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San Francisco State University has promoted educational excellence for more than a century. Established as a vocational school for teachers, it became the first such institute in the United States to require a high school diploma. As the school expanded its curriculum, it became San Francisco State Teachers College (1921), San Francisco State College (1935), and San Francisco State University (1972). Known as the Citys University, San Francisco State is situated on a park-like campus in the southwest corner of San Francisco. The schools mottoexperience teachescommunicates its pragmatic approach to education, and SFSU has developed many internationally respected programs over the years. The schools fascinating history includes complete destruction by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, as well as a five-month student/faculty strike during the late 1960s, which resulted in the founding of the first School of Ethnic Studies (1969) in the United States.
About the author
Meredith Eliassen, the archives reference specialist, works in the archives and special collections department in the J. Paul Leonard Library at SFSU, where she graduated with honors in 1988 in broadcast and communication arts. Using vintage imagery from the library's archives, she presents San Francisco State University as an educational innovator, serving the diverse, multicultural communities of the San Francisco Bay region since 1899.
