Xavier University
The Gallagher Student Center, a general gathering place for students and visitors, is located in the center of the main residential mall. The Cintas Center, where the Musketeers host their basketball games, and the home of the Hoff Student Dining Center, is located adjacent to that same main residential mall.
Dormitories on the main residential mall include Brockman Hall, Buenger Hall, Husman and Kuhlman Halls.
The majority of upper-class and graduate students choosing to live on-campus are housed in University-owned apartments, either adjacent to the main academic mall, or across campus on the other side of the academic mall. The Commons offers housing for 274 junior, senior, and graduate residents in three and four bedroom apartment style living.
Most upper-class students, though, seek off-campus housing due to the uncertainty of obtaining a University-owned apartment in the housing lottery.
The Academic Mall features Hailstones Hall, which houses the Williams College of Business, along with professors' offices and classrooms for both graduate and undergraduate classes and Alter Hall, a general use building which features Kelly Auditorium, the largest instruction room on the campus, computer labs open for general student use, a language lab, classrooms, and the Offices of the Bursar, the Registrar, Student Success and Retention, and the CAPS program. This serves as the campus chapel and holds daily masses which, though open to the public, are frequented mainly by students.
While Sunday morning and early afternoon masses are attended almost exclusively non-students, the Sunday Night Mass is heavily attended by students.
On the Opposite side of Victory Parkway from both the Academic and Residential Malls is the Athletic Mall. This is where the Armory, Hayden Baseball Field, Corcoran Soccer Field, Schmidt Fieldhouse, Elet Hall, Joseph Hall, and the O'Connor Sports Center are located.
Academics and demographics
Xavier University offers 74 majors within the colleges of Arts and Sciences, Social Sciences, Health and Education, and the Williams College of Business. A wide variety of minors and pre-professional programs, such as medicine, dentistry, law, pharmacy and veterinary medicine are also offered.
All students must complete the core curriculum.
Undergraduate students attending Xavier must complete a significant number of distribution requirements that are more commonly known as the Core Curriculum. There are required courses in: Theology, Philosophy, Mathematics, Fine Arts, History, Physical Science, Literature, Foreign Language, and the Social Sciences.
All graduates, upon completion of a Bachelor degree have read The Republic, Discourse on Method, and selections from the Bible among other original texts.
Major requirements
All undergraduate students are required to complete the Core Curriculum (see above) and comply with departmental requirements. Students in the other colleges (the College of Social Sciences and the College of Arts and Sciences) generally have to complete at least 60 credit hours of courses within the major and electives within the College.
degree, and all students must achieve a 2.0 GPA minimum in their major course of study.
Certain majors; such as Politics Philosophy and the Public (PPP), Honors Bachelor of Arts (HAB), and Philosophy require a written thesis and defense before a selected committee. Philosophy also requires a written comprehensive exam.
Grading scale
In 2005 Xavier switched to the plus minus grading system, after using the simpler A, B,C,D,F scale since the university's inception.
However, in addition to the standard letter grades, Xavier offers professors the option to assign various non-traditional grades, such as VF (Vanished Failure) for students who do not attend class regularly. The university also offers students the option to "Audit" courses; that is, to take the class, but have any passing grade not computed into the student's Grade Point Average.
Xavier has also switched to a "Quality-Point" conversion scale to compute Grade Point Averages.
The Quality Points are assigned such that each 1/3 of a grade is the equivalent to 1/3 Quality Point per credit hour. The total number of Quality Points earned is divided by the total number of credit hours attempted (excepting those officially Withdrawn from consideration -- where a grade of W was assigned) to compute the student's Grade Point Average.
Rankings
Xavier has been recognized as one of the top ten Masters universities in the Midwest for the last 13 years by U.S.
Xavier sponsors eight intercollegiate sports for men, and eight sports for women. The University's graduation rate of 94% is the third highest graduation rate for athletes in the nation behind Duke University and Stanford University. The school has graduated every men's basketball player since 1985 and is the only non-BCS school to be listed among the top 20 most valuable programs in college basketball..
Other sports
Xavier also competes in:
Women's Basketball
Women's Volleyball
Men's Baseball
Cross Country (Men's and Women's Teams)
Golf (Men's and Women's Teams)
Soccer (Men's and Women's Teams)
Swimming (Men's and Women's Teams)
Tennis (Men's and Women's Teams)
Track & Field, both Indoor and Outdoor (Men's and Women's Teams)
Xavier fielded an NCAA Division I football team until the 1973 season.
The absence of the team led to the creation of the popular t-shirt "Xavier Football: Undefeated since 1973." However, the sport has made a comeback at the university. In 2007, Xavier also led in the creation of the Midwestern Club Football Conference, formed out of club teams at Miami (OH), Marquette University, Xavier, and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
On September 30, 2007 Xavier won their first football game in 34 years, defeating Miami's (OH) club team 13-7. On October 20, 2007, Xavier beat SIUE 13-6, winning the first Midwest Club Football Conference championship.
Mascots
Xavier is one of a handful of universities with two mascots. D'Artagnan, the Musketeer, is the university's official mascot and is the origin of the school's nickname, The Xavier Musketeers.
The Blue Blob, D'Artagnan's sidekick, is the fan favorite, fun loving mascot commissioned to excite the crowd and, from time to time, to play a practical joke on unsuspecting fans.
D'Artagnan - The History The Musketeer concept was suggested in 1925 by the late Reverend Francis J. Father Finn proposed the name 'Musketeers' and it has been a Xavier designation ever since.
In naming the Musketeers, Father Finn was not only giving rebirth to a concept of chivalry that is among France's most treasured traditions, but he was also providing permanent recognition to Xavier's strong ties with French origins and culture.
The first priest, and one of the first Europeans to navigate the Ohio River past the site that was to become Cincinnati, was a Jesuit from French Canada named the Rev.
It is said that to him Ohio owes the first map of her boundaries.
Among the first students at Xavier in the decade of the 1830s were French-speaking young men from Louisiana who were forbidden by the college regulations to use their family tongue during recreation lest they fail to learn the English language.
The first Jesuit Priest of Xavier, in 1840, was Father John Anthony Elet, a native of the French-speaking provinces of Belgium.
The great patron of the University, St. He is present at many University functions year round including Alumni gatherings, Pre-game events, student events, and volunteer functions.
During basketball season, D'Artagnan leads the Musketeers onto the court waving the giant 'X' flag.
The first, preferred by most fans because of its victorious nature, stems from the annual Crosstown Shootout between Xavier University and the University of Cincinnati. Its color, blue, was determined by Xavier's team colors, blue and white.
The Athletic Department felt the need to cater to young children and developed the fun loving and goofy Blue Blob for the enjoyment of the Musketeer fans.
Nevertheless, the Blue Blob has provided much excitement to fans young and old.