The People's University: A History of the California State University

Since its founding as a single institution in San Francisco in the years after the Gold Rush, the California State University has grown into a system of 23 campuses that enroll more than 450,000 students. The People's University is the story of that extraordinary growth.

Today, the California State University is the state s 1,000 mile campus. Its programs reach every corner of the state, and its mission of access, affordability, and quality touches countless people of all ages. CSU is a critical component of California s celebrated system of public higher education, working in partnership with the 10 campuses of the University of California and the state's 109 Community College campuses.

The People's University addresses the many facets of a set of comprehensive universities, institutions that share an overarching mission, and yet vary widely in the programs offered, from the technological emphases of two polytechnic campuses to agricultural programs at a campus in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley, to a campus in the state capital with first-rate public policy and government programs.

Each of California s three systems of public higher education has to achieve greatness in its mission, and the missions are different. The mission of the California State University is to be the people s university.