Loyola University Maryland’s Sellinger School of Business and Management ranks No. 53 in the nation in Bloomberg Businessweek’s “Best Undergraduate Business Schools 2013,” up nine spots from last year. Loyola is the only Maryland school on this year’s list.

The Sellinger School is also ranked No. 35 for academic quality, receiving an “A” for teaching quality and an “A+” for facilities and services, and its graduates boast a median starting salary of $47,000. Businessweek generates the rankings based on data from surveys of students and employers.

“Recognition in Businessweek is especially meaningful because it’s based largely and directly on what students say about the value of their educational experience at Loyola,” said Karyl B. Leggio, Ph.D., dean of the Sellinger School.

Recently, both the accounting and finance programs within the Sellinger School’s MBA program were ranked in the top 30 nationally by U.S. News and World Report.

In all, 145 undergraduate business programs participated in Businessweek’s ranking this year, three more than last year. In total, 27,561 students and 218 employers responded to the surveys this year. Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business ranked No. 1 for the second year in a row.

The full list of ranked schools is available here.

Loyola University Maryland welcomes Ari Shapiro, White House reporter for National Public Radio, for the 2013 Muriel and Clarence J. Caulfield Memorial Lecture on Thursday, April 25, at 5 p.m. in McGuire Hall on Loyola’s North Charles Street campus. The event, “Behind the Scenes of the Political Campaign: Stories You Won't Hear on the Radio,” is free and open to the public.

As the White House reporter for NPR, Shapiro focuses on national security and legal affairs. His stories appear on all of NPR’s newsmagazines, including “All Things Considered” and “Morning Edition,” where he is also a frequent guest host. He is the first NPR reporter to be promoted to correspondent before age 30 and covered the U.S. Department of Justice in that role for five years. Prior to covering the Justice Department, Shapiro was NPR’s regional reporter in Atlanta and then in Miami. In 2003, he was an NPR reporting fellow at WBUR in Boston.

Shapiro has been recognized with several journalism prizes, including The American Bar Association's Silver Gavel for his coverage of prisoners lost in Louisiana's detention system after Hurricane Katrina; The Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize for his investigation of methamphetamine use and HIV transmission; the Columbia Journalism Review's "laurel" recognition of his investigation into disability benefits for injured veterans; and the American Judges' Association's American Gavel for a body of work reporting on courts and the justice system. He has appeared as a guest analyst on television news programs including “The NewsHour,” “The Rachel Maddow Show,” and “CNN Newsroom.”

Shapiro is a magna cum laude graduate of Yale. He began his journalism career in 2001 in the office of NPR Legal Affairs Correspondent Nina Totenberg. Shapiro was born in Fargo, N.D., and grew up in Portland, Ore.

Now in its 25^th year, the Caulfield Lecture series at Loyola was established by the family of Clarence J. Caulfield, a 1922 alumnus who spent 26 years as an editor at The Baltimore Sun and was a mentor to such prominent writers as J. Anthony Lukas and Russell T. Baker. Hosted by the communication department, the Caulfield Lecture brings journalists and commentators of national stature to Loyola every year. Dan Rodicks, host of “Midday” on Baltimore’s NPR affiliate WYPR-AM, spoke at last year’s lecture.

For more information, please contact Erin Richardson at 410-617-2528 or erichardson@loyola.edu.

As we at Loyola University Maryland welcome Pope Francis, we ask God to bless him in his ministry to the Catholic Church and to the world.

It is so gratifying to our academic and faith community that our Holy Father is not only an accomplished intellectual in the tradition of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI but also that he is a member of the Society of Jesus, the order whose ideals guide our university. As a Jesuit, he appreciates the principles we treasure here at Loyola, understands our mission as a university and the responsibilities we hold, and he embraces our commitment to social justice.

At this time of much division in our Church and throughout the world, how meaningful that our Holy Father chose the name Francis, the name of St. Francis of Assisi, who was called to rebuild Christ's church on earth. We recognize that Pope Francis will need to bridge gaps both within the Roman Catholic Church and between Catholics and people of other faiths, and we support him in his efforts to do so.

As Pope Francis embraces the many challenges ahead, always working to accomplish them for the greater glory of God, we will keep him in our prayers. At this time we can reflect on the words of St. Francis of Assisi, "Start by doing what is necessary, then what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible."

The annual Loyola Student Exhibition will be on display in the Julio Fine Arts Gallery from April 11-28, Monday-Friday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m., and Sunday, 1-4 p.m. The Gallery will be closed during all University holidays.There will be an artist's reception on Thursday, April 11.

Join Dan McClain, director of program operations, and current MTS students for a virtual chat about graduate school in theology and religious studies. Find out what makes the Loyola MTS a unique program, and get answers to your questions. Register and receive an email on the day of the hangout with a link to join the session.

Register online >>

Join Dan McClain, director of program operations, and current MTS students for a virtual chat about graduate school in theology and religious studies. Find out what makes the Loyola MTS a unique program, and get answers to your questions. Register and receive an email on the day of the hangout with a link to join the session.

Register online >>

Award-winning writer and social justice advocate Jimmy Santiago Baca will deliver a poetry reading and discussion titled "Open-Heart Journeying." A book signing will follow the event.

Baca has published more than a dozen books of poetry, including Immigrants In Our Own Land (1975), Martin and Meditations on the South Valley (1987), winner of the American Book Award, and, most recently, The Lucia Poems (2012), as well as the memoir A Place To Stand, which received the International Prize in 2001. In addition, Baca has conducted writing workshops in prisons, libraries, and universities across the U.S. for more than 30 years, and, in 2004, launched Cedar Tree, a literary nonprofit that provides writing workshops and outreach programs for at-risk youth, prisoners and ex-prisoners, and disadvantaged communities. The event is free and open to the public.