Ave Maria University is a private university with a Roman Catholic character and liturgical tradition in southwest Florida, United States, founded in 2003 by Tom Monaghan. The university moved into its permanent campus, situated in the planned town of Ave Maria, 17 miles (27 km) east of Naples, Florida, in August 2007. Ave Maria University is the successor of Ave Maria College in Ypsilanti, Michigan, which was founded in 1998 and closed in 2007. The current enrollment of Ave Maria University is 1,200 students, 679 undergraduates and 146 graduate students on the main campus as well as 375 postgrades law students at the Ave Maria School of Law. The university also has a satellite campus in Nicaragua called the Ave Maria University-Latin American Campus. Ave Maria College was founded by Catholic philanthropist and former Domino's Pizza owner and founder Tom Monaghan on March 19, 1998, occupying two former elementary school buildings in Ypsilanti, Michigan near the campus of Eastern Michigan University. Monaghan's goal was to create a Roman Catholic university faithful to the magisterium of the Catholic Church.