Editing University of California (section)

===Early history===
[[File:Bay Blue - Flickr - Joe Parks.jpg|thumb|In November 1857, the [[College of California]]'s trustees began to acquire various parcels of land facing the [[Golden Gate]] in what is now [[Berkeley, California|Berkeley]].]]
In 1849, the state of California ratified its first constitution, which contained the express objective of creating a complete educational system including a state university.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=HfIJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PR10 Cal. Const. Art. IX, § 4] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406172357/https://books.google.com/books?id=HfIJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PR10 |date=April 6, 2023 }} (1849).</ref> Taking advantage of the [[Morrill Land-Grant Acts]], the [[California State Legislature]] established an Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts College in 1866.<ref name="Stadtman">{{cite book |last1=Stadtman |first1=Verne A. |title=The University of California, 1868–1968 |url=https://archive.org/details/universityofcali00stad |url-access=registration |date=1970 |publisher=McGraw-Hill |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/universityofcali00stad/page/7 7–34] }}</ref><ref name="Marsden">{{cite book |last1=Marsden |first1=George M. |title=The Soul of the American University: From Protestant Establishment to Established Nonbelief |date=1994 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=9780195106503 |pages=134–140 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E9QOfEZrrLYC&pg=PA134 |access-date=July 16, 2016 |archive-date=March 8, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230308193405/https://books.google.com/books?id=E9QOfEZrrLYC&pg=PA134 |url-status=live }} Page 138 of this source incorrectly states that the date of the final negotiations in which Governor Low participated was October 8, 1869, but it is clear from the context and the endnotes to that page (which cite documents from 1867) that the reference to 1869 is a typo.</ref> However, it existed only on paper, as a placeholder to secure federal [[Land-grant university|land-grant funds]].<ref name="Marsden" />

Meanwhile, [[Congregational]] [[minister of religion|minister]] [[Henry Durant]], an alumnus of [[Yale]], had established the private Contra Costa Academy, on June 20, 1853, in [[Oakland, California|Oakland]], California.<ref name="Stadtman" /> The initial site was bounded by Twelfth and Fourteenth Streets and Harrison and Franklin Streets in [[downtown Oakland]]<ref name="Stadtman" /> (and is marked today by State Historical Plaque No. 45 at the northeast corner of Thirteenth and Franklin). In turn, the academy's trustees were granted a charter in 1855 for a [[College of California]], though the college continued to operate as a [[University-preparatory school|college preparatory school]] until it added college-level courses in 1860.<ref name="Stadtman" /><ref name="Marsden" /> The college's trustees, educators, and supporters believed in the importance of a [[liberal arts education]] (especially the study of the Greek and Roman [[classics]]), but ran into a lack of interest in [[liberal arts college]]s on the [[American frontier]] (for [[tertiary education|post-secondary]] degrees, the college was graduating only three or four students per year).<ref name="Marsden" />
[[File:South Hall UC Berkeley.jpg|thumb|right|[[South Hall (UC Berkeley)|South Hall]], built in 1873, is the oldest building on the [[UC Berkeley|Berkeley]] campus.]]
In November 1857, the college's trustees began to acquire various parcels of land facing the [[Golden Gate]] in what is now [[Berkeley, California|Berkeley]] for a future planned campus to the north of Oakland.<ref name="Stadtman" /> But first, they needed to secure the college's water rights by buying a large farm to the east.<ref name="Stadtman" /> In 1864, they organized the College Homestead Association, which borrowed $35,000 to purchase the land, plus another $33,000 to purchase 160 acres (650,000 m<sup>2</sup>) of [[Southside, Berkeley, California|land to the south of the future campus]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Helfand |first1=Harvey |title=University of California, Berkeley: An Architectural Tour |date=2002 |publisher=Princeton Architectural Press |location=New York |isbn=9781568982939 |page=4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=41A6PwEj4QgC&pg=PA4 }}</ref> The association subdivided the latter parcel and started selling lots with the hope it could raise enough money to repay its lenders and also create a new [[college town]].<ref name="Stadtman" /> But sales of new homesteads fell short.<ref name="Stadtman" />

Governor [[Frederick Low]] favored the establishment of a state university based upon the [[University of Michigan]] plan, and thus in one sense may be regarded as the founder of the University of California.<ref name="Stadtman" /><ref name="Marsden" /> At the College of California's 1867 [[Graduation|commencement exercises]], where Low was present, [[Yale University]] professor [[Benjamin Silliman Jr.]] criticized Californians for establishing a [[Institute of technology|polytechnic school]], instead of a real university.<ref name="Stadtman" /><ref name="Marsden" /> That same day, Low reportedly first suggested a merger of the already-functional College of California (which had a liberal arts focus, land, buildings, faculty, and students, but not enough money) with the nonfunctional state college (which had a polytechnical focus, money and nothing else), and went on to participate in the ensuing negotiations.<ref name="Stadtman" /><ref name="Marsden" /> 
[[File:UCSF 1908 (cropped).jpg|thumb|[[University of California, San Francisco|UC San Francisco]] campus in 1908.]]
On October 9, 1867, the college's trustees reluctantly agreed to join forces with the state college to their mutual advantage, but under one condition—that there not be simply an "Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts College", but a complete university, within which the assets of the College of California would be used to create a College of Letters (now known as the [[UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science|College of Letters and Science]]).<ref name="Stadtman" /><ref name="Marsden" /><ref>This agreement is evident in section 7 of the Organic Act, in which the state agreed to establish the College of Letters in consideration of the College of California's gift. See [https://books.google.com/books?id=srpAAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA250 Cal. Stats., 17th sess., 1867–1868, ch. 244, § 7].</ref> Accordingly, the Organic Act, establishing the University of California, was introduced as a bill by [[California State Assembly|Assemblyman]] [[John W. Dwinelle]] on March 5, 1868, and after it was duly passed by both houses of the state legislature, it was signed into [[Law of California|state law]] by Governor [[Henry H. Haight]] (Low's successor) on March 23, 1868.<ref name="Stadtman" /><ref name="Marsden" /><ref>Harvey Helfand, ''University of California, Berkeley: An Architectural Tour and Photographs,'' (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2002), 6.</ref> 

However, as legally constituted, the new university was ''not'' an actual merger of the two colleges, but was an entirely new institution which merely inherited certain objectives and assets from each of them.<ref name="Stadtman_Page_34">{{cite book |last1=Stadtman |first1=Verne A. |title=The University of California, 1868–1968 |url=https://archive.org/details/universityofcali00stad |url-access=registration |date=1970 |publisher=McGraw-Hill |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/universityofcali00stad/page/34 34] }}</ref> Governor Haight saw no need to honor any tacit understandings reached with his predecessor about institutional continuity.<ref name="Marsden" /> Only two college trustees became regents and a single faculty member ([[Martin Kellogg]]) was hired by the new university.<ref name="Marsden" /> By April 1869, the trustees had second thoughts about their agreement to donate the college's assets and disincorporate. To get them to proceed, regent [[John B. Felton]] helped them bring a "friendly suit" against the university to test the agreement's legality—which they promptly lost.<ref name="Stadtman_Page_39">{{cite book |last1=Stadtman |first1=Verne A. |title=The University of California, 1868–1968 |url=https://archive.org/details/universityofcali00stad |url-access=registration |date=1970 |publisher=McGraw-Hill |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/universityofcali00stad/page/39 39] }}</ref>

The University of California's second president, [[Daniel Coit Gilman]], opened [[Campus of the University of California, Berkeley|its new campus]] in Berkeley in September 1873.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://history.library.ucsf.edu/daniel_gilman.html |title=Daniel Coit Gilman and the Early Years of UC – Special Topics – A History of UCSF |website=history.library.ucsf.edu |access-date=October 24, 2016 |archive-date=December 28, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161228134040/http://history.library.ucsf.edu/daniel_gilman.html |url-status=live }}</ref>