Highlights of the 2024-25 Year

Well-rounded Jesuit Education 

Research abounds in the sciences and beyond. A team of faculty gathered regularly to rethink research and posit it as “creative inquiry,” highlighting the scholarly work occurring across the humanities as well as throughout the STEM fields. To support related projects, the Sponsored Research team expanded from one to three staff members to secure funds and oversee regulatory processes. Grant-funded research supported a college preview program for Native American youth, climate resilience efforts, understanding responses to violence and much more.

 

Artificial intelligence is here to stay and the Institute for Informatics and Applied Technology, led by the David and Kathleen Reisenauer Family Director Jay Yang, is all about helping faculty, staff and students use it thoughtfully and ethically. The Institute’s first conference featured experts in data science, cybersecurity, law and education addressing the myriad ways AI technologies are reshaping society.

Students in the School of Law’s Lincoln LGBTQ+ Rights Clinic celebrated a landmark settlement (the largest in the school’s history), related to a groundbreaking resolution in a medical malpractice case.

 

Gonzaga hosted the National Debate Tournament for the third time, welcoming 78 two-person teams from 48 schools for a long weekend of intense intellectual exchanges and camaraderie. Binghamton University (of New York state) took the national championship, but Gonzaga was the ultimate winner at a reunion of Gonzaga debate alumni who raised $225,000 for a new debate endowment.

During a campus gathering to watch the 2024 Presidential Debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, debate students also provided live fact-checking and facilitated a Q&A among students, faculty and staff.

 

Student Flourishing  

The first new facility in a phased housing complex, Mantua Hall (shown above) opened to second-year students for the spring 2025 semester.

Gonzaga welcomed 19 students into the inaugural class of Unity Scholars, a program supporting Washington students with financial need who are committed to social justice, cultural awareness and leadership. Among this class, 12 are first-generation college students.

Continuing to grow in course offerings, Immersive Outdoor Learning provides opportunities for students to learn outside traditional classroom and lab environments.  

The Zags360 initiative aims to integrate holistic support for the well-being of student-athletes in everything from nutrition and sleep to help with name-image-and-likeness (NIL) and financial issues.

National News

Historic Honors

Gonzaga held an installation and inaugural induction ceremony for its new Phi Beta Kappa chapter, titled Epsilon of Washington. Phi Beta Kappa, founded in 1776, is the nation’s oldest academic honor society. The establishment of a chapter at Gonzaga was approved by the society in August 2024, making the recent 75 inductees the first Zags to be recognized by the Society. Several national leaders within Phi Beta Kappa traveled to Spokane to attend the installation, including PBK President Esther Jones and PBK CEO Fred Lawrence.

 

Faculty Experts

Brian Henning, professor of ethics and director of the Institute for Climate, Water and the Environment, appeared in Yahoo News and other outlets, discussing proposed cuts in federal grants, including the $20-million EPA grant awarded to Gonzaga earlier in the year. He also interviewed with the New York Times about the Climate Institute’s work related to heat in the Pacific Northwest, and with ABC News in a piece about Earth Day. 

Economics professor Ryan Herzog appeared on CBS News to talk about the impact of farming-related closures on small-town communities. Herzog also appeared in a Bloomberg News story about “Swiftonomics,” the economic boost driven by Taylor Swift. 

Mathematician Joseph Stover explained the statistics of the COVID-19 fatality rate in a story published on gonzaga.edu, which became one of the top search results on Google on this topic, garnering 22,000 visitors to GU’s site.

Joining the Pac-12 Conference 

Gonzaga is set to join the new era of the Pac-12 athletic conference in 2026 as the century-old entity builds a formidable basketball powerhouse. Gonzaga is the only non-football school invited to the new Pac-12. 

 

New Academic Offerings 

Several new programs of study became available for undergraduate and graduate students:  

College of Arts & Sciences 

• Undergraduate majors in neuroscience and in women, gender and sexuality studies

School of Engineering & Applied Science 

• Master of engineering management 
• Bachelor’s degrees in biomedical engineering and data science 
• Minor and concentration in robotics 

School of Health Sciences 

• Undergraduate major in public health

School of Leadership studies 

• Certificates in college teaching in communication, leadership in the time of AI, strategic communication and public relations and social media management