# California State University

The California State University (Cal State or CSU) is a public university system in California, and the largest public university system in the United States. It consists of 23 campuses and seven off-campus centers, which together enroll 457,992 students and employ 56,256 faculty and staff members. In California, it is one of the three public higher education systems, along with the University of California and the California Community Colleges systems. The CSU system is officially incorporated as The Trustees of the California State University, and is headquartered in Long Beach, California.
Established in 1960 as part of the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the CSU system has its roots in the California State Normal Schools that were chartered in 1857. It holds the distinction of being the leading producer of bachelor's degrees in the country, with over 110,000 graduates each year. Additionally, the CSU system contributes to the state's economy by sustaining more than 209,000 jobs.
In the 2015–16 academic year, CSU awarded 52% of newly issued California teaching credentials, 33% of the state's information technology bachelor's degrees, and it had more graduates in business, criminal justice, engineering, public administration, and agriculture than all other colleges and universities in California combined. Altogether, about half of the bachelor's degrees, one-fourth of the master's degrees, and 3% of the doctoral degrees awarded annually in California are from the CSU. Additionally, 62% of all bachelor's degrees granted to Hispanic students in California and over half of bachelor's degrees earned by California's Latino, African American and Native American students combined are conferred by the CSU.
The CSU system is one of the top U.S. sources of graduates who move on to earn their PhD degrees in a related field. Since 1961, over four million alumni have received a degree from the CSU system. CSU offers more than 1,800 degree programs in some 240 subject areas. In fall of 2022, 11,181 (or 40%) of CSU's 27,741 faculty were tenured or on the tenure track.

## History
### State Normal Schools

Today's California State University system is the direct descendant of the Minns Evening Normal School, founded in 1857 by George W. Minns in San Francisco. It was a normal school, an institution that educated future teachers in association with the high school system and the first of its kind in California.
The school was taken over by the state in 1862 and moved to San Jose and renamed the California State Normal School; it eventually evolved into San Jose State University. A southern branch of the California State Normal School was created in Los Angeles in 1882. In 1887, the California State Legislature dropped the word California from the name of the San Jose and Los Angeles schools, renaming them State Normal Schools.
Later, other state normal schools were founded at Chico (1887) and San Diego (1897); they did not form a system in the modern sense, in that each normal school had its own board of trustees and all were governed independently from one another. By the end of the 19th century, the State Normal School in San Jose was graduating roughly 130 teachers a year and was "one of the best known normal schools in the West."
In 1919, the State Normal School at Los Angeles became the Southern Branch of the University of California; in 1927, it became the University of California at Los Angeles.

### State Teachers Colleges

In May 1921, the legislature enacted a comprehensive reform package for the state's educational system, which went into effect that July. The State Normal Schools were renamed State Teachers Colleges, their boards of trustees were dissolved, and they were brought under the supervision of the Division of Normal and Special Schools of the new California Department of Education located at the state capital in Sacramento. This meant that they were to be managed from Sacramento by the deputy director of the division, who in turn was subordinate to the State Superintendent of Public Instruction (the ex officio director of the Department of Education) and the State Board of Education. By this time it was already commonplace to refer to most of the campuses with their city names plus the word "state" (e.g., "San Jose State," "San Diego State," "San Francisco State").
The resulting administrative situation from 1921 to 1960 was quite complicated. On the one hand, the Department of Education's actual supervision of the presidents of the State Teachers Colleges was minimal, which translated into substantial autonomy when it came to day-to-day operations. According to Clark Kerr, J. Paul Leonard, the president of San Francisco State from 1945 to 1957, once boasted that "he had the best college presidency in the United States—no organized faculty, no organized student body, no organized alumni association, and...no board of trustees." On the other hand, the State Teachers Colleges were treated under state law as ordinary state government agencies, which meant their budgets were subject to the same stifling bureaucratic financial controls as all other state agencies (except the University of California). At least one president would depart his state college because of his express frustration over that issue: Leonard himself. (One of the lasting legacies of this era is that Cal State employees, like other state employees (but not UC or local government employees) are still paid by the state controller and receive their employment and retirement benefits from CalPERS.)
During the 1920s and 1930s, the State Teachers Colleges started to evolve from normal schools (that is, vocational schools narrowly focused on training elementary school teachers in how to impart basic literacy to young children) into teachers colleges (that is, providing a full liberal arts education) whose graduates would be fully qualified to teach all K–12 grades. A leading proponent of this idea was Charles McLane, the first president of Fresno State, who was one of the earliest persons to argue that K–12 teachers must have a broad liberal arts education. Having already founded Fresno Junior College in 1907 (now Fresno City College), McLane arranged for Fresno State to co-locate with the junior college and to synchronize schedules so teachers-in-training could take liberal arts courses at the junior college. San Diego and San Jose followed Fresno in expanding their academic programs beyond traditional teacher training. These developments had the "tacit approval" of the State Board of Education and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, but had not been expressly authorized by the board and also lacked express statutory authorization from the state legislature.

### State Colleges

In 1932, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching was asked by the state legislature and governor to perform a study of California higher education. The so-called "Suzzallo Report" (after the Foundation's president, Henry Suzzallo) sharply criticized the State Teachers Colleges for their intrusion upon UC's liberal arts prerogative and recommended their transfer to the Regents of the University of California (who would be expected to put them back in their proper place). This recommendation spectacularly backfired when the faculties and administrations of the State Teachers Colleges rallied to protect their independence from the Regents. In 1935, the State Teachers Colleges were formally upgraded by the state legislature to State Colleges and were expressly authorized to offer a full four-year liberal arts curriculum, culminating in bachelor's degrees, but they remained under the Department of Education.
During World War II, a group of local Santa Barbara leaders and business promoters (with the acquiescence of college administrators) were able to convince the state legislature and governor to transfer Santa Barbara State College to the University of California in 1944. After losing a second campus to UC, the state colleges' supporters arranged for the California state constitution to be amended in 1946 to prevent it from happening again. The period after World War II brought a great expansion in the number of state colleges. Additional state colleges were established in Los Angeles, Sacramento, and Long Beach from 1947 to 1949, and then seven more state colleges were authorized to be established between 1957 and 1960. Six more state colleges were founded after the enactment of the Donahoe Higher Education Act of 1960, bringing the total number to 23.

### California State Colleges

During the 1950s, the state colleges' peculiar mix of fiscal centralization and operational decentralization began to look rather incongruous in comparison to the highly centralized University of California (then on the brink of its own decentralization project) and the highly decentralized local school districts around the state which operated K–12 schools and junior colleges—all of which enjoyed much more autonomy from the rest of the state government than the state colleges. In particular, several of the state college presidents had come to strongly dislike the State Board of Education and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Roy E. Simpson, whom the presidents felt were too deferential to the University of California. Five state college presidents led the movement in the late 1950s for more autonomy from the state government: Glenn Dumke at San Francisco State (who had succeeded Leonard in 1957), Arnold Joyal at Fresno State, John T. Wahlquist at San Jose State, Julian A. McPhee at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and Malcolm Love at San Diego State. They had three main objectives: (1) a systemwide board independent of the rest of the state government; (2) the right to award professional degrees in engineering and the doctorate in the field of education; and (3) state funding for research at the state college level.
The state legislature was limited to merely suggesting locations to the UC Board of Regents for the planned UC campus on the Central Coast. In contrast, because the state colleges lacked autonomy, they were vulnerable to pork barrel politics in the state legislature. As early as 1932, the Suzzallo Report had noted that "the establishing of State teachers colleges has been partly the product of geographic-political considerations rather than of thoughtful determination of needs". In 1959 alone, state legislators introduced separate bills to individually create nineteen state colleges. Two years earlier, one bill that had actually passed had resulted in the creation of a new state college in Turlock, a town better known for its turkeys than its aspirations towards higher education, and which made no sense except that the chair of the Senate Committee on Education happened to be from Turlock.
In April 1960, the California Master Plan for Higher Education and the resulting Donahoe Higher Education Act finally granted autonomy to the state colleges. The Donahoe Act merged all the state colleges into the State College System of California, severed them from the Department of Education (and also the State Board of Education and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction), and authorized the appointment of a systemwide board of trustees and a systemwide chancellor. The board was initially known as the "Trustees of the State College System of California"; the word "board" was not part of the official name. In March 1961, the state legislature renamed the system to the California State Colleges (CSC) and the board became the "Trustees of the California State Colleges."
As enacted, the Donahoe Act provides that UC "shall be the primary state-supported academic agency for research" and "has the sole authority in public higher education to award the doctoral degree in all fields of learning". In contrast, CSU may only award the doctoral degree as part of a joint program with UC or "independent institutions of higher education" and is authorized to conduct research "in support of" its mission, which is to provide "undergraduate and graduate instruction through the master's degree." This language reflects the intent of UC President Kerr and his allies to bring order to "a state of anarchy"—in particular, the state colleges' repeated attempts (whenever they thought UC was not looking) to quietly blossom into full-fledged research universities, as was occurring elsewhere with other state colleges like Michigan State.
Kerr explained in his memoirs: "The state did not need a higher education system where every component was intent on being another Harvard or Berkeley or Stanford." As he saw it, the problem with such "academic drift" was that state resources would be spread too thin across too many universities, all would be too busy chasing the "holy grail of elite research status" (in that state college faculty members would inevitably demand reduced teaching loads to make time for research) for any of them to fulfill the state colleges' traditional role of training teachers, and then "some new colleges would have to be founded" to take up that role. At the time, California already had too many research universities; it had only 9 percent of the American population but 15 percent of the research universities (12 out of 80). The language about joint programs and authorizing the state colleges to conduct some research was offered by Kerr at the last minute on December 18, 1959, as a "sweetener" to secure the consent of a then-wavering Dumke, the state colleges' representative on the Master Plan survey team.
Dumke reluctantly agreed to Kerr's terms only because he knew the alternative was worse. If the state colleges could not reach a deal with UC, the California legislature was likely to be caught up in the "superboard" fad then sweeping through state legislatures across the United States. A "superboard" was a state board of higher education with plenary authority over all public higher education in the state—the number of states with superboards went from 16 in 1939 to 33 by 1969. Dumke was determined to prevent UC and the state legislature from reducing the state colleges to mere UC "satellites", the dark fate they had narrowly escaped in 1935. At the outset of negotiations, Wahlquist had already shot down Kerr's suggestion of the "Santa Barbara route", because the state colleges were well aware that Santa Barbara had languished under the Board of Regents' mismanagement for 15 years. Kerr never attempted to reformulate his proposal as a threat, but the specter of his "unstated threat" haunted the state colleges for the remainder of the negotiations. At least under Kerr's terms the state colleges would finally have their own systemwide board, and to Dumke, that was the most important thing. To ensure this compromise at the core of the Master Plan would stay intact through the legislative process, it was agreed that the entire package could be enacted only if the state legislature, the State Board of Education, and the UC Board of Regents all agreed with its two main components: (1) the joint doctorate and (2) the new board for the state colleges.
Most state college presidents and approximately 95 percent of state college faculty members (at the nine campuses where polls were held) strongly disagreed with the Master Plan's express endorsement of UC's primary role with respect to research and the doctorate, but they were still subordinate to the State Board of Education. In January 1960, Louis Heilbron was elected as the new chair of the State Board of Education. A Berkeley-trained attorney, Heilbron had already revealed his loyalty to his alma mater by joking that UC's ownership of the doctorate ought to be protected from "unreasonable search and seizure." He worked with Kerr to get the Master Plan's recommendations enacted in the form of the Donahoe Act, which was signed into state law on April 27, 1960.
Heilbron went on to serve as the first chairman of the Trustees of the California State Colleges (1960–1963), where he had to "rein in some of the more powerful campus presidents," improve the smaller and weaker campuses, and get all campuses accustomed to being managed for the first time as a system. Heilbron set the "central theme" of his chairmanship by saying that "we must cultivate our own garden" (an allusion to Candide) and stop trying to covet someone else's. Under Heilbron, the board also attempted to improve the quality of state college campus architecture, "in the hope that campuses no longer would resemble state prisons." (For example, at the height of the Great Depression, the state government had considered converting Cal Poly San Luis Obispo into a state prison.)
Although the state colleges had reported to Sacramento since 1921, the board resolved on August 4, 1961 that the headquarters of the California State Colleges would be set up in the Los Angeles area, and in December, the newly-formed chancellor's office was moved from Sacramento to a rented office on Imperial Highway in Inglewood. This location gained the unfortunate nickname of the "imperial headquarters". In 1965, the chancellor's office was moved to a larger office space, again rented, on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.
Buell G. Gallagher was selected by the board as the first chancellor of the California State Colleges (1961–1962), but resigned after only nine unhappy months to return to his previous job as president of the City College of New York. Dumke succeeded him as the second chancellor of the California State Colleges (1962–1982). As chancellor, Dumke faithfully adhered to the system's role as prescribed by the Master Plan, despite continuing resistance and resentment from state college dissidents who thought he had been "out-negotiated" and bitterly criticized the Master Plan as a "thieves' bargain". Disappointment with the Master Plan was widespread but was especially acute at Dumke's former campus, San Francisco State. Dumke retorted that his critics' ambitions to turn the state colleges into "baby Berkeleys" were "unrealistic". Looking back, Kerr thought the state colleges had failed to appreciate the vast breadth of opportunities reserved to them by the Master Plan, as distinguished from UC's relatively narrow focus on basic research and the doctorate. In any event, "Heilbron and Dumke got the new state college system off to an excellent start."

### California State University and Colleges

In 1966, James R. Mills, a state assemblyman from San Diego, suggested studying the possibility of changing the name of the system to California State University. Much of the leadership on this matter emerged from the San Diego area in the following years, but several bills introduced by San Diego legislators failed to pass in the face of staunch opposition from the University of California. The final compromise was that the system would become the California State University and Colleges. Alex Sherriffs, then serving as an education advisor to Governor Reagan, later explained that he was among those who fought the name change because "most of the campuses are not, by any definition I've ever seen, a university. A university ... includes several colleges and is heavily engaged in scholarship and research. It gives the doctoral degrees". Governor Ronald Reagan signed Assembly Bill 123 into law on November 29, 1971 and the board was renamed the "Trustees of the California State University and Colleges".
In accordance with the new systemwide name, on May 23, 1972, the board of trustees voted to rename fourteen of the nineteen CSU campuses to "California State University," followed by a comma and then their geographic designation. The five campuses exempted from renaming were the five newest state colleges created during the 1960s.
The new names were strongly disliked at certain campuses. For example, CSUSF drew the humorous response "Gesundheit," and was frequently confused with CCSF, USF, and UCSF. Over Dumke's objections, state assemblyman Alfred E. Alquist proposed a bill that would rename the San Jose campus back to San Jose State. As passed and signed into law, the bill also renamed San Diego and San Francisco back to their old names. A few years later, the Sonoma and Humboldt campuses secured passage of similar legislation.
In September 1976, the chancellor's office was moved from Los Angeles to a custom-built headquarters at 400 Golden Shore on the Long Beach waterfront. This was the first time CSU had owned its own headquarters building.

### California State University

Two major changes occurred in 1982. First, CSU was able to quietly obtain passage of a bill dropping the word "colleges" from its name. Second, W. Ann Reynolds succeeded Dumke as CSU's third chancellor, and brought a dramatically different management style to the CSU system. In many ways, Reynolds was the opposite of the "quiet" and "apolitical" Dumke. Despite the severe budget pressures brought about by the passage of Proposition 13, Reynolds was able to achieve moderate success in improving parity between CSU and UC funding. She was unsuccessful in her other long-term objective, securing for CSU the right to award doctorates independently of UC. When she asked Dumke for help, he replied that "he had given his word in 1960 and did not believe it principled to change." A week later, he testified before the state legislature and did not support the independent doctorate for CSU.
Meanwhile, various problems with the 400 Golden Shore building forced the chancellor's office to move to a new building after only 22 years. The solution was to trade spaces with the parking lot across the street to the north, a site with better soil conditions. In spring 1998, CSU moved into its current headquarters at 401 Golden Shore, then demolished the old building and turned its site into a parking lot.
Today, the campuses of the CSU system include comprehensive universities and polytechnic universities along with the only maritime academy in the western United States.
In May 2020, it was announced that all 23 institutions within the CSU system would host majority-online courses in the Fall 2020 semester as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of the pandemic on education.
Near the end of 2022, the CSU actively opposed the proposed expansion of the California Community Colleges' right to confer a limited number of four-year bachelor's degrees. The community colleges involved noted how ironic it was for CSU to be pushing back against them, in light of CSU's long-running battle with UC over the right to award the doctorate.
In July 2023, CSU's systemwide Title IX compliance was harshly criticized in a report prepared by the Cozen O'Connor law firm at the request of the Board of Trustees (at a cost of over $1 million) and separately in another report prepared by the California State Auditor at the request of the Legislature. The Cozen report found that CSU's legal department and Title IX coordinators were severely understaffed. Cozen reported there was a widespread perception throughout the CSU system that "individual campus administrators act to protect the interests of the institution rather than care for the individuals who have been harmed".
In January 2024, CSU faculty including professors, lecturers, counselors, librarians and coaches began a system-wide strike. The strike, which consisted of 30,000 CSU faculty members and affected all of CSU's 23 campuses, was set to be held for five days, with faculty members seeking a 12% pay increase. The strike, which ended after less than a day, resulted in a tentative agreement with two 5% pay increases (one retroactive to July 1, 2023 and one planned for July 1, 2024) as well as extended parental leave, more increases for lower-paid faculty, and more benefits. Support for the agreement among faculty has been mixed.
In 2026, the number of CSU campuses will shrink for the first time, as Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo will be absorbing Cal State Maritime, which will become an off-campus branch by the name of Cal Poly, Solano Campus.

## Governance

The governance structure of the California State University is largely determined by state law. The California State University is ultimately administered by the 25-member board of trustees of the California State University. The trustees appoint the chancellor of the California State University, who is the chief executive officer of the system, and the presidents of each campus, who are the chief executive officers of their respective campuses.
The Academic Senate of the California State University, made up of elected representatives of the faculty from each campus, recommends academic policy to the board of trustees through the chancellor.

### Board of trustees

The California State University is administered by the 25-member board of trustees, composed of:
* The governor of California (president ex officio)
* Sixteen members appointed by the governor of California with the consent of the Senate
* Two students from the California State University appointed by the governor with the recommendation of the Cal State Student Association
* One tenured faculty member appointed by the governor selected from a list of names submitted by the Academic Senate
* One representative of the alumni associations of the state university selected for a two-year term by the alumni council of the California State University
* Four ex officio members aside from the governor:
** Lieutenant governor
** Speaker of the Assembly
** State superintendent of public instruction
** The CSU chancellor
The board meets six times each year in the Glenn S. Dumke Auditorium at the Office of the Chancellor in Long Beach. Unlike the Regents of the University of California, the board does not regularly rotate the locations of its meetings between Northern and Southern California.

### Chancellor

The chancellor is the chief executive officer of the CSU, and all presidents of the campuses report directly to the chancellor.

#### Chancellors

* Buell Gallagher (1961–1962)
* Glenn S. Dumke (1962–1982)
* W. Ann Reynolds (1982–1990)
* Ellis E. McCune [interim] (1990–1991)
* Barry Munitz (1991–1998)
* Charles B. Reed (1998–2012)
* Timothy P. White (2012–2020)
* Joseph I. Castro (2021–2022)
* Steve Relyea [Acting] (2022)
* Jolene Koester [interim] (2022–2023)
* Mildred García (2023–present)

### Student government

All 23 campuses have student government organizations, and are all members of the California State Student Association (CSSA). California Education Code § 89300 allows for the creation of student body organizations at any state university for the purpose of providing essential activities closely related to, but not normally included as a part of, the regular instructional program.

## Campuses

The CSU is composed of 23 campuses, of which 11 are located in Northern California and 12 in Southern California. The 23 campuses are listed here by order of the year founded:
| Campus | School Name | Founded | Enrollment (Fall 2023) | Endowment (Fiscal year 2022–23) (millions) | Athletic affiliation | Athletic Nickname (Conference) | U.S. News Rank (West, 2025) | Washington Monthly Rank (Master's, 2024) | Forbes Rank (National, 2024) |
| San José | San Jose State University | 1857 | 32,229 | $182.65 | NCAA D-I (FBS) | Spartans (MW) | 4 | 51 | 235 |
| Chico | California State University, Chico | 1887 | 13,999 | $86.65 | NCAA D-II | Wildcats (CCAA) | 20 | 6 | 204 |
| San Diego | San Diego State University | 1897 | 37,538 | $415.70 | NCAA D-I (FBS) | Aztecs (MW) (Pac-12 in 2026) | 109 (Nat. Univ.)* | 99 (Nat. Univ.)* | 77 |
| San Francisco | San Francisco State University | 1899 | 23,700 | $161.36 | NCAA D-II | Gators (CCAA) | 204 (Nat. Univ.)* | 76 (Nat. Univ.)* | 137 |
| San Luis Obispo | California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo | 1901 | 22,279 | $265.26 | NCAA D-I (FCS) | Mustangs (Big West) | 1 | 32 | 57 |
| Fresno | California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) | 1911 | 23,832 | $229.05 | NCAA D-I (FBS) | Bulldogs (MW) (Pac-12 in 2026) | 179 (Nat. Univ.)* | 22 (Nat. Univ.)* | 185 |
| Humboldt | California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt | 1913 | 5,976 | $40.84 | NCAA D-II | Lumberjacks (CCAA) | 32 | 13 | N/A |
| Maritime Vallejo | California State University Maritime Academy (merging with Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in 2025) | 1929 | 761 | $14.03 | NAIA | Keelhaulers (Cal Pac) | 2 (Reg. Coll.)^ | 1 (Bach. Coll.)* | 327 |
| Pomona | California State Polytechnic University, Pomona | 1938 | 26,415 | $165.26 | NCAA D-II | Broncos (CCAA) | 3 | 41 | 255 |
| Los Angeles | California State University, Los Angeles | 1947 | 24,673 | $58.11 | NCAA D-II | Golden Eagles (CCAA) | 15 | 3 | 227 |
| Sacramento | California State University, Sacramento (Sacramento State) | 1947 | 30,193 | $76.61 | NCAA D-I (FCS) | Hornets (Big Sky) | 27 | 5 | 341 |
| Long Beach | California State University, Long Beach (Long Beach State) | 1949 | 39,530 | $115.40 | NCAA D-I (non-football) | The Beach (Big West) | 109 (Nat. Univ.)* | 44 (Nat. Univ.)* | 89 |
| Fullerton | California State University, Fullerton | 1957 | 41,326 | $135.85 | NCAA D-I (non-football) | Titans (Big West) | 136 (Nat. Univ.)* | 60 (Nat. Univ.)* | 100 |
| Stanislaus | California State University, Stanislaus | 1957 | 9,440 | $18.61 | NCAA D-II | Warriors (CCAA) | 10 | 7 | 360 |
| East Bay Hayward | California State University, East Bay | 1957 | 11,771 | $20.79 | NCAA D-II | Pioneers (CCAA) | 273 (Nat. Univ.)* | 145 (Nat. Univ.)* | 369 |
| Northridge | California State University, Northridge | 1958 | 36,368 | $205.19 | NCAA D-I (non-football) | Matadors (Big West) | 18 | 4 | 207 |
| Dominguez Hills | California State University, Dominguez Hills | 1960 | 14,299 | $22.39 | NCAA D-II | Toros (CCAA) | 35 | 8 | N/A |
| Sonoma | Sonoma State University | 1960 | 5,865 | $65.20 | NCAA D-II | Seawolves (CCAA) | 25 | 80 | 168 |
| San Bernardino | California State University, San Bernardino | 1965 | 18,510 | $51.10 | NCAA D-II | Coyotes (CCAA) | 171 (Nat. Univ.)* | 31 (Nat. Univ.)* | 425 |
| Bakersfield | California State University, Bakersfield | 1965 | 9,399 | $37.16 | NCAA D-I (non-football) | Roadrunners (Big West) | 30 | 28 | 295 |
| San Marcos | California State University, San Marcos | 1989 | 13,932 | $33.55 | NCAA D-II | Cougars (CCAA) | 22 | 38 | 323 |
| Monterey Bay Marina/Seaside | California State University, Monterey Bay | 1994 | 6,271 | $35.48 | NCAA D-II | Otters (CCAA) | 10 | 29 | 309 |
| Channel Islands Camarillo | California State University, Channel Islands | 2002 | 5,127 | $34.65 | None | Dolphins (N/A) | 22 | 87 | 378 |
* ↑ Cal Poly Humboldt was not included in the Forbes Top Colleges list.
* ↑ Long Beach State fully rebranded its athletic program as "The Beach" in 2020–21, after transitioning from the former nickname of 49ers. The baseball team is also known as "Dirtbags".
* ↑ CSU Dominguez Hills was not included in the Forbes Top Colleges list.
* U.S. News & World Report ranks several universities in the California State University system in the National Universities category as they offer several Ph.D. programs. The other universities are ranked in the Regional Universities (West) category as they offer few or no Ph.D. programs.
^ Cal Maritime only awards undergraduate degrees and therefore is ranked separately from the other campuses of the California State University. It is ranked in the "Regional Colleges" category.

### Off campus branches

A few universities have established off-campus branches to increase education accessibility. These branches differ from typical university extension courses as they offer degree programs and students enjoy the same status as other California State University (CSU) students. Notably, the California State University, Channel Islands is the newest addition, having transitioned from an off-campus branch of CSU Northridge. As of Fall 2005, the total enrollment across all off-campus branches within the CSU system was 9,163 students, representing 2.2 percent of the systemwide enrollment. The following is a list of schools and their respective off-campus branches:
* California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
** Cal Poly, Solano Campus (opening 2025)
* California State University, Bakersfield
** Antelope Valley (in Lancaster, California)
* California State University, Chico
** Redding (affiliated with Shasta College)
* California State University, Fullerton
** Garden Grove
** Irvine
* California State University, East Bay
** Concord
** Oakland (Professional & Conference Center)
* California State University, Fresno
** Visalia
* California State University, Los Angeles
** Downtown Los Angeles
* California State University, Monterey Bay
** Salinas (Professional & Conference Center)
* California State University, San Bernardino
** Palm Desert
* California State University, San Marcos
** Temecula/Murrieta
* San Diego State University
** Imperial Valley (in Brawley, California and Calexico, California)
** SDSU-Georgia (in Tbilisi in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia)
* San Francisco State University
** Downtown Campus (in San Francisco, California)
** Sierra Nevada Field Campus (in Calpine, California)
** Romberg Tiburon Campus (in Tiburon, California)
* California State University, Stanislaus
** Stockton, California
* CSU Maritime Academy
** T.S. Golden Bear

### Laboratories and observatories

Research facilities owned and operated by units of the CSU:
* Desert Studies Center
** Research consortium and field site managed by California State University, Fullerton
* Moss Landing Marine Laboratories
** Independent degree-granting campus managed by San Jose State University
** Oceanographic laboratory located in the Monterey Bay area
* Murillo Family Observatory
** Newest research observatory in the San Bernardino Metropolitan Area and the CSU system. It is located in and managed by California State University, San Bernardino.
* Southern California Marine Institute
** Oceanographic laboratory in the Los Angeles Basin
* Mount Laguna Observatory
** Astronomical observatory part of the Astronomy Department of San Diego State University
* Telonicher Marine Laboratory at Cal Poly Humboldt in Trinidad, CA
** Marine research laboratory on the North California coast
** Home of the research vessel RV Coral Sea

## Student profile

Percentage of students and comparisons statewide nationwide :
| | Campuses (2022) | Undergraduate (2022) | Graduate & Post-Bac (2022) | California (2022) | United States (2022) |
| American Indians or Alaskan Natives | (<1%) | (<1%) | (<1%) | 2% | 1% |
| Asian | 16% | 16% | 14% | 16% | 6% |
| Black or African American | 4% | 3% | 4% | 7% | 14% |
| Hispanic and Latino Americans (Includes Chicanos, Other Latino and White Hispanics) | 48% | 49% | 38% | 40% | 19% |
| Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander | (<1%) | (<1%) | (<1%) | 1% | (<1%) |
| Non-Hispanic White | 21% | 20% | 25% | 35% | 59% |
| Two or More Races | 4% | 4% | 3% | 4% | 3% |
| Unknown | 3% | 3% | 4% | N/A | N/A |
| International Students | 3% | 2% | 12% | N/A | N/A |
A 2016 study by the Cal State system found that one in ten Cal State students were estimated to be homeless.

## Differences between the CSU and UC systems

Both California public university systems are publicly funded higher education institutions. Despite having far fewer students, the largest UC campus, UCLA, as a result of its research emphasis and medical center, has a budget ($7.5 billion as of 2019) roughly equal to that of the entire CSU system ($7.2 billion as of 2019). According to a 2002 study, faculty at the CSU spend about 30 hours a week teaching and advising students and about 10 hours a week on research/creative activities, while a 1984 study reports faculty at the UC spend about 26 hours a week teaching and advising students and about 23 hours a week on research/creative activities. CSU's Chancellor, Dr. Charles B. Reed, pointed out in his Pullias Lecture at the University of Southern California that California was big enough to afford two world-class systems of public higher education, one that supports research (UC) and one that supports teaching (CSU). However, student per capita spending is lower at CSU, and that, together with the lack of a research mission or independent doctoral programs under the California Master Plan, has led some in American higher education to develop the perception that the CSU system is less prestigious than the UC system. Kevin Starr, the seventh State Librarian of California, described CSU in a published history of California in the 1990s as "in so many ways the Rodney Dangerfield of public higher education".
According to the California Master Plan for Higher Education (1960), both university systems may confer bachelors or master's degrees as well as professional certifications, however only the University of California has the authority to issue Ph.D degrees (Doctor of Philosophy) and professional degrees in the fields of law, medicine, veterinary, and dentistry. As a result of legislation introduced in 2005 and 2010 (SB 724 and AB 2382, respectively), the California State University may now offer doctoral degrees in Education and Physical Therapy. Additionally, the California State University (CSU) offers Ph.D degrees and some professional doctorates as a joint degree in combination with other institutions of higher education, including joint degrees with the University of California (UC) and accredited private universities.
There are 23 CSU campuses and 10 UC campuses representing approximately 437,000 and 237,000 students respectively. The cost of CSU tuition is approximately half that of UC.
CSU and UC use the terms "president" and "chancellor" internally in opposite ways: At CSU, the campuses are headed by presidents who report to a systemwide chancellor; but at UC, they are headed by chancellors who report to a systemwide president.
CSU has traditionally been more accommodating to older students than UC, by offering more degree programs in the evenings and, more recently, online. In addition, CSU schools, especially in more urban areas, have traditionally catered to commuters, enrolling most of their students from the surrounding area. This has changed as CSU schools increase enrollment and some of the more prestigious urban campuses attract a wider demographic.
The majority of CSU campuses operate on the semester system while UC campuses operate on the quarter system, with the exception of UC Berkeley, UC Merced, all UC law schools, and the UCLA medical school. As of fall 2014, CSU began converting its six remaining quarter campuses to the semester calendar. Cal State LA and Cal State Bakersfield converted in fall 2016, while Cal State East Bay and Cal Poly Pomona transitioned to semesters in fall 2018. Cal State San Bernardino made the conversion in fall 2020, while Cal Poly San Luis Obispo announced its conversion by fall 2026.

## Admissions

Historically, the requirements for admission to the CSU have been less stringent than the UC system. However, both systems require completion of the A-G requirements in high school as part of admission. The CSU attempts to accept applicants from the top one-third of California high school graduates. In contrast, the UC attempts to accept the top one-eighth. In an effort to maintain a 60/40 ratio of upper division students to lower division students and to encourage students to attend a California community college first, both university systems give priority to California community college transfer students.
However, the following CSU campuses use higher standards than the basic admission standards due to the number of qualified students who apply which makes admissions at these schools more competitive:
* Bakersfield (all nursing programs)
* Channel Islands (pre-licensure nursing)
* Chico (recording arts option within music, plus pre-licensure nursing)
* East Bay (nursing)
* Fullerton
* Humboldt (RN-to-BSN nursing only)
* Long Beach
* Los Angeles
* Northridge (accounting, certain business administration options, cinema and television arts, music)
* Pomona
* Sacramento (business administration, criminal justice, graphic design, pre-licensure nursing, psychology)
* San Bernardino (criminal justice, kinesiology, pre-licensure nursing, psychology, social work)
* San Diego
* San Francisco (nursing, social work, and undeclared majors expressing an interest in nursing)
* San Jose
* San Luis Obispo
* San Marcos (biological sciences, business administration, electrical engineering, pre-licensure nursing, software engineering)
* Sonoma (criminology/criminal justice, human development, all nursing programs, psychology, sociology)
* Stanislaus (pre-licensure nursing, pre-nursing)
Furthermore, six California State University campuses are fully impacted for both freshmen and transfers, meaning in addition to admission into the school, admission into all majors is also impacted for the academic 2024–25 program. The six campuses that are fully impacted are Los Angeles, Fullerton, Long Beach, San Diego, San Jose, and San Luis Obispo.
The only CSU campuses that are not impacted at either the freshman or transfer level for any academic program are Dominguez Hills, Fresno, the Maritime Academy, and Monterey Bay.

## Research and academics

The California State University (CSU) and most of its campuses are members of Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU).
The CSU is a founding and charter member of CENIC, the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California, the nonprofit organization which provides extremely high-performance Internet-based networking to California's K–20 research and education community.
The California State University Program for Education and Research in Biotechnology (CSUPERB) mission is to develop a professional biotechnology workforce. CSUPERB provides grant funding, organizes an annual symposium, sponsors industry-responsive curriculum, and serves as a liaison for the CSU with government, philanthropic, educational, and biotechnology industry partners. The program involves students and faculty from Life, Physical, Computer and Clinical Science, Engineering, Agriculture, Math and Business departments at all 23 CSU campuses.
The Hospitality Management Education Initiative (HMEI) was formed in 2008 to address the shortage of hospitality leaders in California. HMEI is a collaboration between the 14 CSU campuses that have hospitality-related degrees and industry executives. CSU awarded 95% of hospitality bachelor's degrees in the state in 2011.
ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) is the recognized U.S. accreditor of college and university programs in applied and natural science, computing, engineering, and engineering technology. The California State University has 18 colleges with ABET-accredited engineering programs (Pomona, San Luis Obispo, Maritime, Chico, Dominguez Hills, East Bay, Fresno, Fullerton, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Northridge, Sacramento, San Bernardino, Humboldt, San Diego, San Francisco, and San José).

## Impact

The CSU confers over 110,000 degrees each year, awarding almost half of the state's bachelor's degrees and one-fourth of the state's master's degrees. The entire 23 campus system sustains over 209,000 jobs statewide, generating $1.6 billion in tax revenue. Total CSU related expenditures equate to $26.9 billion.
The CSU produces 62% of the bachelor's degrees awarded in agriculture, 54% in business, 44% in health and medicine, 64% in hospitality and tourism, 45% in engineering, and 44% of those in media, culture and design. The CSU is the state's largest source of educators, with more than half of the state's newly credentialed teachers coming from the CSU, expanding the state's rank of teachers by nearly 12,500 per year.
Over the last 10 years, the CSU has significantly enhanced programs towards the underserved. 56% of bachelor's degrees granted to Latinos in the state are from the CSU, while 60% of bachelor's awarded to Filipinos were from the CSU. In the Fall of 2008, 42% of incoming students were from California Community Colleges.

## Campus naming conventions

The UC system follows a consistent style in the naming of campuses, using the words "University of California" followed by the name of its declared home city, with a comma as the separator. Most CSU campuses follow a similar pattern, though several are named only for their home city or county, such as San Francisco State University, San Jose State University, San Diego State University, or Sonoma State University.
The Fresno and Sacramento campuses formally follow the standard naming pattern, but respectively market themselves as "Fresno State" and "Sacramento State", and use those terms for their athletic programs. Chico, Long Beach, and Stanislaus also formally use the standard naming pattern, but use "Location State" for athletics only. Northridge brands its athletic program as "CSUN", and uses that term alongside its formal name in marketing. CSU Bakersfield started the process of rebranding its athletic program, though not the university, as "Bakersfield" in 2023–24.
In addition, the California Maritime Academy is the only campus whose official name does not refer to a city or regional location within California. Channel Islands, Maritime, and San Marcos are the only campuses whose names do not include a comma. Some critics, including Donald Gerth (former President of Sacramento State), have claimed that the weak California State University identity has contributed to the CSU's perceived lack of prestige when compared to the University of California.
* Cal Poly Names
* California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly)
* California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona)
* California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt (Cal Poly Humboldt)
* In 2025, California State University Maritime Academy will become both Cal Poly, Maritime Academy and Cal Poly, Solano Campus