page_title: History of the Ateneo de Manila
section_title: 21st century
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Ateneo de Manila / 21st century
caption_attribution_description: English: The Manuel V. Pangilinan Center for Student Leadership.
context_page_description: The Ateneo de Manila University is a private research university in Quezon City, Philippines. Founded in 1859 by the Society of Jesus, the Ateneo is the third-oldest university in the Philippines.
context_section_description: In 2000, the School of Arts and Sciences which comprised the College and the Graduate School restructured into four Loyola Schools: the School of Humanities, the John Gokongwei School of Management, the School of Science and Engineering, and the School of Social Sciences. The  Moro Lorenzo Sports Complex was completed in the Loyola Heights campus. Midway through that year, high school alumnus and Philippine President Joseph Estrada faced grave corruption charges connected with economic plunder and jueteng, an illegal numbers game. The University hosted KOMPIL II and other organizations and movements in its Loyola Heights and Makati campuses. Members of the university community participated in the Jericho March at the Senate and other mass actions. On January 20, 2001 Ateneo alumna and former Economics faculty member Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was sworn in as the 14th President of the Philippines, overthrowing Estrada after top military officers withdrew support from him as commander in chief.
  In April 2002, the office of the University President established Pathways to Higher Education-Philippines, one of the university's outreach initiatives, with the help of the Ford and Synergeia Foundations. On July 31, the feast of St. Ignatius, the University Church of the Gesù was completed in the Loyola Heights campus and was consecrated by Cardinal Jaime Sin. The year also saw the Blue Eagles end a 14-year drought in men's basketball.
  In 2003, the Ateneo partnered with Gawad Kalinga in its first formal, university-wide social action program. Also, in response to the typhoons and flooding that devastated most of the Philippine Island of  Luzon in November 2004, the Ateneo launched Task Force Noah which has continued to contribute to disaster relief and rehabilitation efforts in areas that include Calatagan in Mindoro and Guinsaugon in Southern Leyte. Also in 2004 the Ateneo earned the highest possible accreditation status, Level IV, from the Federation of Accrediting Agencies of the Philippines and the Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities (PAASCU). And the Ateneo celebrated the 145th anniversary of its founding and of the Jesuits' return to the Philippines, even as plans began for its sesquicentennial in 2009.
  As typhoon relief efforts wound down in January 2005 the Ateneo, Gawad Kalinga, and other partners launched Kalinga Luzon (KL), a program dedicated to the long-term rehabilitation of typhoon-stricken communities in Luzon. In light of the political crisis sparked by allegations of President Arroyo's cheating in the 2004 presidential elections, Ateneo de Manila in 2005 established the Social Involvement Workshops and other fora. The Ateneo also established more tie-ups and foreign linkages, and began preparation for the Leong Center for Chinese Studies in the university.
  In early 2006, members of the Ateneo de Manila University and affiliated Jesuit institutions were part of movements calling for discernment, action, and sustainable solutions to the deeply divisive political issues that continue to rock Filipino society. The Ateneo de Manila University also intensified its social development efforts, launching Kalinga Leyte, a program for the long-term rehabilitation of Southern Leyte, with its GK partners. It expanded the scope of its involvement with Gawad Kalinga, supporting new initiatives throughout Nueva Ecija and in other provinces such as Cotobato and Quezon.
  Midway through 2006, the Manuel V Pangilinan Center for Student Leadership was completed. The University also had ground-breaking for several projects: the Ricardo Leong Hall to house several units of the Loyola Schools' School of Social Sciences, the Confucius Institute for Chinese Studies, and the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health facility in Ortigas. In December, the Ateneo launched AGAP-Bikol in cooperation with other Jesuit-affiliated and civil society groups, in response to the devastation wrought by typhoons in the Bicol area.
  In October 2008, 66 faculty members from different departments, including members of the
caption: Pangilinan Center for Student Leadership
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