With its move to Stockton under the leadership of President Tully C. Knoles, College of the Pacific becomes the only four-year university in the Central Valley.

McGeorge School of Law begins as a one-room night school in 1924 when Verne Adrian McGeorge founds it as the Sacramento College of Law. In 1929, the Board of Trustees would name it the McGeorge College of Law in his honor. In 1966 the school would formally merge with Pacific.

Pacific's School of Education is one of the first in the West to offer a four-year bachelor's degree in education. In 1992 it would be named the Gladys L. Benerd School of Education to honor the alumna for her gift to the school. And in 2019 it would merge with University College and be renamed Benerd College.

Construction of the Mu Zeta Rho sorority house begins. Later occupied by the Delta Delta Delta sorority, the building is now slated to become Pacific's Jie Du Inn.

Over the rugged mountains / Standing high / From out the broad low valleys //'Neath the sky / Our Alma Mater calls / We cannot fail / Our voices blend in praise / Pacific Hail! / Pacific Hail!

(Composed by Lois Warner '23, '58)

Student life at Pacific in the 1920s

In the spring, the men's basketball team wins the Far Western Conference basketball championship for the first time.

In March, faculty member Harold Cunningham takes measurements of the air temperature and wind speed, flying high above the earth's surface in the university's airplane. Students analyze the data he collected and find that their numbers correlate with the U.S. Weather Bureau's calculations. 

President Tully Knoles and faculty members take voluntary pay cuts to avoid layoffs during the Great Depression.

Amos Alonzo Stagg, "The Grand Old Man of Football," joins Pacific as head coach of the football program. Previously head football coach at the University of Chicago before reaching its mandatory age of retirement, Stagg would coach at Pacific for many seasons before retiring again at the age of 83.

Gurdial Singh '34, an international student from India, returns to Pacific to teach "Interpretations of Indian Life and Thought."

Student life at Pacific in the 1930s

Construction of Morris Chapel had begun in 1939. Named for benefactors Percy and Lillie Morris, the new chapel is dedicated in 1942.

Fifty-eight Pacific men, members of the U.S. Army Enlisted Reserved Corps, are called up. In total, more than 2,000 Pacificans served in World War II.

The Conservatory offers the Pacific Music Camp for high school students for the first time.

Robert Burns succeeds Tully Knowles as president of College of the Pacific. Burns had graduated from Pacific with an undergraduate degree in Western American history in 1931 and remained at the university, serving as alumni relations director and assistant to the president under Knoles.

Pacific's FM radio station broadcasts for the first time using the call sign KCVN.

"The new station represents the latest pioneering step in the history of radio at the College of the Pacific which began in 1927."
(Pacific Weekly, Sept. 19, 1947)

Under Wilhelmina “Billie” Harbert's leadership, Pacific launches the first music therapy degree program in the western United States. Harbert had become interested in music therapy while working in field hospitals during World War I.

The mosaic compass rose in the Rose Garden is completed, designed and built by Elaine Brink Stanley, a graduate of Pacific's art department.

Student life at Pacific in the 1940s

"Tommy Tiger arrived in the flesh, all four hundred ferocious pounds of him, last Friday night aboard the 'Flying Tiger' transport plane." (Pacific Weekly, Oct. 27, 1950)

The highest award the university can give, the Order of the Pacific honors regents, faculty, administration and staff who have given distinguished service and made outstanding contributions to the university.

The influx of veteran students following World War II causes a housing crisis on the Stockton Campus, which is relieved by the construction of the huts, temporary barrack-style buildings that can each house 100 students.

"The new School of Pharmacy was born of necessity....Its establishment brings the third school of its kind to the state. The others are at University of California and at the University of Southern California….The new school will help fill a tremendous need." (Stockton Record)

"The raising of the former department of engineering to school status marks the broadening of work in this field, increase in the faculty, and occupation of a newly remodeled and equipped building and laboratories." (Pacific Review, October 1957)

The Dave Brubeck Quartet led by Dave Brubeck '42 records the iconic jazz standard "Take Five." In 1995, Brubeck would reprise "Take Five" and other classics during a Conservatory of Music benefit at the Faye Spanos Concert Hall in commemoration of his 75th birthday.

"Starting with 40 students in 1955, the school now has an enrollment of 200. This year the full five-year professional curriculum was completed and the first graduating class of 16 received bachelor of science degrees in pharmacy June 14." (Stockton Record, July 1959)

Student life at Pacific in the 1950s

"It is 'University of the Pacific' now! ....In making the transition from 'college' to 'university,' the institution returned to the title under which it functioned from 1852 until 1911—the name it bore for the longest single period in its 110-year history.” (Pacific Review, January 1961)

Pacific expands its footprint to San Francisco with the acquisition of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, which later became the Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry.

Casa Jackson, Casa Werner, Price House, Ritter House and Wemyss House open as residence halls for cluster colleges students. Jesse L. Ballantyne Hall would open two years later. The first of the cluster colleges, Raymond College, also opened in fall 1962.

The Board of Regents had approved the construction of a large gothic tower on campus in 1962. Two years later the structure, named for Pacific President Robert Burns and containing a 150,000 gallon water tank, administrative offices and radio broadcast antennas, opens to the public.

Anthony Kennedy, later chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, starts teaching at the McGeorge School of Law.

In December, Pacific students led by prelaw student Dennis Warren launch L.U.V. (Let Us Vote), a nationwide campaign to lower the voting age to 18.

Student life at Pacific in the 1960s

Stanley McCaffrey becomes Pacific's 20th president. Previously he had served as president of the San Francisco Bay Area Council and as a vice president of the University of California.

Walt Disney Productions brings actors Jan-Michael Vincent, Tim Conway and John Amos to campus to film The World's Greatest Athlete—one of the 14 movies shot on campus since the late 1940s.

"The new $460,000 Center for Legal Advocacy has attracted nationwide attention as containing the only experimental courtroom facility currently designed in a law school program for training trial attorneys, and, at the same time, testing an innovative courtroom design." (The Pacifican, Sept. 14, 1973)

Elbert Covell College, founded at Pacific in 1963 as one of the pioneering cluster colleges, celebrates its first ten years. The college was the first bilingual liberal-arts college in the United States; apart from ESL courses, the whole curriculum was taught in Spanish.

"Engineers predict that microcomputers…will in the near future become so inexpensive that everyone will be able to own one. This month, 27 students and faculty at UOP are getting a head start on the rest of the world…constructing their own computers.” (The Pacifican, Feb. 10, 1978)

Student life at Pacific in the 1970s

The men's basketball team practices in the Spanos Center excavation site. Beginning the following year, the team would play its home games in the new arena.

The 6,000 seat Alex G. Spanos Center opens its doors for the first time for the All-University Commencement on Friday, Sept. 11.

"'Tradition and you in '82' was the theme for this year's Homecoming…The coronation of the Homecoming King and Queen, the jazz band concert, the parade, football game and reunions were all part of the celebration. The pre-game bonfire was revived this year." (The Pacifican, Nov. 19, 1982)

A campaign to fund renovations of the university's library launches. By its completion, more than $3.2 million would be raised by the Pacific community.

A new age begins for Pacific women's volleyball as first year head coach John Dunning led a group of loosey-goosey freshmen and seasoned veterans to Pacific's first ever national title. The Tigers toppled UCLA and Stanford for the coveted NCAA Division I Volleyball National Championship crown.

Bill Atchley becomes Pacific's 22nd president. Previously, he had served as president of the National Science Center for Communications and Electronics Foundation and as president of Clemson University.

Student life at Pacific in the 1980s

With the opening of the Baun Fitness Center, students, faculty and varsity athletes no longer have to work out in a former airplane hangar.

Maya Angelou—poet, educator, author, actress and playwright—receives an honorary doctorate of humane letters during the 1993 commencement ceremony.

The Pacifican gives examples of "web" lingo and explains how students can surf the web in computer labs. Professor Emeritus Louise Stark programed Pacific's first home page, www.uop.edu.

“Signs reading 'The School of Business and Public Administration' will soon be changed to the 'Eberhardt School of Business' after UOP's Board of Regents voted in favor of renaming the school after the notable Stockton banker and UOP benefactor.”
(The Pacifican, Sept. 7, 1995)

Donald DeRosa becomes Pacific's 23rd president. Previously, he had served as provost and dean of the Graduate School and Associate Vice Chancellor for Research at University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Alumnus Brad Schumacher '96 wins two gold medals in swimming at the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta.

The new Powercat logo is released after eight months of review by the Board of Regents, Athletics, student representatives, ASUOP and alumni.

Student life at Pacific in the 1990s

"University of the Pacific's President Donald DeRosa recently announced that a Thomas J. Long Foundation grant to the university totals $13 million, which is the largest single donation in the university's history." (The Pacifican, Feb. 8, 2001)

Pacific's dental school is renamed to honor Arthur A. Dugoni, who transformed Pacific's school of dentistry into one of the nation's best during his 28 years as dean.

Robert and Jeannette Powell pledge to gift the university $100 million, the largest gift in the university's history. With their gift, the Sacramento-area couple would endow scholarships to help generations of students attend Pacific.

"The [Don and Karen DeRosa] University Center is fully operational. The Bookstore, the Redwood Room, ASuop, the Summit, and the Quad Dining Hall, now called the Marketplace, have been moved from the McCaffrey Center to the DUC."
(The Pacifican, Sept. 4, 2008)

Pamela A. Eibeck becomes Pacific's 24th president. She previously served as dean of the College of Engineering and professor of mechanical engineering at Texas Tech University.

Astronaut Jose Hernandez '84 becomes the first migrant farmworker to go to space—as hundreds of Pacificans cheer him on from the DUC lawn while watching the shuttle's successful take off on a large screen.

Student life at Pacific in the 2000s

At Commencement, Ida Takagishi Inouye, age 91, receives an honorary BA degree—more than seventy years after beginning her Pacific education. She left the university in 1942 with other Japanese American students, six of whom are posthumously granted honorary bachelor's degrees during the ceremony.

In 2011, Pacific purchased the seven-story building at 155th Fifth St. Extensive renovations gave the building a sleek modern facade and transformed it into a new home for the Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry and other Pacific programs.

"Californians' eyes were on Pacific Monday night, as the five leading candidates for the state's immediately vacant U.S. Senate seat faced off for the first time at the DeRosa University Center.”
(The Pacifican, April 28, 2015)

Pacific partners with the Little Manila Foundation and Filipino National Historical Society Museum to create "Little Manila Recreated," to make it possible see the no-longer-extant homes and businesses of the largest Filipino community outside of the Philippines.

The Leading with Campaign launches during Homecoming Weekend. The campaign would close in June 2022 having brought in more than $317 million from nearly 23,000 donors who gave more than 66,000 gifts.

In the fall, students move into Calaveras Hall, new apartment-style dorms including a pool, exercise room, firepit, community kitchen and places to study.

Student life at Pacific in the 2010s

Christopher Callahan becomes Pacific's 26th president. He previously served as the founding dean of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

The launch of the School of Health Sciences united Pacific's existing physician assistant, physical therapy, speech-language pathology, audiology and athletic training programs—and allowed the university to begin offering degrees in social work, clinical nutrition and occupational therapy.

Pacific reopens its doors after a year-plus closure due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

"Returning to campus feels like coming home," said ASuop President Scout Cooper-Wilson.
(Pacific Newsroom, July 19. 2021)

The Pacific Summer High School Institute launches with more than 320 students participating.

With 6,755 students in fall 2023, Pacific recorded its largest student population in its history, an 11% increase from 2021.

Pacific is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as a Hispanic-Serving Institution, allowing the university to compete for special federal grants to support Latino students in new and creative ways.

The Wall Street Journal ranks University of the Pacific No. 87 among all top U.S. colleges and universities—the highest national ranking ever achieved by the 173-year-old institution. Pacific also ranked No. 11 among all private universities in the American West.

Student life at Pacific in the 2020s