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The California State Normal School (today known as San José State University) was founded on May 2, 1862, by an Act of the California State Legislature. Although the Act referred to the institution as the Normal School of the State of California, the institution was commonly referred to as the California State Normal School.

The California State Normal School was itself derived from the City of San Francisco's Minns Evening Normal School, a normal school that educated San Francisco teachers in association with that city's high school system.

The founding campus of what would become the California State University (CSU) system, the California State Normal School school moved to San José in 1871, and was given Washington Square Park at Fourth and San Carlos Streets to locate its campus, where it remains to this day.

The original California State Normal School building, completed in 1872, burned down on February 10, 1880, and was replaced by a second building in 1881 (see picture).

In 1881 the first branch campus of the California State Normal School was announced, which later became the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). To commemorate San José's identity as the original California State, the bell pictured at right was forged with the words "California State Normal School, A.D. 1881".

In 1887, the California legislature decreed that the San Jose and Los Angeles campuses were to be known as State Normal Schools. Later on, other (California) State Normal Schools were established in Chico (1887), San Diego (1897) and elsewhere throughout the State of California. This early system of State Normal Schools was the precursor of today's California State University (CSU) system.

In 1919, the State Normal School at Los Angeles became the Southern Branch of the University of California, now the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

In 1921 the remaining State Normal Schools became the State Teachers Colleges, and later, the California State Colleges. By this time, however, the California State Normal School increasingly became known as "San Jose State".

In 1957, after almost 100 years of recognizing the school's authentic May 2, 1862, date of establishment by the State of California, San Jose State proponents changed the school's publicly recognized year of establishment from 1862 to 1857. Documents show that the school's official year of establishment, established by an Act of the California Legislature on May 2, 1862,, was changed by a San Jose State committee planning a celebration of the school's 1957 "cenntennial".

In 1972, the "California State" part of the school's original California State Normal School identity was restored, when San José State College became the California State University, San Jose. Public recognition of the school's California State identity lasted from 1972 to 1974, at which time the school's Alumni Association lobbied to change the name of the school to San José State University.

In 2003, a movement called the CSU Spartans arose among the school's students and alumni. Among other things, this movement fights for historical accuracy and historic preservation with regard to the California State Normal School, and its authentic May 2, 1862, year of establishment.

California State University | San José State University