California State (1862)

The story of how California State devolved into San Jose State and the struggle to restore the school's original heritage, symbols and identity On May 2, 2012, the State of California and the California State University (CSU) missed an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the founding of the California State system of higher education by the California Legislature. But instead of being recognized, this significant anniversary was almost completely ignored by the State of California, the CSU and its founding campus in San Jose. This book explores the reasons for the unfortunate circumstance, starting with the Spanish exploration of the West Coast and a name derived from the literary island of California. The tale of California State unfolds when later, after successive rebellions, the modern State of California was established, and California Legislature created the California State Normal School in 1862. After moving to San Jose in 1871 the original Cal State campus spawned other campuses which became the California State Colleges, and later the CSU. But over the years the founding campus itself gradually devolved from its grand original statewide "California State" identity to its current provincial "San Jose State" name, degrading not only that campus but the entire CSU system. Spanning almost 500 years, this book tells the fascinating story of this devolution and the struggle to restore the original California State together with its history, identity and symbols for the benefit of the State of California, the CSU system, and its founding campus in San Jose.