San Jose State University
San José State University is a public research university in San Jose, California, United States. Established in 1857 as the state's first normal school, it is the oldest public university in the western United States and is the founding campus of the California State University system.
Located in downtown San Jose, San Jose State's main campus spans, or roughly 19 square blocks. It is accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission and is classified among "R2: High Research Spending and Doctorate Production". It is a federally-designated Hispanic-Serving Institution as well as an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution.
SJSU comprises nine academic colleges, who offer over 250 undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Its enrollment is about 37,000 students annually, including around 28,000 undergraduate and 9,000 graduate and professional students. As of fall 2022, graduate student enrollment, Asian, and international student enrollments at SJSU were the highest of any campus in the CSU system.
San Jose State's sports teams compete as the Spartans in the NCAA Division I Mountain West Conference and have won 10 team national championships and 50 individual national championships. SJSU athletes have competed in every Olympics since 1948 and have amassed 21 medals.
History
Establishment
After a private normal school closed in San Francisco after only one year, politicians John Swett and Henry B. Janes sought to establish a normal school for San Francisco's public school system, and approached George W. Minns to be the principal for the nascent institution The normal school began operations in 1857 and became known as the Minns Evening Normal School. Classes were only held once a week, and only graduated 54 female students across its existence, however the program proved to be enough of a success for increased funding to be approved.In 1861, after the continued success of the Evening School, a committee was formed to create a report on the merits of fully funding a state normal school and presented its report to the California State Legislator in January 1862. On May 2, 1862, the California State Senate elected to fund a state normal school and to appoint a board of trustees. The California State Normal School was then opened on July 21, 1862.
Despite continued success, with increasing enrollment and funding, the California State Normal School quickly began to hold contention with the San Francisco Board of Education, which poached students and withheld sufficient school facilities. Because of these issues, the Normal School moved sites six times while in San Francisco, citing noise complaints, sanitary concerns, and lack of access to proper facilities and materials.
In 1868, more serious talks of finding a permanent location for the Normal School began, with a general consensus that the school needed to cut ties with the San Francisco Board of Education and move out of San Francisco. After it became public that the Normal School was looking to move for a permanent location, several cities put in bids to home the school, however after the San Jose Railroad Company paid to have the entire student and faculty body tour the city and potential locations for the school, San Jose became the preferred site. The school moved to San Jose in 1871 and was given Washington Square Park at S. 4th and San Carlos Streets, where the campus remains to this day.
The first building on Washington Square was opened in 1871 and fully completed in 1876, however in 1880 the building was destroyed in a fire. After its destruction, Principal Charles H. Allen journeyed to Sacramento to request the California State Legislator for emergency funds for a new building. This caused significant debate in the senate about the effectiveness of the school and if it would be better served elsewhere. The California State Senate voted to move the school to Los Angeles, but was ultimately kept in San Jose after objections by the California State Assembly. The legislature ultimately settled to give partial emergency funds to the school for the construction of a new building, which finished construction in 1881.Image:The California State Normal School Bell, San Jose State University, San Jose, California.jpg|thumb|upright|The California State Normal School Bell, forged in 1881, still graces the San Jose campus.|rightAs a part of the construction of the new building, a large bell was forged to commemorate the school. The bell cost $1,200, and was inscribed with the words "California State Normal School, A.D. 1881," and would sound on special occasions until 1946 when the college obtained new chimes. The original bell appears on the SJSU campus to this day and is still associated with various student traditions and rituals.
Immediately after the failed attempt to move State Normal School to Los Angeles, California State Senator J.P. West sponsored a bill to create a "Branch State Normal School" in Los Angeles. The bill was passed by both houses, and opened in August 1882. The southern branch campus remained under administrative control of the San Jose campus until 1887. In 1919, the school became the southern branch of the University of California, and later became the University of California, Los Angeles.
20th Century
In 1921, the California State Normal School changed its name to the State Teachers College at San Jose.In 1922, the State Teachers College at San Jose adopted the Spartans as the school's official mascot and nickname. Mascots and nicknames prior to 1922 included the Daniels, the Teachers, the Pedagogues, the Normals and the Normalites.
In 1930, the Justice Studies Department was founded as a two-year police science degree program. It holds the distinction of offering the first policing degree in the United States. A stone monument and plaque are displayed close to the site of the original police school near Tower Hall.
In 1935, the State Teachers Colleges became the California State Colleges, and the school's name was changed again, this time to San Jose State College.
In 1942, the old gym was used to register and collect Japanese Americans before sending them to internment camps. Uchida's own family members were interred at some of these camps.
In 1963, in an effort to save Tower Hall from demolition, SJSU students and alumni organized testimonials before the State College Board of Trustees, sent telegrams and provided signed petitions. As a result of those efforts, the tower, a principal campus landmark and SJSU icon, was refurbished and reopened in 1966. The tower was again renovated and restored in 2007. Tower Hall is registered with the California Office of Historic Preservation.
During the 1960s and early 1970s, San Jose State College witnessed a rise in political activism and civic awareness among its student body, including major student protests against the Vietnam War. One of the largest campus protests took place in 1967 when Dow Chemical Company — a major manufacturer of napalm used in the war — came to campus to conduct job recruiting. An estimated 3,000 students and bystanders surrounded the 7th Street administration building, and more than 200 students and teachers lay down on the ground in front of the recruiters.
In 1972, upon meeting criteria established by the board of trustees and the Coordinating Council for Higher Education, SJSC was granted university status, and the name was changed to California State University, San Jose. However, in 1974, the California legislature voted to change the school's name to San José State University.
In 1982, the English department began sponsoring the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.
In 1985, the CADRE Laboratory for New Media was established. It is believed to be the second oldest media lab of its kind in the United States.
In 1999, San Jose State and the City of San Jose agreed to combine their main libraries to form a joint city-university library located on campus, the first known collaboration of this type in the United States. The combined library faced opposition, with critics stating the two libraries have very different objectives and that the project would be too expensive. Despite opposition, the $177 million project proceeded, and the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library opened on time and on budget in 2003. The library has won several national awards since its initial opening.
21st Century
During its 2006–07 fiscal year, SJSU received a record $50+ million in private gifts and $84 million in capital campaign contributions.In 2008, SJSU received a CASE WealthEngine Award in recognition of raising over $100 million. SJSU was one of approximately 50 institutions nationwide honored by CASE in 2008 for overall performance in educational fundraising.
In October 2010, SJSU President Don Kassing publicly launched SJSU's first-ever comprehensive capital fundraising campaign dubbed "Acceleration: the Campaign for San Jose State University." The original goal of the multi-year campaign was to raise $150 million but was later increased to $200 million because of the rapid success of the campaign. The campaign would eventually exceed its goal one year earlier than anticipated, raising more than $208 million by 2013.
In 2012, the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, awarded SJSU $73.3 million to participate in the development of systems for improving the safety and efficiency of air and space travel. NASA scientists, SJSU faculty and graduate students worked collaboratively on this effort. The grant was the largest federal award in SJSU history.
University principals and presidents
Thirty-two people have led San Jose State since its founding including 8 principals, 15 presidents, 5 acting presidents, and 4 interim presidents.Campus
The SJSU main campus comprises approximately 55 buildings situated on a rectangular, area in downtown San Jose. The campus is bordered by San Fernando Street to the north, San Salvador Street to the south, South 4th Street to the west, and South 10th Street to the east. The south campus, which is home to many of the school's athletics facilities, is located approximately south of the main campus on South 7th Street.California State Normal School did not receive a permanent home until it moved from San Francisco to San Jose in 1871. The original California State Normal School campus in San Jose consisted of several rectangular, wooden buildings with a central grass quadrangle. The wooden buildings were destroyed by fire in 1880 and were replaced by interconnected stone and masonry structures of roughly the same configuration in 1881.
These buildings were declared unsafe following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and were being torn down when an aftershock of the magnitude that was predicted to destroy the buildings occurred and no damage was observed. Accordingly, demolition was stopped, and the portions of the buildings still standing were subsequently transformed into four halls: Tower Hall, Morris Dailey Auditorium, Washington Square Hall and Dwight Bentel Hall. These four structures remain standing to this day and are the oldest buildings on campus.
Beginning in the fall of 1994, the on-campus segments of San Carlos Street, 7th Street and 9th Street were closed to automobile traffic and converted to pedestrian walkways and green belts within the campus. San Carlos Street was renamed Paseo de San Carlos, 7th Street became Paseo de César Chávez, and 9th Street is now called the Ninth Street Plaza. The project was completed in 1996.
Completed in 1999, the Business Classroom Project was a $16 million renovation of the James F. Boccardo Business Education Center. The $1.5 million Heritage Gateway project was completed in the same year. The privately funded project featured construction of eight oversized gateways around the main campus perimeter.
In the fall of 2000, the SJSU Police Department, which is part of the larger California State University Police Department, opened a new on-campus, multi-level facility on 7th Street.
The $177 million Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, which opened its doors on August 1, 2003, won the Library Journal's 2004 Library of the Year award, the publication's highest honor. The King Library represents the first collaboration of its kind between a university and a major U.S. city. The library is eight stories high, has of floor space, and houses approximately 1.3 million volumes. San Jose's first public library occupied the same site from 1901 to 1936, and SJSU's Wahlquist Library occupied the site from 1961 to 2000.
In 2007, a $2 million renovation of Tower Hall was completed. Tower Hall is among the oldest and most recognizable buildings on campus. It was registered as an official California Historical Landmark in 1949. The building was rededicated in 1910 after numerous campus structures were either destroyed or heavily damaged in the 1906 earthquake. Tower Hall, Morris Dailey Auditorium, Washington Square Hall and Dwight Bentel Hall are the four oldest buildings on campus.
The Diaz Compean Student Union is a four-story, stand-alone facility that features a food court, the Spartan Bookstore, a multi-level study area, ballrooms, a bowling alley, music room and large game room. In September 2010, a $90 million expansion and renovation of the student union commenced. The project added approximately including construction of new ballrooms, food court, theater, meeting rooms and student program spaces. The expansion phase of the project was completed in June 2014. The renovation phase of the project was completed in August 2015.
Construction of a new, three-story, on-campus health center at 7th Street and Paseo de San Carlos was completed in March 2015. The building houses the Student Health Center, Student Affairs office, Counseling Services and Wellness Center. The project was completed at a cost of over $36 million.
In August 2015, a $55 million renovation of the Spartan Complex was completed. The Spartan Complex houses open recreation spaces, gymnasiums, an indoor aquatics center, the kinesiology department, weight rooms, locker rooms, dance and judo studios, and other classroom space. The primary project objectives were to expand existing structures, upgrade the structures to make them compliant with current building codes, correct ADA deficiencies, remove hazardous materials and correct fire safety deficiencies.