About

Giving direction and demonstrating a commitment to academic excellence via student achievement, superior teaching and staff performance, and community service.

Charles Lourie McLane served as the institution's first president when California State University, Fresno was established as the Fresno State Normal School in 1911. What is currently Fresno City College was the initial campus. FCC purchased the former campus and relocated there after Fresno State moved to its current location in the city's northeast in 1956. In 1949, when it was permitted to award bachelor's degrees, it changed its name to Fresno State College. In 1961, it was granted charter status by the State College System of California, which served as the progenitor to the California State University System. California State University, Fresno became the school's official name in 1972.

Even after altering its name to "California State University, Fresno," the institution has long been referred to simply as "Fresno State," especially in the athletic community. Officially interchangeable, both names are used interchangeably when they are first mentioned in news articles.

Campus

The larger campus is located between Valley Children's Stadium on the western edge and Highway 168 on the eastern edge. The campus is bounded on the north by the University Agricultural Laboratory and on the south by Shaw Avenue.

More than 46 historic and contemporary structures can be found on the main campus' 388 acres (157 hectares). The 1,011-acre University Agricultural Laboratory (the "Farm") houses several hundred acres of cattle rangeland as well as agronomic and horticultural crops, equestrian, swine, beef, dairy, poultry, and sheep units. More than 3,200 trees can be found on the Fresno State campus, which was formally classified as an arboretum in 1979. The first university-based commercial winery in the US is run by Fresno State.