To celebrate its 1899 founding, San Francisco State University and its Alumni Association hosted a Founders Day Celebration on March 18 in Malcolm X Plaza.
Originally the San Francisco State Normal School, a small women’s-only teaching academy, the school first opened its doors in March 1899. With only a $10,000 stipend from the state legislature, the school rented a building on Powell Street and offered free tuition to its students.
The school’s first graduating class was comprised of 36 women— 115 years later, the institution remains committed to public education and today, SF State offers more than 200 degrees and certificates and serves nearly 30,000 students each year.
To celebrate 115 years, The Founders Day Challenge encouraged the campus community to honor SF State’s with donations to support its future. Students, faculty, alumni, family and friends contributed to the Alumni Association’s donation goal.
Doubling the impact of each gift to SF State, alumna Marsha Rosenbaum has pledged $25,000 to the Founders Day Challenge and asks her fellow alumni and friends to match her gift.
You can see reminders of SF State’s history all around campus—from facilities named after former presidents, such as Burk Hall and the J. Paul Leonard Library, to the University motto, which has remained unchanged since 1899: Founding president Frederic Lister Burk chose the phrase, Experientia Docet, “Experience Teaches,” and for 115 years it has symbolized SF State’s commitment to hands-on instruction and expert faculty.