University of California history

Gilman resigned from the University of California in March 1875 to take on the presidency of the newly established Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

To make this possible, San Francisco Mayor Adolph Sutro donated 13 acres in Parnassus Heights at the base of Mount Parnassus (now known as Mount Sutro). The new site, overlooking Golden Gate Park, opened in the fall of 1898, with the construction of the new Affiliated Colleges buildings.

The school's origins date back to the State Normal School, a teaching college opened by Doctor Frederic Burk in 1899, with an initial graduating class of 36 young women.

Following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, more than 40,000 people were relocated to a makeshift tent city in Golden Gate Park and were treated by the faculty of the Affiliated Colleges.

In 1907, the UC Training School for Nurses was established, adding a fourth professional school to the Affiliated Colleges.

In 1911, the last member of the American Indian Yahi tribe began living on the Parnassus campus.

The San Diego campus, located at La Jolla, was founded as a marine station and became part of the university in 1912.

The Jesuits acquired a small strip of property at the corner of Fulton Street and Parker Avenue, and in 1914, they completed the current St Ignatius Church at that site.

He continued to live on Parnassus until 1916, when he died of tuberculosis.

By 1927, to accommodate the growing student population, a liberal arts building was built just to the east of the church, and the college moved to its present location.

In 1930, on the occasion of its Diamond Jubilee, and at the request of alumni groups, St Ignatius College was renamed the University of San Francisco.

The last of the Affiliated Colleges to become an integral part of the university was the pharmacy school, in 1934.

With a growing student body approaching 1,000 students, land for a new campus on the shoreline of Lake Merced was acquired from the Spring Valley Water Company in 1937.

A 1941 nursing class in Toland Hall, with the murals of Bernard Zakheim, student of famed artist Diego Rivera, adorning the walls in the background.

Bibliographical Note: Gilman's important role in defining American higher education during its crucial decades of reform in the late nineteenth century is treated in Abraham Flexner's 1946 biography of Gilman.

The first attempt at coordinating cancer at UCSF was a collaboration between the UC School of Medicine, the city and county of San Francisco and the National Cancer Institute in 1947 with the Laboratory of Experimental Oncology.

Following on the LEO's heels, the tradition of cancer-related research at UCSF owes much to the vision of David A. Wood, MD, who in 1948 was appointed as the first director of the UCSF Cancer Research Institute.

The final decision came in 1949 when the Regents of the University of California designated the Parnassus campus as the UC Medical Center in San Francisco.

Podcast # 98: Stonestown One the Bay Area's first malls, opening in 1952, Stonestown was created by brother developers and home builders Ellis and Henry Stoneson.

San Francisco State moved to its current location at Lake Merced in 1953.

In 1955 Snyder was among the poets who participated in the historic reading at the Six Gallery at which Ginsberg introduced his poem Howl.

When the Medical Sciences Building was completed in 1958, the basic science departments had a new home on the same campus as the clinical departments, uniting the medical college for the first time in 50 years.

Each of the four schools by this time had been renamed “school of” in alignment with other UC campuses, and in 1961 the Graduate Division was established.

In 1964, the institution, operating under the name University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, was given full administrative independence, becoming the ninth campus in the UC system and the only one devoted exclusively to the health sciences.

The campuses at Santa Cruz and Irvine were both founded in 1965.

Faculty concerns led the UC Regents to ask him to step down, and in 1966 he resigned the post and took on a faculty appointment.

Philip R. Lee, MD, became UCSF’s third chancellor in 1969, coming to UCSF from an assistant secretary post in the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

During Lee’s tenure, the UC Regents in 1970 fittingly renamed the institution the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in recognition of its diversity of disciplines.

Lee stepped down from the chancellor’s post in 1972 and established the UCSF Health Policy Program, the first program of its kind in the country and today the center bears his name.

UCSF Medical Center opened the Ambulatory Care Center in 1973 to meet increasing demand for outpatient care.

1975 also saw the opening of the UCSF Center in Fresno.

In 1976, UCSF and community residents, with UC Regents’ approval, agreed on campus boundaries and designation of Mount Sutro as an open space reserve, a wilderness area that remains today.

Lone Mountain was purchased by USF in 1978, extending the campus to 55 acres.

The university opened UCSF Laurel Heights in 1985 in the Laurel Heights neighborhood.

The collection won the Bollingen Prize in Poetry in 1997.

A pivotal moment in UCSF history was the deal between Vice Chancellor Bruce Spaulding and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown for the development of the Mission Bay campus in 1999.

In 2000 the system helped create the California Institutes for Science and Innovation, which has facilities at various campuses dedicated to technology research.

In 2004 Snyder published his first volume of all-new poetry in 20 years, Danger on Peaks, a collection that stays true to his earlier work by bringing nature into the reader’s inner vision.

100 Stonecrest Drive Henry Stoneson built this house in Lakeside for his own use. ( Jan 1, 2006)

She joined the University of San Francisco in 2007.

Candice Harrison joined the department in Fall 2008 after completing her PhD at Emory University.

At the same time, the Center expanded its profile within the University in 2009 with the opening of a new laboratory research building at the UCSF/Mission Bay campus.

2011 and beyond: Today, the UCSF Division of Hematology and Oncology is an internationally renowned group of clinicians and scientists.

Melissa S. Dale has served as Executive Director of the Center for Asia Pacific Studies since August 2012.

In 2014, UCSF celebrated its 150th anniversary with a year of events.

Since 2015 UCSF has increased its focus on novel biomedical research and has attracted many acts of philanthropy.

Podcast # 161: Parkmerced The story of the apartment city-within-a-city on the shore of Lake Merced (Outside Lands San Francisco Podcast Feb 20, 2016)

Download the latest edition of the USF Fact book and Almanac Download History of Diversity at USF Download WSCUC Accreditation History and USF USF's Environmental Scan for 2017

In 2018, UCSF received a commitment of $500 million for the construction of a new hospital, which will be built at Parnassus, replacing the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute.

In June 2020 the UCSF paid $1.1 million in 116 bitcoins to the Netwalker criminal gang who had attacked their computer systems with malware and stole student data.