San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a
public
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...
research university
A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are "the key sites of Knowledge production modes, knowledge production", along with "intergenerational ...
in
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is part of the
California State University
The California State University (Cal State or CSU) is a Public university, public university system in California, and the List of largest universities and university networks by enrollment, largest public university system in the United States ...
system.
It offers 126
bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...
programs, 106
master's degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...
programs, and 3
doctoral degree
A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...
programs, along with 23
teaching credential
A certified teacher (also known as registered teacher, licensed teacher, or professional teacher based on jurisdiction) is an educator who has earned credentials from an authoritative source, such as a government's regulatory authority, an educ ...
programs among seven colleges.
The 144.1-acre main campus is located in the southwest part of the city, less than two miles from the
Pacific coast
Pacific coast may be used to reference any coastline that borders the Pacific Ocean.
Geography Americas North America
Countries on the western side of North America have a Pacific coast as their western or south-western border. One of th ...
.
The university has 12
varsity athletic teams which compete at the
NCAA Division II
NCAA Division II (D-II) is the intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environment ...
level.
SF State is
classified
Classified may refer to:
General
*Classified information, material that a government body deems to be sensitive
*Classified advertising or "classifieds"
Music
*Classified (rapper) (born 1977), Canadian rapper
* The Classified, a 1980s American ro ...
among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity."
It is also a designated
Hispanic-Serving Institution
A Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) is defined in U.S. federal law as an accredited, degree-granting, public or private nonprofit institution of higher education with 25% or higher total undergraduate Hispanic or Latino full-time equivalent (FTE ...
(HSI) and
Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI).
History
19th Century
In 1857, the San Francisco Board of Education created the San Francisco Weekly Normal School, also known as the Minns' Evening Normal School.
In 1862, it became the
California State Normal School San Jose State University, San José State University traces back to 1857 when the institution operated as a normal school for the San Francisco Unified School District, San Francisco public school system. It grew in size and scope until May 2, 1862 ...
, the first postsecondary institution established by the state.
Only six students were enrolled on its first day. By 1866, enrollment had increased to 384.
In 1867, the principal of Girls' High School and Normal School, Ellis Holmes, realized that the California State Normal School was not meeting the demand for teachers. The city approved the addition of a new year-long teacher-training program to his high school's curriculum, for girls who wanted to pursue a career in education. This program is what would eventually become San Francisco State University. When the California State Normal School was moved to San José in 1871, Girls' High became the only publicly supported teacher-training institution.
In 1895, the teaching program was split from the school and became San Francisco City Normal School.
Due to a lack of funding, the school closed in 1898.
A group of teachers, students, and supporters pressured the California State Legislature to convert it into a state-funded institution.
On March 22, 1899, the California State Legislature approved the creation of the San Francisco State Normal School, with an appropriation of $10,000.
Frederic Lister Burk was appointed as the first president and chose the school's motto, ''Experientia Docet''.
The school rented space in a building on Powell Street between Clay and Sacramento Streets and 31 women were enrolled in the first year.
20th Century
The
1906 earthquake and fire forced the school to relocate from
Nob Hill
Nob Hill is a neighborhood of San Francisco, California, United States that is known for its numerous luxury hotels and historic mansions. Nob Hill has historically served as a center of San Francisco's upper class. Nob Hill is among the highe ...
to a temporary campus at the Grant School in Oakland.
Ten days after the earthquake, President Burk found a new site for the school at a property bound by Laguna, Haight, Buchanan, and Hermann Streets.
In 1921, the school began offering Bachelor's degree options and was renamed San Francisco State Teachers College.
Teachers Colleges in California received authorization to grant Bachelor of Arts degrees in 1923.
In 1924, construction for new buildings started on vacant land at the school's site. The campus consisted of four
Spanish Colonial Revival style buildings designed by George McDougall, a California state architect.
In the 1930s, overcrowding became an issue at the campus. It had been designed for 1500 students, but had to accommodate about 3000. In 1938, students rallied for a new campus with non-wooden buildings, due to fears from the city's
earthquake and fire in 1906.
By 1939, land near
Lake Merced had been acquired to build a new campus, but plans were paused due to World War II. Many students took part in the war, causing enrollment to decline.
During the 1920s and '30s, State Teachers Colleges expanded beyond being only vocational schools to train teachers. They were formally authorized to offer four-year liberal arts curriculums and renamed State Colleges in 1935. So, the school became known as San Francisco State College.
In 1949, master's degrees were authorized to be offered.
San Francisco State College became part of the
California State College system established under the Donahoe Higher Education Act in 1960.
In Fall 1965, the Experimental College was started by students, in an effort to teach untraditionally. In 1927, over 2000 students enrolled in courses offered by the Experimental College.
The original Experimental College stopped operating after 1969.
In 1967, 1968, and 1969, there were many demonstrations, including the
Third World Liberation Front strike at SF State, longest student strike in American history, which lasted from November 6, 1968 to March 20, 1969.
Also in 1969,
Richard Oakes led a group of SF State students in the
occupation of Alcatraz Island And a 763-bed, 15-story dorm building, Verducci Hall, was built near Lake Merced Boulevard.
In 1971, campus-based childcare at SF State was approved by the California State Colleges board of trustees. On October 10, 1972, the Associated Students Lilliput Childcare Center opened, providing childcare to students who are parents and the general public. It's now called the AS Early Childhood Education Center.
In 1972, the state government enacted a bill which renamed the California State Colleges to "The California State University and Colleges". As a result, SF State was renamed California State University, San Francisco.
The awkward new name was very unpopular with students. When said out loud, CSUSF often drew the humorous response "
Gesundheit," and was frequently confused with
CCSF,
USF
USF may refer to:
Universities
* University of Saint Francis (Indiana), Ft. Wayne, Indiana
* University of San Francisco, California
* University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida
* University of St. Francis, Joliet, Illinois
* University of Sioux ...
, and
UCSF
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life ...
.
[ Available via ]ProQuest
ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global information-content and technology company, founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene Power.
ProQuest is known for its applications and information services for l ...
Historical Newsstand. The university was soon renamed San Francisco State University in 1974.
President Romberg secured a permanent federal lease for 25 acres of shoreline in Tiburon for just $1 in 1978. The Romberg Tiburon Campus would eventually expand to 53 acres.
In 1983,
Chia-Wei Woo
Chia-Wei Woo (; 13 November 1937 – 2 March 2025) was a Hong Kong physicist and educator who was the inaugural president of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His work included raising funding and recruiting outstanding fac ...
became the 11th president of the university. Woo was the first Chinese-American to head a major American university.
After suffering damage from the
1989 Loma Prieta earthquake
On October 17, 1989, at 5:04 p.m. Pacific Time Zone, PST, the Loma Prieta earthquake occurred at the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California. The shock was centered in The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park in Santa Cruz Cou ...
, Verducci Hall was permanently closed.
In 1993, the College of Extended Learning (now College of Global and Professional Education) opened the Downtown Center in San Francisco's
Multimedia Gulch, at 425 Market St.
On March 28, 1999, construction began on the Village at Centennial Square, a low-rise, mixed-use complex. The same day, Verducci Hall was imploded after it sustained damage from the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and sat vacant for a decade.
21st Century
In 2007, the Downtown Campus was opened at 835 Market Street, with nearly 47,000 square feet of classroom space in
Westfield San Francisco Centre.
In 2009, the Children's Campus opened to provide childcare, primarily to faculty and staff.
The first Rhythms Music Festival happened in March 2011.
The annual music festival is held in a building known as the Annex.
In 2013, the Science Building was found to have "unsafe levels" of airborne mercury, lead and asbestos in the basement. Over $3.6 million was spent for remediation of the pervasive contamination. University administration terminated several employees who reported the contamination, resulting in several wrongful termination and whistle-blower lawsuits, including one by the recently hired director. In July 2014, Cal/
OSHA
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA; ) is a regulatory agency of the United States Department of Labor that originally had federal visitorial powers to inspect and examine workplaces. The United States Congress established ...
cited the university for various health and safety violations in the Science Building, which included SFSU failing to locate asbestos in the building and warn employees about the hazards of mercury.
In March 2016,
video of a student being attacked for having dreadlockswent viral and sparked discussions about
cultural appropriation
Cultural appropriation is the adoption of an element or elements of one culture or cultural identity, identity by members of another culture or identity in a manner perceived as inappropriate or unacknowledged. Such a controversy typically ari ...
.
In response to the College of
Ethnic Studies
Ethnic studies, in the United States, is the interdisciplinary study of difference—chiefly race, ethnicity, and nation, but also sexuality, gender, and other such markings—and power, as expressed by the state, by civil society, and by indivi ...
being underfunded since 2008, four students held a ten-day
hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance where participants fasting, fast as an act of political protest, usually with the objective of achieving a specific goal, such as a policy change. Hunger strikers that do not take fluids are ...
from May 2–11, 2016, resulting in one hospitalization. The strike ended when President
Leslie Wong
Leslie Eric Wong (born 1949) is an American academic, university administrator, and psychology professor. He was President of Northern Michigan University and San Francisco State University. Effective July 1st, 2023, he became the interim Presiden ...
agreed to commit nearly $500,000 to the college and meet a portion of their demands.
The Experimental College was revived in Fall 2017. One-unit courses are created and taught by students.
Also in 2017, a group of Jewish students and local residents accused SFSU of encouraging
antisemitism
Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
and excluding Jewish student pro-Israel activist groups from campus activities. The students filed two lawsuits focusing on the disruption of a speech by Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat in 2016. One suit was dismissed and the other was settled.
In May 2019,
Lynn Mahoney
Lynn Mahoney (born 1964) is an American university president, author, and social historian. Mahoney is the president of San Francisco State University (SFSU) since July 2019, and is the first woman to hold this role. Her scholarly work has focuse ...
became the first woman to become president of SF State in a permanent capacity. Mary Ward had served as an acting president in the summer of 1927, after the death of Archibald Anderson.
On September 23, 2020, SFSU faculty
Rabab Abdulhadi and Tomomi Kinukawa hosted a discussion on
Zoom titled "Whose Narratives? Gender, Justice, and Resistance." The event's speakers included
Leila Khaled, a Palestinian political activist and plane hijacker. Zoom and YouTube canceled the broadcast due to Khaled's history of violent actions towards civilians. Facebook also removed a page for the event.
President Mahoney wrote
letterabout the incident. A second event titled "Whose Narratives? What Free Speech for Palestine?" was scheduled for April 23, 2021, and was also blocked.
In 2022, the new Downtown Campus opened on the fifth floor of 160 Spear St., replacing the Downtown Campus at 835 Market Street.
On April 6, 2023, former
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...
swimmer
Riley Gaines visited SFSU for a
Turning Point USA
Turning Point USA (TPUSA) is an American nonprofit organization that advocates for Conservatism in the United States, conservative politics on high school, college, and university campuses. It was founded in 2012 by Charlie Kirk and Bill Montgo ...
student chapter event and spoke publicly about her campaign against
transgender athletes in women's sports.
This sparked a protest.
After the event, Gaines said she had been struck during the protest.

In September, October, and November, students and staff held numerous demonstrations in response to the
Gaza war
The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel fought since 7 October 2023. A part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel conflicts dating ...
, tuition increases, layoffs, and budget cuts.
SFSU faculty members participated in a strike led by the California Faculty Association across the CSU system on January 22, 2024. Faculty had held earlier demonstrations in an effort to prevent layoffs and receive a 12% raise.
About 500 people attended a rally on April 29, calling for a ceasefire in the
Gaza war
The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel fought since 7 October 2023. A part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel conflicts dating ...
. After the rally, some protestors began an encampment, following
protests and encampments at universities in other parts of the United States and in other countries. The encampment ended on May 15 after protestors reached a divestment agreement with university leaders.
Milestones
* 1901 – First graduating class consisting of 36 women.
* 1923 – First Bachelor of Arts degree awarded
* 1930 – Became four-year school
[SF State Facts 2009–2010](_blank)
San Francisco State University
* 1929 – Grace Hackett became the first known African-American to graduate from the school
* 1949 – Master's degree first offered
* 1972 – Received university status
* 1974 – Renamed San Francisco State University
* 1975 –
Cesar Chavez
Cesario Estrada Chavez (; ; March 31, 1927 – April 23, 1993) was an American labor leader and civil rights activist. Along with Dolores Huerta and lesser known Gilbert Padilla, he co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), ...
Student Center opened its doors to students
* 1983 –
Chia-Wei Woo
Chia-Wei Woo (; 13 November 1937 – 2 March 2025) was a Hong Kong physicist and educator who was the inaugural president of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His work included raising funding and recruiting outstanding fac ...
became the first Chinese-American to head a major American university
* 1999 – Celebrated 100th anniversary
* 2019 –
Lynn Mahoney
Lynn Mahoney (born 1964) is an American university president, author, and social historian. Mahoney is the president of San Francisco State University (SFSU) since July 2019, and is the first woman to hold this role. Her scholarly work has focuse ...
became the university's first female president in a permanent capacity
Main campus
San Francisco State University's main campus is located on the
West Side of San Francisco, in the southwestern part of the city.
To its north are
Lowell High School and
Stonestown Galleria.
Parkmerced is south of the campus.
19th Avenue and the
Ingleside neighborhood are to its east and
Lake Merced and
TPC Harding Park
TPC Harding Park, formerly Harding Park Golf Club and commonly known as Harding Park, is a municipal golf course located on the West Side (San Francisco), West Side of San Francisco, California. It is owned by the Consolidated city-county, city ...
are to its west.
San Francisco State University's original campus was on
Nob Hill
Nob Hill is a neighborhood of San Francisco, California, United States that is known for its numerous luxury hotels and historic mansions. Nob Hill has historically served as a center of San Francisco's upper class. Nob Hill is among the highe ...
, where it was established as the San Francisco State Normal School on Powell Street between Clay and Sacramento Streets. The 1906 earthquake and fire forced a relocation to Buchanan and Haight Streets, where the institution would remain for several decades.
During this period, the school underwent several transformations: becoming San Francisco State Teachers College in 1921, San Francisco State College in 1935.
The shift to the current Lake Merced campus began during the
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
, when the site was still owned by Spring Valley Water Company. In 1939, SFSU President Alexander Roberts and student body president Clifford Worth explored the undeveloped property, which at the time consisted mainly of sand dunes dotted with trees and underbrush. Worth proved instrumental in securing the campus's future, successfully lobbying the state Legislature to fund the land purchase. His efforts culminated on July 12, 1939, when the state committed to purchasing 57 acres from the City of
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
.
The campus opened for classes for Fall 1953, before it was formally dedicated in October 1954.
Since then, it has expanded to 144.1 acres.
The campus is under the jurisdiction of San Francisco State's
University Police Department.
Gallery
File:PXL 20231128 010409313.jpg, Marcus Hall
File:Burk Hall Nov 29, 2023.jpg, link=, Burk Hall
File:SFSU Administration Building.jpg, Administration Building
File:Mashouf Wellness Center, Nov. 27, 2023.png, Mashouf Wellness Center
File:Ethnic Studies and Psychology Building Nov 29 2023.jpg, link=, Ethnic Studies and Psychology Building
File:SFSU Library Nov 28, 2023.jpg, link=, Library Building
File:SFSU Library 1.jpg, A seating area in the J. Paul Leonard Library
File:The Quad at SFSU.jpg, link=, The Quad
File:Open24.jpg, link=, Open24
File:Thornton and Hensill Halls.png, Thornton Hall and Hensill Hall
File:SFSU Humanities Building.jpg, Humanities Building
File:SFSU Student Housing.png, Student housing
Satellite campuses
In addition to the main campus, the university also has three
satellite campus
A satellite campus, branch campus or regional campus is a campus of a university or college that is physically at a distance from the original university or college area. This branch campus may be located in a different city, state, or country, ...
es.
Downtown Campus (DTC)
The Downtown Campus located on the fifth floor of 160 Spear St., in San Francisco, California.
It is used and managed by the Lam Family College of Business and the College of Professional & Global Education (formerly College of Extended Learning).
The campus spans approximately 15,850 square feet.
SF State has maintained facilities in
Downtown San Francisco since the 1950s. The current Downtown Campus replaces the previous, underused campus that was located in the
San Francisco Centre. The old Downtown Campus was a replacement for the Downtown Center located at 425 Market Street.
The campus has a student lounge, a computer lab, and study rooms. A portion of 160 Spear St.'s 12th floor was part of the campus until 2024.
Sierra Nevada Field Campus (SNFC)
The 7.1-acre Sierra Nevada Field Campus is located in
Sierra County, near
Yuba Pass and the
Sierra Valley
Sierra Valley is a large mountain valley located east of the crest of California's Sierra Nevada mountain range in Plumas and Sierra Counties, north of Interstate 80.
Geography
An intermontane valley at approximately elevation, Sierra Va ...
, at 35400 Hwy 49 in
Calpine, California.
It is over 200 miles north of the main campus.
Established in 1949, the campus was originally named Camp Leonard after SFSU's fifth president J. Paul Leonard. It started as a training facility for recreation leaders and added a children's camp in 1951.
Basic plumbing was installed in 1953. The first three-unit college course was taught there in 1961.
In 1970, under William Hammerman's leadership, it transitioned from a children's camp to a college-wide field campus.
The campus is currently funded primarily through its summer workshops and programs, with additional support from a nonprofit called Friends of the Sierra Nevada Field Campus. The existing buildings are the original structures from 1949.
The campus offers three to seven-day courses and workshops to students as well as the general public.
Accredited, one-unit courses are processed by the College of Professional & Global Education. Workshops are not for credit and processed by the University Corporation.
The campus is also used for research by graduate students of the College of Science and Engineering.
The campus operates from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day weekend each year.
The campus offers 35–40 different courses each summer through two programs: accredited classes through the College of Professional & Global Education, and non-credit workshops through the University Corporation.
Due to its remote location, there is no cell service and extremely limited internet access at the campus. Accommodations at the campus consist of tents with mattresses. Students and visitors can to bring their own tents or vehicles to sleep in, or stay off campus. The campus has a moderately high
elevation
The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...
of about 5522 feet or 1683 meters.
Buildings
There are three buildings at the campus.
* Director's Cabin
* Staff Cabin
* Dining Hall
Romberg Tiburon Campus (RTC)
The Romberg Tiburon Campus is a 53.7-acre research campus located in
Marin County
Marin County ( ) is a county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and largest city is San Rafael. Marin County is ac ...
, at 3150 and 3152 Paradise Drive in
Tiburon, California
Tiburon ( ; , ) is an incorporated town in Marin County, California. It is located on the Tiburon Peninsula, which reaches south into the San Francisco Bay. It shares a ZIP code (94920) with the smaller incorporated city of Belvedere (formerly ...
. It is home to the only marine and environmental science lab on San Francisco Bay.
The Tiburon branch of the
Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) is a United States environmental research and educational facility operated by the Smithsonian Institution. It is located on the Rhode and West Rivers near Edgewater in Anne Arundel County, ...
's Marine Invasions Lab and the offices for the
San Francisco Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve are also located there.
The campus was a former
U.S. Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...
base. SF State has operated a marine lab on the site since 1978, when it began acquiring the land from the federal government for $1, under the condition that the site be used for education.
A master plan is being currently being drafted for the campus. It has never had a master plan formally prepared and adopted by the campus or the CSU Board of Trustees. An approved master plan and certified
environmental impact statement
An environmental impact statement (EIS), under United States environmental law, is a document required by the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for certain actions "significantly affecting the quality of the human environment". An E ...
are required before the university can begin significant construction projects at the campus.
The campus will soon close due to financial struggles.
Buildings
There are eight occupied buildings at the campus.
* Bay Conference Center (BCC)
* Delta Hall
* Estuary Hall
* Farallon Hall
* Greenhouse
* Ohrenschall Guest House
* N. Barracks
* S. Barracks
Organization and administration
San Francisco State University is part of the
California State University
The California State University (Cal State or CSU) is a Public university, public university system in California, and the List of largest universities and university networks by enrollment, largest public university system in the United States ...
system. The CSU is governed by a 25-member Board of Trustees who oversee the system's chancellor. The president of SFSU reports to the chancellor and oversees six cabinet units. Cabinet units collaborate via 16 committees and work in conjunction with three semi-independent 501(c)(3) organizations that support the university. Each cabinet, except the Office of the President, is led by a vice president. The vice president of Academic Affairs is also university's
provost and oversees 15 administrative units, including the university's seven colleges. Each college is led by a dean and consists of departments, led by department chairs, and schools, led by directors. Departments and schools are at the same administrative level.
Presidents
*
Frederic Lister Burk (1899–1924)
* Archibald B. Anderson (1924–1927)
* Mary A. Ward (Acting President, 1927)
* Alexander C. Roberts (1927–1945)
*
J. Paul Leonard (1945–1957)
*
Glenn Dumke (1957–1961)
* Frank L. Fenton (1961–1962)
*
Paul A. Dodd (1962–1965)
* Stanley F. Paulson (1965–1966)
*
John Summerskill (1966–1968)
* Robert R. Smith (1968)
*
S. I. Hayakawa (1968–1973)
* Paul F. Romberg (1973–1983)
*
Chia-Wei Woo
Chia-Wei Woo (; 13 November 1937 – 2 March 2025) was a Hong Kong physicist and educator who was the inaugural president of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His work included raising funding and recruiting outstanding fac ...
(1983–1988)
*
Robert A. Corrigan (1988–2012)
*
Leslie Wong
Leslie Eric Wong (born 1949) is an American academic, university administrator, and psychology professor. He was President of Northern Michigan University and San Francisco State University. Effective July 1st, 2023, he became the interim Presiden ...
(2012–2019)
*
Lynn Mahoney
Lynn Mahoney (born 1964) is an American university president, author, and social historian. Mahoney is the president of San Francisco State University (SFSU) since July 2019, and is the first woman to hold this role. Her scholarly work has focuse ...
(2019–present)
Academics

The university operates on a
semester calendar. Students generally enroll in courses during the fall and spring semesters, but courses are also offered during the summer semester and winter session. Winter courses are not eligible for financial aid.
The university has a four-year graduation rate of 29% and a six-year graduation rate of 48.8%. The student-faculty ratio at SFSU was 22.6:1 in Spring 2024.
As of 2024, the university has 1,834 faculty comprising 783 tenured or tenure-track faculty, 1039 lecturers, and 12 counselors.
Colleges
The university's seven colleges are:
* College of Liberal & Creative Arts
* Lam Family College of Business
*
College of Ethnic Studies
* College Health and Social Sciences
* College of Science and Engineering
* Graduate College of Education
* College of Professional & Global Education
Undergraduate programs
SFSU offers 126
bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...
programs across its seven colleges.
The most popular undergraduate majors are Business Administration, Psychology, Biology, Computer Science, Criminal Justice Studies, Communication Studies, Early Childhood Education,
Cinema, Physical Education, and Nursing.
The College of Health and Social Sciences also offers accelerated Bachelor of Science degrees in
nursing
Nursing is a health care profession that "integrates the art and science of caring and focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and human functioning; prevention of illness and injury; facilitation of healing; and alle ...
in partnership with the
City College of San Francisco and
College of San Mateo.
Blended master's programs
SFSU offers 37 blended bachelor's and master's degree programs, called San Francisco State Scholars programs. The programs provide students an accelerated path to a graduate degree by allowing students to earn graduate credit while in their junior and/or senior years.
Graduate and professional programs
The university offers 106
master's degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...
programs across six colleges: College of Liberal & Creative Arts, Lam Family College of Business, College of Ethnic Studies, College Health and Social Sciences, College of Science and Engineering, and Graduate College of Education.
The Graduate College of Education offers two doctoral programs:
Ph.D in special education, in partnership with
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
and
Ed.D in Educational Leadership. The College of Health and Social Sciences offers a
DPT program in partnership with
University of California, San Francisco
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It is part of the University of California system and is dedic ...
. The Graduate College of Education also offers 22
teaching credential
A certified teacher (also known as registered teacher, licensed teacher, or professional teacher based on jurisdiction) is an educator who has earned credentials from an authoritative source, such as a government's regulatory authority, an educ ...
programs.
Other academic programs
Experimental College
The original Experimental College, known as E.C., was created in 1965 and lasted until 1969. The revived Experimental College, known as EXCO, allows students to create curriculums and teach one-unit courses about any topic.
EXCO is part of the Department of Undergraduate Education and Academic Planning.
Open University
People without formal admission to the university can enroll in undergraduate or graduate courses on a space-available basis, through the College of Professional & Global Education's Open University program. Up to undergraduate 24 units can be applied towards a bachelor's degree or six units towards a master's degree at SF State. The program costs $395 per unit and is open to everybody except SFSU students. This is the university's
concurrent enrollment
In the United States, dual enrollment (DE), also called concurrent enrollment, programs allow students to be enrolled in two separate, academically related institutions. Generally, it refers to high school students taking college or university cour ...
program.
ElderCollege
ElderCollege is a noncredit program provided by the College of Professional & Global Education that allows people aged 50 and older to sit in on courses on a space-available basis, with the approval of an instructor. There are no official records of enrollment, attendance, or grades as ElderCollege students participate only for their personal benefit. ElderCollege students are expected to attend regularly and participate, but are not expected to take exams or write papers.
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute
SFSU's
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, or OLLI, was founded in 2003. OLLIs are education organizations for older adults that are operated independently. SFSU's OLLI provides six-week courses and "mini courses" intended for people 50 and older, but people under 50 may join.
The courses are not for credit. OLLI does not use SFSU's semester calendar and has its own five-session academic calendar in which six-week courses are taught; the sessions are spring, summer, late summer, fall, and winter.
Membership is required to attend six-week courses, while mini courses are open to non-members. Mini courses consist of one to three class meetings and are offered six months per year: January, March, May, July, September, and December.
Courses are either on
Zoom or in person at SFSU's Downtown Campus.
OLLI also offers interest groups and social events.
Accreditation
The university is accredited by the
Western Association of Schools and Colleges
The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC ( )) provided accreditation of public and private universities, colleges, secondary and elementary schools in California and Hawaii, the territories of Guam, American Samoa and Northern ...
Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities. Its colleges and programs are accredited by various commissions.
Rankings and distinctions
In 2024, SFSU was ranked the 26th top university in the United States by
PayScale and
CollegeNET's Social Mobility Index university rankings.
The Sutro Library, a branch of the
California State Library
The California State Library is the state library of the State of California, founded in 1850 by the California State Legislature. The Library collects, preserves, generates and disseminates a wide array of information. Today, it is the central ...
, houses the largest collection of
genealogical
Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kin ...
records west of
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...
.
The Poetry Center and American Poetry Archives, founded in 1954, are housed within the College of Liberal and Creative Arts and contain the nation's largest publicly-accessible collection of poetry on tape.
Admissions and cost
In Fall 2024, SFSU's total enrollment was 22,357. This included 19,337 undergraduate students and 3,020 postgraduate students.
96% of undergraduate students enrolled at the university in 2022 were California residents.
SFSU uses Cal State Apply, the centralized application system for all 23 CSU campuses. There is a $70 fee per application, but fee waivers are available.
The university does not use school rank, personal statements and essays, letters of recommendation, legacy status, or standardized test scores in the admissions process.
Once admitted, students pay tuition set by the CSU and fees set by SFSU. The tuition paid by a student depends on whether they're a California resident, the number of units they're enrolled in, and the type of program they're enrolled in. Fees set by SFSU fund various campus programs.
CSU employees and their dependents may have their campus fees and part of their tuitions waived. Eligible veterans and their children may have their tuition and fees waived.
The university's financial aid office estimates that housing costs will be the bulk the
cost of attendance
In discussions of the cost of college in the United States, the cost of attendance (COA) (also known as the price of attendance) is a statutory term for the estimated full and reasonable cost of completing a full academic year (usually, nine mont ...
. 64% of students receive some form of financial aid including grants, work-study awards, and loans.
Student body
In 2021, SFSU was ranked fifth for diversity nationwide and third for diversity in the western U.S. by the Wall Street Journal.
SFSU has the second largest Asian and Filipino American enrollment percentage in the
CSU
CSU may refer to:
Universities and university systems
United States
* Columbia Southern University, in Orange Beach, Alabama
* California State University system
* Colorado State University, in Fort Collins, Colorado
* Connecticut State Univers ...
system.
Student life
Student organizations
As of December 2024, SFSU has 288 formally recognized student organizations. In order to receive funding, student organizations must be formally recognized by the Office of Student Activities & Events. 49
Greek life organizations are formally recognized.
Housing
SFSU has three on-campus housing neighborhoods: the Central Neighborhood, which only houses first-year students, and the North and South Neighborhoods. These neighborhoods are further divided into housing communities. Also
Parkmerced, a planned neighborhood consisting of high-rise and low-rise apartments, is located immediately south of the university.
Facilities
Student Health Services
Student Health Services, or SHS, operates out of the Student Health Center.
Primary care
Primary care is a model of health care that supports first-contact, accessible, continuous, comprehensive, and coordinated person-focused care. It aims to optimise population health and reduce disparities across the groups by ensuring equitable ...
, vaccinations, x-rays, pharmacy services,
gynecology
Gynaecology or gynecology (see American and British English spelling differences) is the area of medicine concerned with conditions affecting the Female reproductive system, female reproductive system. It is often paired with the field of obste ...
services, and
STI testing are some of the services provided.
Many of the services are low-cost or provided at no charge to students.
In 2023, state law required abortion services to be provided at all SHS locations, which are located at all CSU campuses. SHS is accredited by the
Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care
The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC), founded in 1979, is an American organization which accredits ambulatory health care organizations, including ambulatory surgery centers, office-based surgery centers, endoscopy ce ...
.
Recreation
The main recreation facility at SF State, Mashouf Wellness Center, opened in 2017.
It is named after
Manny Mashouf
Manoucher "Manny" Mashouf (, born 1938) is an Iranian-American businessman and philanthropist known for founding Bebe Stores.
Early life and education
Born in 1938 in Pahlavi Iran, he came to the United States in his teens and settled first in Wa ...
, who donated $10 million towards the $86.5 million construction costs. The LEED Platinum certified, 118,700-square-foot facility features two heated pools, a hot tub, a sauna, a 41-foot climbing wall, fitness studios, exercise equipment, an indoor running track, a racquetball court, a two basketball courts, a multipurpose activities court.
It was also the university's first LEED rated building.
In addition, the university's Gymnasium building has a pool and multi-use spaces. The building is mostly used for basketball, volleyball, badminton, and indoor soccer events.
J. Paul Leonard Library
Named after the university's fourth president, the J. Paul Leonard Library houses a collection that includes government documents, maps, sound and visual recordings, in addition to books. Approximately 75% of the library's circulating collection is stored in its 45-foot-tall
library retrieval system, which was installed between 2008 and 2012, when the library building underwent a renovation and expansion, adding more than 140,000 square feet; also, the addition of the system, which can store approximately a million items, removed the need for
book stacks, freeing up space for other uses.
The library building was constructed in three phases in 1953, 1959 and 1971 and used to only house the J. Paul Leonard Library. After the expansion and renovation, the Sutro Library was moved to the fifth and sixth floors of the building.
Sutro Library
The Sutro Library is a branch of the
California State Library
The California State Library is the state library of the State of California, founded in 1850 by the California State Legislature. The Library collects, preserves, generates and disseminates a wide array of information. Today, it is the central ...
on the main campus of the university. The foundation of the library's collection was assembled by former San Francisco mayor
Adolph Sutro
Adolph Heinrich Joseph Sutro (April 29, 1830 – August 8, 1898) was a German-American engineer, politician and philanthropist who served as the 24th mayor of San Francisco from 1895 until 1897. Born a German Jew, he moved to Virginia City ...
. The library was deeded to the State of California by Sutro's heirs with the stipulation that it never leave the city limits of San Francisco, filling his desire to provide the city with a public research library. It was formally given to California State Library in 1913, and opened to the public in 1917. Notably, half of the Sutro collection survived the "Great Fire" after the
San Francisco earthquake of 1906
At 05:12 AM Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity ...
.
Collection highlights include 125,000 rare books, antiquarian maps, and archival collections, as well as a genealogical library.
Associated Students
The student government is known as Associated Students Inc. of SF State.
Associated Students provides funding for student organizations and operates the Cesar Chavez Student Center, the Early Childhood Education Center, two food pantry programs, a book loan program, a weekly
farmers' market
A farmers' market (or farmers market according to the AP stylebook, also farmer's market in the Cambridge Dictionary) is a physical retail marketplace intended to sell foods directly by farmers to consumers. Farmers' markets may be indoors or ...
, and many other programs and events.
Cesar Chavez Student Center
The Cesar Chavez Student Center was completed in 1975 with a capacity of 12,000 students.
Around 2002, it was renovated and expanded to 142,160 square feet across five floors with a capacity of over 30,000.
The building includes staff and student offices, a 500-seat auditorium, conference rooms, an art gallery, a multi-cultural center, student lounges, restaurants, a bookstore, and additional restrooms.
In 2003, the Filipino American Community Mural at the center was unveiled, becoming the first Filipino-American mural on a CSU campus.
Project Rebound
Project Rebound is a special admissions and support program for formerly incarcerated people. It was founded by
John Irwin, a professor of sociology, in 1967. After Irwin served five years at
Soledad State Prison in the 1950s for armed robbery, he wanted to create a program that provided educational support to people like him. The program has grown since its founding at SFSU, with 15 CSU campuses now having Project Rebound programs.
Rhythms Music Festival
The annual event started as a joke when a student, Franko Ali, made a Facebook group called "RAVE IN THE ANNEX – Approved if 15,000 SF State Students join this group."
Over 5,000 people joined.
In 2010, a year after Ali made the group, he was elected to the student government. A three-day music festival resulted.
The first festival took place in March 2011.
Del the Funky Homosapien
Teren Delvon Jones (born August 12, 1972), better known by his stage name Del the Funky Homosapien (sometimes stylized as Del tha Funkee Homosapien) or Sir DZL, is an American rapper.
Music career 1988–1997: Early life and beginnings
Born in O ...
, and
K Theory also performed in 2012.
In 2020, the event was planned to be held at the
Fort Mason
Fort Mason, in San Francisco, California is a former United States Army post located in the northern Marina District, alongside San Francisco Bay. Fort Mason served as an Army post for more than 100 years, initially as a coastal defense site a ...
Festival Pavilion instead of the Annex but was canceled due to the pandemic.
In 2021, the festival was held over Zoom.
Phony Ppl also performed in 2022.
Redveil also performed in 2024.
Annual Folk Festival
Associated Students hosted the annual San Francisco State College Folk Festival from 1962 to 1970. The 2nd Annual Folk Festival included performances by
Jerry Garcia
Jerome John Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995) was an American musician who was the lead guitarist and a vocalist with the rock band Grateful Dead, which he co-founded and which came to prominence during the counterculture of the 196 ...
and
Robert Hunter.
Bicycling
SFSU was designated by the
League of American Bicyclists
League or The League may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band
* ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football
* ''League of Legends'', a 2009 multiplayer online battle a ...
as a bronze-level bicycle friendly university in 2016.
From 1996 to 2017, there was a staffed, enclosed bike storage area in a parking garage the rear of the Gymnasium building.
The Bike Barn had the capacity for up to 200 bicycles, skateboards, and scooters.
It was closed due to lack of usage and funding.
It suffered from a lack of funding, maintenance, and publicity before it closed.
Media
Golden Gate Xpress
''Golden Gate Xpress'' is the university's daily online student newspaper.
The university's newspaper has changed names several times, but its history can be traced back to 1899. ''Golden Gate Xpress'' has been awarded by the
Associated Collegiate Press, College Media Association, and the
Hearst Journalism Awards Program.
Xpress Magazine
''Xpress Magazine'' is a free student magazine published during the fall and spring semesters. Four issues are published per semester, two of which are also printed. The magazine was originally known as Prism and dates back December 1969. In October 1999, the magazine was published for the first time under its current name. ''Xpress Magazine'' has been awarded by the
Associated Collegiate Press.
SF State Magazine
The university's Strategic Marketing and Communications department publishes ''SF State Magazine''. The semiannual publication is mailed to over 80,000 alumni.
Transfer Magazine
Since 1950, undergraduate students in the Creative Writing department have published ''Transfer Magazine'', featuring literature and art by SFSU students.
Fourteen Hills
Creative Writing graduate students have published ''
Fourteen Hills'', an international literary journal, since 1994.
Urban Action
Students enrolled in Urban Planning and Studies courses at the university have been publishing ''Urban Action'', an annual journal consisting of research papers, photo essays, and other works. The journal started in 1979.
Sutro Review
Since 2016, the Department of English Language and Literature has published ''Sutro Review: SF State Journal for Undergraduate Composition'', an academic journal for writing and art by undergraduates, edited by graduate students.
KSFS
KSFS is a
college radio station run by Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts (BECA) students, streaming online, at 100.7 on Comcast Cable radio in San Francisco, and at 88.1 FM near or at the main campus.
Athletics

The university's intercollegiate athletics teams, the Gators, compete in
NCAA Division II
NCAA Division II (D-II) is the intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environment ...
and are a member of the
California Collegiate Athletic Association
The California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) is a List of NCAA conferences, college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the NCAA Division II, Division II level. All of its current m ...
(
wrestling
Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves di ...
competes in the
Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference
The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC), commonly known as the Rocky Mountain Conference (RMC) from approximately 1910 through the late 1960s, is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (N ...
). SFSU fields 12 sports: men's and women's
cross country, men's and women's
soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
, women's
volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...
, men's and women's
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...
, men's
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
, wrestling, indoor
track and field
Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...
, outdoor track and field and
softball
Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...
.
The Gators have also produced 13
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...
players, including
Billy Baird,
Elmer Collett,
Maury Duncan,
Carl Kammerer, Douglas Parrish, and
Floyd Peters.
Mike Holmgren
Michael George Holmgren (born June 15, 1948) is an American former American football, football coach and executive in the National Football League (NFL). He began his NFL career as a quarterbacks' coach and later as an offensive coordinator wit ...
got his collegiate coaching start as the team's Offensive Coordinator in 1981. The
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
program ended in 1995.
SF State has produced three
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...
players, two of whom became All-Stars (former
Mets shortstop
Bud Harrelson, and former
Brewers and
Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East Division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ch ...
outfielder
Tommy Harper). The soccer program has had one player enter the professional ranks. Jared MacLane played in the soccer
Professional First Division in Santa Cruz,
Bolivia
Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...
.
SF State Wrestling sent a wrestler to a national championship meet every year from 1963–64 to 2016–17.
As of 2024, the Gators have earned one NCAA team championship at the Division II level, a 1997
wrestling
Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves di ...
championship.
Mascot
In the early 20th century, collegiate sports at SFSU became more popular, creating a need for a team name, and the search for a mascot started in 1921.
The university's newspaper at the time, the Bay Leaf, asked for suggestions for a mascot. Students suggested an alligator named "Golden Gater" in reference to the
Golden Gate
The Golden Gate is a strait on the west coast of North America that connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. It is defined by the headlands of the San Francisco Peninsula and the Marin Peninsula, and, since 1937, has been spanned by ...
.
Students voted in favor of the name and the alligator choice was finalized in 1931,
but after numerous misspellings by the newspaper, use of "Golden Gator" stuck. In the beginning, two female students were chosen each year as alligator mascots.
The mascot's name was shortened to the Gator,
and became Alli Gator in 2023.
Notable faculty and alumni
SF State's past and present faculty and alumni include 21
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...
winners, 16
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...
winners, 49
Emmy Award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...
winners, 10
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...
winners, 12
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ce ...
laureates.
File:Shima and Mazor cropped.jpg, Stanley Mazor
Stanley Mazor is an American microelectronics engineer. He is one of the co-inventors of the world's first microprocessor architecture, the Intel 4004, together with Ted Hoff, Masatoshi Shima, and Federico Faggin.
Early years
Mazor was born t ...
, co-inventor of the microprocessor
A microprocessor is a computer processor (computing), processor for which the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit (IC), or a small number of ICs. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, a ...
File:Yvonne Cagle.jpg, Yvonne Cagle, NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
astronaut
File:Willie Brown, September 2013 (cropped).jpg, Willie Brown, 41st Mayor of San Francisco
File:AnnetteBeningSept2013TIFF.jpg, Annette Bening
Annette Carol Bening (born May 29, 1958) is an American actress. With a career spanning over four decades, she is known for List of Annette Bening performances, her versatile work across screen and stage. Bening has received List of awards an ...
, actress
File:Manny Mashouf-02-13-08.jpg, Manny Mashouf
Manoucher "Manny" Mashouf (, born 1938) is an Iranian-American businessman and philanthropist known for founding Bebe Stores.
Early life and education
Born in 1938 in Pahlavi Iran, he came to the United States in his teens and settled first in Wa ...
, founder, bebe Stores, Inc.
File:Anne Rice.jpg, Anne Rice
Anne Rice (born Howard Allen Frances O'Brien; October 4, 1941 – December 11, 2021) was an American author of Gothic fiction, erotic literature, and Bible fiction. She is best known for writing ''The Vampire Chronicles''. She later adapted t ...
, author of the Vampire Chronicles
''The Vampire Chronicles'' is a series of Gothic fiction, Gothic vampire literature, vampire novels and a media franchise, created by American writer Anne Rice, that revolves around the fictional character Lestat de Lioncourt, a French noble ...
File:Ron Dellums.jpg, Ron Dellums
Ronald Vernie Dellums (November 24, 1935 – July 30, 2018) was an American politician who served as Mayor of Oakland from 2007 to 2011. He had previously served thirteen terms as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California ...
, 48th Mayor of Oakland
Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...
File:Danny Glover 2014.jpg, Danny Glover
Danny Glover ( ; born July 22, 1946) is an American actor, producer, and political activist. Over his career he has received List of awards and nominations received by Danny Glover, numerous accolades including the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian A ...
, actor
File:Alex Borstein by Gage Skidmore 4 (retouched).jpg, Alex Borstein, actress, voice of Lois
Lois is a common English name from the New Testament. Paul the Apostle mentions Lois, the pious grandmother of Saint Timothy in the Second Epistle to Timothy (commending her for her faith in 2 Timothy 1:5). The name was first used by English C ...
on ''Family Guy
''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series premiered on January 31, 1999, following Super Bowl XXXIII, with the rest of the first season airing from April 11, 1999. Th ...
''
File:Melba Arkansas-cropped.jpg, Melba Pattillo Beals, journalist and member of the Little Rock Nine
The Little Rock Nine were a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Their enrollment was followed by the Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering th ...
File:George Miller house photo.jpg, George Miller, U.S. Congressman, 1975–2015
File:Ben&Donald-1-cropped.jpg, Ben Fong-Torres, journalist for ''Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason.
The magazine was first known fo ...
'' and the ''San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...
''
File:Rep. Kevin Mullin official portrait, 118th Congress (1).jpg, Kevin Mullin, U.S. Congressman, 2022–present
File:Jonas Rivera 2009.jpg, Jonas Rivera, producer, Pixar Animation Studios
Pixar (), doing business as Pixar Animation Studios, is an American animation studio based in Emeryville, California, known for its critically and commercially successful computer-animated feature films. Pixar is a subsidiary of Walt Disney S ...
File:BDWongNYCJune08.jpg, BD Wong
Bradley Darryl Wong (born October 24, 1960) is an American actor. Wong won a Tony Award for his performance as Song Liling in '' M. Butterfly'', becoming the only actor in Broadway history to receive the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Crit ...
, actor
File:Mohammad Javad Zarif 2014.jpg, Mohammad Javad Zarif
Mohammad Javad Zarif (; born 8 January 1960) is an Iranian career diplomat and academic. He served as the vice president for strategic affairs from August 2024 to March 2025.[John Patitucci
John Patitucci (born December 22, 1959) is an American jazz bassist and composer.
Biography
John James Patitucci was born in Brooklyn, New York. He began playing the electric bass at age 10, performing and composing at age 12, and at age 15, s ...]
, jazz bassist
File:Dana Carvey at the Governor's Ball following the 41st Annual Emmy Awards cropped.jpg, Dana Carvey
Dana Thomas Carvey (born June 2, 1955) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, podcaster, screenwriter and producer.
Carvey is best known for his seven seasons on ''Saturday Night Live'', from 1986 to 1993, which earned him five consecutive Pri ...
, comedian and actor
File:Kirk Hammett 2017.jpg, Kirk Hammett
Kirk Lee Hammett (born November 18, 1962) is an American musician who has been the lead guitarist of heavy metal band Metallica since 1983. Prior to joining Metallica, he co-formed the thrash metal band Exodus in 1979. In 2023, Hammett, along ...
, lead guitarist for Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band. It was formed in Los Angeles in 1981 by vocalist and guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...
File:Oscar Zeta Acosta, Las Vegas 1971.jpg, Oscar Zeta Acosta
Oscar "Zeta" Acosta Fierro (; April 8, 1935 – disappeared May 1974) was a Mexican Americans, Mexican American Lawyer, attorney, author and activist in the Chicano Movement. He wrote the semi-autobiographical novels ''Autobiography of a Brown ...
, attorney, politician, novelist and activist
File:Jeffrey Tambor June 2015.jpg, Jeffrey Tambor
Jeffrey Michael Tambor (born July 8, 1944) is an American retired actor. He is known for his television roles such as Jeffrey Brookes, the uptight neighbor of Stanley and Helen Roper in the television sitcom ''The Ropers'' (1979–1980), as Hank ...
, actor
File:Kari Byron at Comicon 2010 crop.jpg, Kari Byron, television host and artist
File:Rob Schneider (48481847712).jpg, Rob Schneider
Robert Michael Schneider ( ; born October 31, 1963) is an American actor and comedian. He rose to prominence as a cast member on NBC's ''Saturday Night Live'' (1990–1994), where he earned three Primetime Emmy Award nominations.
Following ...
, actor and comedian
File:Johnny Mathis.JPG, Johnny Mathis
John Royce Mathis (born September 30, 1935) is an American singer. Starting his 69-year career with singles of standard (music), standard music, Mathis is one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century and became highly popular as ...
, singer
File:Ronnie Schell.JPG, Ronnie Schell, comedian and actor, co-starred as Duke on '' Gomer Pyle: USMC''
File:NOFX @ Arena Joondalup (12 12 2010) (5272638037).jpg, Michael Burkett, a.k.a. Fat Mike
Michael John Burkett (born January 16, 1967), known professionally as Fat Mike, is an American musician and producer. He was the bassist and lead vocalist for the punk rock band NOFX and the cofounder and bassist of the punk rock supergroup cov ...
, lead vocalist for NOFX
NOFX () was an American punk rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1983. Bassist/lead vocalist Fat Mike, rhythm guitarist Eric Melvin and drummer Erik Sandin were original founding and longest-serving members of the band, who have appeared on every ...
File:Michael Medved in 2016.jpg, Michael Medved
Michael S. Medved (born October 3, 1948) is an American radio show host, author, political commentator, and film critic. His talk show, ''The Michael Medved Show'', is syndicated from his home station KTTH in Seattle. It is available via Cable ...
, author and radio talk show host
File:Nina Hartley AEE 2013.jpg, Nina Hartley
Marie Louise Hartman (born 1959), known professionally as Nina Hartley, is an American pornographic film actress and sex educator. By 2017 she had appeared in more than one thousand adult films. She has been described by ''Las Vegas Weekly'' as ...
, pornographic actress, activist and educator
File:Jose Antonio Vargas 2018.jpg, Jose Antonio Vargas, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and CSU
CSU may refer to:
Universities and university systems
United States
* Columbia Southern University, in Orange Beach, Alabama
* California State University system
* Colorado State University, in Fort Collins, Colorado
* Connecticut State Univers ...
trustee
See also
*
San Francisco Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, 3,710 acres of land under the university's administration and one of 30 National Estuarine Research Reserves
*
Bay Area Television Archive
*
DOC Film Institute
*
FogCam
FogCam is the longest-running webcam in the world, barring maintenance breaks and camera replacements. First set up in 1994 by two students, Jeff Schwartz and Dan Wong, it captures the scenery of the San Francisco State University and uploads i ...
, longest-running webcam in the world that started as a student project but is now under university ownership
Notes
References
External links
*
Athletics website
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San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
Universities and colleges in San Francisco
Sunset District, San Francisco
Schools accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges
Universities and colleges established in 1899
1899 establishments in California
Universities and colleges established in 1972
California Historical Landmarks