San Francisco State University

In 1862 a committee of San Francisco residents sent a petition to the state legislature; the Normal School that followed was moved south to the more family-friendly San Jose in 1871.⁠[1]

On March 22, 1899, an act of the California legislature authorized the creation of a new San Francisco Normal School; the university marked its 125th anniversary on March 22, 2024. The first graduating class, the class of 1901, consisted of three dozen students, all women, and the first male student was admitted in 1904.⁠[1]

In April 1906 the earthquake and fire destroyed the school’s building and all its records; classes resumed in June, and the university describes it as the first public school in the city to reopen.⁠[1]

In the 1920s the school began offering the bachelor of arts degree, and in 1935 it became San Francisco State College.⁠[1]

In 1949, as the school celebrated its 50th anniversary, it offered its first master’s degree, in education; to accommodate growing demand, the college moved in 1954 to its present campus near Lake Merced.⁠[1]

In 1961 the college joined what would become the 23-campus California State University system.⁠[1]

On November 6, 1968, a strike led by student groups including the Black Student Union and the Third World Liberation Front began at San Francisco State College, joined by some staff and faculty and members of the wider Bay Area community; it lasted until March 20, 1969, has been described as the longest student strike in U.S. history, and is also known as the “Third World Strike.” During the strike Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa, an English professor, replaced President Robert Smith and asked police to maintain campus security. The students won some of their demands, including the establishment of the country’s first College of Ethnic Studies.⁠[2][3][4]

In 1972 the college was renamed California State University, San Francisco; the name proved both unpopular and unwieldy, and in 1974 the school was renamed again.⁠[1]

After Leslie E. Wong retired in July 2019, Lynn Mahoney, previously provost and vice president for academic affairs at California State University, Los Angeles, succeeded him as the 14th president of San Francisco State University, the first woman appointed to the post in a permanent capacity.⁠[5]

On September 8, 2026, Mahoney announced that she would retire the following summer after eight years leading the university, and that she would continue to serve as president while the CSU Board of Trustees conducted a national search for her successor. The university’s announcement listed achievements during her tenure, including the opening of the Science and Engineering Innovation Center and Marcus Hall, earning the Seal of Excelencia for its work serving Latinx students, raising $175.8 million in philanthropic support and an increase of more than 10% in new student enrollment.⁠[6]

As of October 2026 Lynn Mahoney remained president; the university is part of the California State University system, whose Board of Trustees is conducting the search for her successor. The “At a Glance” section of the university’s website lists about 21,000 students, 1,600 faculty and 300,000 alumni, without stating the date of the figures.⁠[6][7]

John Paul Getty Jr.John Paul Getty Jr.John Paul Getty Jr. (1932–2003), known as Sir Paul Getty, was a son of oil businessman J. Paul Getty and a Britain-based philanthropist and book collector who made large gifts to the National Gallery, the British Film Institute and cricket, and received an honorary KBE in 1986.Open the full entry, a son of J. Paul GettyJ. Paul GettyJ. Paul Getty (1892–1976) was an American oil businessman and art collector who held a controlling interest in the Getty Oil Company and founded the J. Paul Getty Museum; his bequest built the J. Paul Getty Trust after his death.Open the full entry, attended San Francisco State University, studying English, but did not graduate; the source does not give the years of his attendance.⁠[8]

San Francisco State University: Official website: https://www.sfsu.edu/ (opens in a new window)⁠[9]

X: Official account: https://x.com/SFSU (opens in a new window)⁠[9]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Official account: https://www.linkedin.com/school/san-francisco-state-university/ (opens in a new window)⁠[10]