San Diego State University

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 …