DailyDaysofLife: SLU: From Small Beginnings Comes a Great University

Saint Louis University was not Saint Louis University before. Actually, it was just a small room. A small room that allows the Congregatio Immaculati Cordis Mariae missionaries to inform and to share their charisma and their missionary vision to the young Filipino men and women.

Mandated by the Vatican to Christianize the northern part of the Phillipines, the CICM missionaries decided to come in the country and to follow the Vatican's order. They arrived here in the Philippines by the year 1907 and settled in Baguio because of its proximity to both Manila and the mountain province of Benguet beyond the Cordillera mountain range, that was home to numerous indigenous tribes. But only in 1911 did Fr. Séraphin Devesse started a one-room elementary school for 10 Cordilleran boys and named it the Saint Louis School . And in 1915, St. Louis school has expanded by opening it's second branch and improved into a vocational and trade school. In 1952, the school came to a new light through the rise of the institution of Saint Louis College having 75 students enrolled. This was part of the efforts made by Fr. Rafael Desmedt and Bishop William Brasseur. Saint Louis College soon became Saint Louis University in 1963.

Saint Louis University was not the only school built by these CICM missionaries. They also run the Saint Louis School of Mandaue, Saint Mary's University in Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya, and the Saint Louis College in San Fernando, La Union, and the Saint Louis College in Tuguegarao, in the Cagayan valley, thus covering a major part of Northern Luzon with outstanding educational institutions.
Through a century of outstanding service of quality education, the Saint Louis University has produced more than a thousand impressive fruits who brought major developments to Baguio up to the mountain ranges of the provinces of Benguet.

The continuous growth and development of the institution was made through the guidance of the following Rectors or Presidents:

1952-1954 Gerard Decaestecker

1954-1962 Albert Van Overbeke

1962-1964 Gerard Linssen

1964-1976 Paul Zwaenepoel

1976-1983 Ghisleen De Vos

1983-1996 Joseph Van den Daelen

1996–2005 Paul Van Parijs

2005–present Jessie M. Hechanova

Now, SLU not only offers secondary education such as Elementary and High School but now has nine colleges offering graduate and undergraduate programs . The different Colleges are now known as Schools which was just effective on June 2010. The campus is divided into 3 major groups:

1. Saint Louis University- Laboratory Elementary School
A school that offers quality education for children entering Kindergarten up to Grade 6.

2. Saint Louis University- Laboratory High School
A school that offers quality education for those teenagers who graduated from Elementary and enters the second level of their education. The school aims to produce children who will be ready to face the reality of life and to prepare the students for their college degrees after they graduate.

3. Saint Louis University
A school that offers quality education through major subjects. The school aims to guide its students to the direction they have to take for their future. Major colleges that it offers are:

School of Accountancy and Business Management - SABM
(College of Accountancy and Commerce)
School of Computing and Information Sciences - SCIS
(College of Information and Computing Sciences)
School of Engineering and Architecture - SEA
(College of Engineering and Architecture)
School of Humanities - SoH
(College of Human Sciences)
School of Law - SoL
(College of Law)
School of Medicine - SoM
(College of Medicine)
School of Natural Sciences - SNS
(College of Natural Sciences)
School of Nursing - SoN
(College of Nursing)
School of Teacher Education - STE
(College of Education)


SLU also brought its name to good glory through the competitions the students participate on. Many competitions outside the school are joined by different students. They simply show that Louisians also have great potentials, talent, and intelligence that is used to make SLU and Baguio proud.

SLU has developed in all its aspects. From small beginnings, now here comes our great and mighty...SLU!