Why does Cal St Univ name campuses two different ways? (San Diego: dorms, public schools)

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

The State University system changed in 1960. Prior to that someone might say "Fullerton State" or "Los Angeles State", to distinguish from the private schools such as USC or Pepperdine.

The Top schools were part of the University of California system. The top 12.5% of California students were allowed to get into the UC's

The CSU system was designed for the top third of Students from California.

The JC system would accept anyone.

[ElDiabloJoe]

Originally Posted by Chimérique

The California State College system added "University" (20 plus years ago) to the name because many of the colleges had added, Phd. programs, and later "research" programs as opposed to only Bachelor, Masters' and Teaching Credentials.

Its usage also sort of changes over time, for example California State University, Sacramento as aways been known as Sacramento State, few people actually say California State University.....to this day.

It seems there was a time when CSUS was as popular a term to use as Sacramento State, but less so now.

In order of usage I'd say it is:

Sacramento State
CSUS
California State University, Sacramento
Cal State, Sacramento

"Sacramento State" is easy and quick way to convey it's a College in Sacramento and a Public/State college; its' implied that it is a University with PhD. and research programs as well as Bachelor, Masters and Teaching Credentials.

CSUS is easy and quick but can be confused with all the CSU's and UC's, and other short abbreviations. But it has "S", (State) in the name referring to it being a State/Public college, and it has "U" (University) referring to it being a college that offers PhD., and research programs as well as Bachelor's, Masters' and Teaching Credentials.

Huh. I thought CSUS was for Stanislaus.

[Mr5150]

The name, CSU San Francisco was hated by alumni (like me) and most students so the name was changed to San Francisco State University. Or simply San Francisco State

[edsg25]

Originally Posted by Chimérique

The California State College system added "University" (20 plus years ago) to the name because many of the colleges had added, Phd. programs, and later "research" programs as opposed to only Bachelor, Masters' and Teaching Credentials.

Its usage also sort of changes over time, for example California State University, Sacramento as aways been known as Sacramento State, few people actually say California State University.....to this day.

It seems there was a time when CSUS was as popular a term to use as Sacramento State, but less so now.

In order of usage I'd say it is:

Sacramento State
CSUS
California State University, Sacramento
Cal State, Sacramento

"Sacramento State" is easy and quick way to convey it's a College in Sacramento and a Public/State college; its' implied that it is a University with PhD. and research programs as well as Bachelor, Masters and Teaching Credentials.

CSUS is easy and quick but can be confused with all the CSU's and UC's, and other short abbreviations. But it has "S", (State) in the name referring to it being a State/Public college, and it has "U" (University) referring to it being a college that offers PhD., and research programs as well as Bachelor's, Masters' and Teaching Credentials.

Great response. And what really helps it make its point: the ever increasing importance of branding. Traditionally universities kept things pretty close to the vest, using their official name in virtually all circumstances except the informal (informally, the initials of the school was used....as in U-M for the University of Michigan, but other than that, the base word(s) of the name generally were reserved for athletics: UT Austin is "Texas" only in athletic or spirit terms.

Of course, there was always exceptions to the strictly playing by the rules game. "Pennsylvania State" sounds just plain weird. In the history of the universe, the words "the University of California, Los Angeles" have never been spoken aloud (until you just did so a few seconds back to prove me wrong). Can you imagine how cringe worth "UC Los Angeles" sounds. If you were to scour the UCLA web site, you'd be hard pressed to find the University of California, Los Angeles written anywhere. LSU was never Louisiana State nor Ole Miss ever Mississippi.

Now it's different. Branding often drops the word "university" in reference, even at a u's homepage. Yale, Duke, Northwestern, Stanford.....all pretty much have dropped "university". The only state school I know of that has done that is the Univ of Illinois (Urbana) which now bills itself as "Illinois". Period.

I guess in that regard, it no longer matters the way it once did what the various CSU's have as their official name. Each determines on its own what it gets to call itself.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by edsg25

My question should be obvious from its title:

Why does California State University name in two ways:

CSU followed by city name

City Name followed by State University

In other words, why is it a mix of

California State University Los Angeles
California State University Fresno
California State University Sacramento

and...

San Francisco State University
San Jose State University
San Diego State University

(I'm excluding schools with a particular curricular speciality....like Cal Poly)

Interesting question but probably one that has no real answer. All used to be part of the state college system but sometime is the late 70s or early 80s they became part of the university system. That does explain why the 2 names

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by BRinSM

I went to CSU Fullerton, which used to be called Orange County State College or something similar. I also find it odd that the Long Beach campus goes by both CSULB and Long Beach State. Go figure ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I never remember CSU Fullerton being called OC state: that is pretty interesting. We are never too old to learn I guess.

[luv4horses]

Originally Posted by BRinSM

I went to CSU Fullerton, which used to be called Orange County State College or something similar. I also find it odd that the Long Beach campus goes by both CSULB and Long Beach State. Go figure ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I went to cal state Fullerton in 1965. It was never called anything other than Cal state fullerton

[simbared]

Originally Posted by bad debt

Don't know the answer to your question, but there is definitely no standardized nomenclature. It's so crazy that SLO is officially named California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo while Pomona is named California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (state and polytechnic are reversed). My assumption is that the schools were named independently prior to the creation of the Cal State system and that's why they have different naming standards.

From Cal Poly Pomona's website:

Cal Poly Pomona opened on Sept. 15, 1938, with an all-male enrollment of 110 students as the Voorhis Unit of California State Polytechnic College in San Luis Obispo. It was located on the 150-acre San Dimas site of the former Voorhis School for Boys.

Breakfast cereal magnate W.K. Kellogg deeded 813 acres of land located three miles south of the Voorhis campus to the state of California in 1949.

In 1956, 508 students and 44 faculty and staff moved from San Dimas to the Kellogg campus. In a first for the all-male campus, 329 women joined the student body in 1961. The Pomona campus separated from the San Luis Obispo campus in 1966 and became California State Polytechnic College, Kellogg Campus. University status was granted in 1972.

Today, the university is part of the 23-campus California State University system. Cal Poly Pomona has about 24,000 students and 2,600 faculty and staff.

https://www.cpp.edu/~aboutcpp/heritage/index.shtml

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by edsg25

Great response. And what really helps it make its point: the ever increasing importance of branding. Traditionally universities kept things pretty close to the vest, using their official name in virtually all circumstances except the informal (informally, the initials of the school was used....as in U-M for the University of Michigan, but other than that, the base word(s) of the name generally were reserved for athletics: UT Austin is "Texas" only in athletic or spirit terms.

Of course, there was always exceptions to the strictly playing by the rules game. "Pennsylvania State" sounds just plain weird. In the history of the universe, the words "the University of California, Los Angeles" have never been spoken aloud (until you just did so a few seconds back to prove me wrong). Can you imagine how cringe worth "UC Los Angeles" sounds. If you were to scour the UCLA web site, you'd be hard pressed to find the University of California, Los Angeles written anywhere. LSU was never Louisiana State nor Ole Miss ever Mississippi.

Now it's different. Branding often drops the word "university" in reference, even at a u's homepage. Yale, Duke, Northwestern, Stanford.....all pretty much have dropped "university". The only state school I know of that has done that is the Univ of Illinois (Urbana) which now bills itself as "Illinois". Period.

I guess in that regard, it no longer matters the way it once did what the various CSU's have as their official name. Each determines on its own what it gets to call itself.

Thanks.

Agreed, I went to UCLA and "nobody" says anything but UCLA, but we all know it means the University of California at Los Angeles.

Regarding branding, everyone knows CAL is the University of California at Berkeley. UCLA is the University of California at Los Angeles. Stanford is THE Ivy League University of the West.

Some cities are synonomous with their UC: Davis, Irvine, Berkeley, but not Los Angeles, San Francisco, nor San Diego, and not so much Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, and Merced.

[BeauCharles]

Originally Posted by Chimérique

Thanks.

Agreed, I went to UCLA and "nobody" says anything but UCLA, but we all know it means the University of California at Los Angeles.

Regarding branding, everyone knows CAL is the University of California at Berkeley. UCLA is the University of California at Los Angeles. Stanford is THE Ivy League University of the West.

Some cities are synonomous with their UC: Davis, Irvine, Berkeley, but not Los Angeles, San Francisco, nor San Diego, and not so much Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, and Merced.

TBH I think most people would put a "UC" in front of any of those to identify where they went to school save for Berkeley.