Welcome
to Gostate.org
This is the archive of older Gostate.org webpages. GoState is the
voice of the movement for a balanced state-city identity at "San
Jose State", which was founded as the California State Normal
School (1862-1921) and is the school from which the entire CSU system
grew.
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Why
California State?
1. California
State History --
What is now called "San Jose State", the oldest public
institution of higher learning in California, was chartered
in San Francisco as the California State Normal School in 1862
(see 1881 engraving from the campus bell below). The school
moved to San Jose in 1870 and its name was partially changed
in 1887 (solely for bureaucratic reasons), but "California
State" continued to be an important part of the school's
identity and was used in official school catalogs as
late as 1921. The State of California attempted to rectifiy
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the name change in 1972, restoring the school's original "California
State" [University] name, but some alumni preferred the
SJS name and succeeded in renaming the school "SJSU"
in 1974. Unfortunately, since then the school's academic, financial
and athletic fortunes have suffered, to the point where many
of its proud traditions like Spartan football are now threatened.
As a result, many Spartans believe it is now time to achieve
a better balance between the school's California and San Jose
identities. More ->
2.
Breadth of Appeal --
Many believe such a city-centric identity is inappropriate for
California's oldest State University. We believe it is this
identity that is the root cause of the school's decline into
"commuter school" status and the decline of its institutions
like Spartan football. Unfortunately, such a provincial, San
Jose-centric identity tends not to attract the kind of traditional
age residential students from all over California and other
states who immerse themselves in the college experience, and
who later become alumni who will help support the school and
its athletic teams. A city-centric identity also makes it harder
to attract the kind of statewide non-student support base that
equivalent universities like Ohio State enjoy.
3.
Differentiation --
The majority of schools in the CSU system follow San Jose's
lead in athletics marketing, focusing on their city identities:
Fresno State, Long Beach State, Chico State, Sacramento State,
San Diego State, etc. San Jose is no different. It is time for
the original California State to show some leadership and really
differentiate itself by giving some recognition to the state
part of its identity. Since many CSU system schools use dual-branding
(e.g., CSUS-"Sac State"), San Jose should do the same
(e.g., San Jose, STATE, CSU).
4. STATE's Real Rivals -- For years San Jose's provincial
alumni have argued that the school needs to distinguish itself
from other small CSU campuses, most of which do not have D1A
football and are hundreds of miles away. Why? As the oldest
public insitution of higher learning in California, and a major
Bay Area institution, STATE's real rivals should be the University
of California at Berkeley, Stanford and major state universities
like Hawaii and Nevada. Alumni and students at STATE should
stop worrying about other CSU system campuses (most of which
are small, remote and/or city-oriented) and focus on competing
with the Bay Area and Western Athletic Association "big
boys" for students, athletes, donations and success as
a major state institution.
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