drivers in Alabama refused to take them to Montgomery, Alabama. Locals, aware of the fire bombings and other attacks that had befallen the group, refused to accommodate them with lodging out of fear of retaliatory violence. Xavier President Emeritus Norman C. Francis, at the time the university's Dean of Men, secretly arranged for the group to stay several days in a dormitory on campus. Francis received permission from University President Sister Mary Josephina to allow the group to occupy space on the third floor of St. Michael's Hall under the condition that the press would not be alerted as to the move. Historic St. Michael's Hall, on Pine Street on Xavier's campus, still accommodates male students in traditional dormitory style.

Hurricane Katrina made landfall in August 2005, striking the New Orleans area. Xavier, located in the lower-lying Gert Town section and adjacent to the Washington-Palmetto Canal,[10] suffered damage to almost every structure on campus. Many buildings sat partially submerged for extended periods of time following the hurricane. Dr. Norman C. Francis, President of the University, organized boats and buses to transport stranded faculty, staff, and students from the campus to safe areas.[11] Students began returning to the university in January 2006.[12]

• 
  Limestone facade
• 
  Katrina, 2005
• 
  Xavier, across canal
• 
  Library
• 
  Qatar Pharmacy Pavilion

In April 2006, the nation of Qatar donated $17.5 million to assist the university in hurricane recovery and in expanding the school's College of Pharmacy.[13] The groundbreaking ceremony in 2008 was attended by Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, leader of Qatar, and on 15 October 2010 the school's Qatar Pharmacy Pavilion opened, adding 60,000 square feet (5,600 m²) adjacent to the existing College of Pharmacy building.

President Barack Obama visited New Orleans in August 2010 to commemorate the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. He gave his address from Xavier, complimenting the work of the leaders of the community and affirming the commitment to continue to aid in the re-building of the area.[14] In 2006, the university had bestowed an Honorary Degree on then-Senator Obama.

Xavier University received the "Katrina Compassion Award" from the US government Corporation for National and Community Service in 2006, for the combined efforts of an estimated 60% of its students in rebuilding the neighborhoods damaged by the hurricane.[15]

President Verret

Dr. C. Reynold Verret is Xavier University of Louisiana's sixth president. He assumed his position as the university's leader during the Summer of 2015 and was officially inaugurated in the university's Academic Convocation Center on 26 February 2016.

Dr. Norman C. Francis

At the time of his retirement, President Emeritus Dr. Norman C. Francis was the longest serving president of a university in the United States. Himself a Xavier graduate, he led the university for 47 years (1968-2015) and became a nationally recognized leader in higher education. Among other honors and roles entrusted to him, he served as the head of several national educational groups and in 2006 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.[16][17]

• Biological and Public Health Sciences
• Business
• Education and Counseling
• Fine Arts and Humanities
• Mathematical and Physical Sciences
• Social and Behavioral Sciences

• Division of Basic Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Division of Clinical and Administrative Sciences

More African-American alumni of Xavier consistently place into medical school and graduate with baccalaureate degrees in the physical sciences and biological sciences than African-American alumni of any other college or university in the United States.[20][21] Xavier's College of Pharmacy is one of just two pharmacy schools in Louisiana.[22] Xavier consistently ranks among the top three colleges in the nation in graduating African Americans with Pharm.D. degrees.[23]

Xavier does not offer engineering degrees but belongs to partnerships with several engineering institutions that automatically admit qualified Xavier science students interested in pursuing a bachelor's in an engineering discipline. Students who successfully complete the program will receive a bachelor's degree from Xavier and the chosen engineering institution in approximately five years. Engineering institutions in partnership with Xavier are Tulane University, University of New Orleans, Southern University at Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University, University of Notre Dame, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, University of Detroit Mercy, Georgia Institute of Technology, and University of Wisconsin at Madison.[24]

Xavier's athletics teams are nicknamed Gold Rush for men's teams and Gold Nuggets for women's teams. The university is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), competing in the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference (GCAC). Men's sports include basketball, cross country, tennis, and track & field; women's sports include basketball, cross country, tennis, track & field, and volleyball.

Xavier's basketball and volleyball teams compete on campus in their new facility, the Xavier University Academic Convocation Center. The Convocation Center is a $25 million facility with a seating capacity of 4,500.