History
Founded in 1855 as Saint Ignatius Academy by the Italian Jesuits Rev. Anthony Maraschi, Rev. Joseph Bixio, and Rev. Michael Accolti, USF started in a building along Market Street in what later became downtown San Francisco. St. Ignatius Academy received its charter on April 30, 1859 from the State of California signed by governor John B. Weller (the document survived the 1906 fire and earthquake) and changed its name to St. Ignatius College. The original curriculum included Greek, Spanish, Latin, English, French, Italian, algebra, arithmetic, history, geography, elocution, and bookkeeping. Father Maraschi was not only the college's first president, but also a professor, the college's treasurer, and first pastor of Saint Ignatius Church.
A new building was constructed in 1862 to replace the first frame building. In June 1863, the university awarded its first bachelor of arts degree. In 1880, the college moved from Market Street to a new site on the corner of Hayes Street and Van Ness Avenue (currently occupied by the Davies Symphony Hall). The third St. Ignatius College received little to moderate damage in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, but was completely destroyed in the ensuing fire. The campus moved west, to the corner of Hayes and Shrader Streets, close to Golden Gate Park, where it occupied a hastily constructed structure known as The Shirt Factory (for its resemblance to similar manufacturing buildings of the era) for the next 20+ years. The college moved to its present site on the south slope of Lone Mountain in 1927. The college was built on the site of the former Odd Fellows, Mount Olivet and Masonic Cemeteries. In 1913, the city enacted a law prohibiting more burials in the City and County of San Francisco. The remains were transferred to Colma, California.
To celebrate its diamond jubilee in 1930, St. Ignatius College changed its name to the University of San Francisco. According to USF history professor Father John B. McGloin, S.J., the change from college to university was sought by long-time San Francisco Mayor James Rolph Jr.. at the time, running for Governor of California.
A male-only school for most of its history, USF became fully coeducational in 1964. In 1969, the high school division, already wholly separate from the university, moved to the western part of San Francisco and became St. Ignatius College Preparatory. In 1978, the university acquired Lone Mountain College Today, USF is organized into five academic divisions with 8,772 students and 506 faculty members.
The Jesuit university invites speakers who espouse views sometimes at odds with Catholic doctrine. Conservative Catholics sometimes criticize this practice. In 2004, Bishop Allen Henry Vigneron of the Diocese of Oakland forbade the Catholic Voice newspaper to print an advertisement for a seminar called "Imaging the Future Church", which was sponsored by a group of Catholic lay people calling for church reforms. Also in 2004, the Cardinal Newman Society protested the university's selection of Mayor Gavin Newsom as speaker for the business school's annual commencement ceremony, for his views on abortion and gay-rights.
October 2005 marked the 150th anniversary of the university's founding.
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