San Diego State University

Dumke was determined to prevent UC and the state legislature from reducing the state colleges to mere UC "satellites", the dark fate they had narrowly escaped in 1935. At the outset of negotiations, Wahlquist had already shot down Kerr's suggestion of the "Santa Barbara route", because the state colleges were well aware that Santa Barbara had languished under the Board of Regents' mismanagement for 15 years. Kerr never attempted to reformulate his proposal as a threat, but the specter of his "unstated threat" haunted the state colleges for the remainder of the negotiations. At least under Kerr's terms the state colleges would finally have their own systemwide board, and to Dumke, that was the most important thing. To ensure this compromise at the core of the Master Plan would stay intact through the legislative process, it was agreed that the entire package could be enacted only if the state legislature, the State Board of Education, and the UC Board of Regents all agreed with its two main components: (1) …