(04-16-2017 02:58 PM)Stugray2 Wrote:  SDSU is an R2 school. They rank #149 in research, at a $93m R&D budget.

They are not chartered as a research school but are pushing the limits. But theya re probably as far as the rubber band will stretch. The CSU charter does not allow them (or any schools) to add the programs they need to be D1. A battle was fought in the late 1980s which was won by the UCs. The issue at the time was San Jose State's Engineering program (especially EE) which had gotten itself ranked among the middle of the UCs and due to the high number of units required (138) and impacting (required GPA above 3.6 and SAT above 1400), and gaining traction in fund raising. UC shut that down, forcing the CSU to order an end to impacting at SJSU and lower the graduation requirements for Engineering majors by reducing lab unit requirements. They found a willing ally in Gail Fullerton, who made her infamous statement, "I won't let San Jose State become a Taco Tech" in response to the movement toward turning SJSU into essentially another Cal Poly.

The gap between the UCs and the CSU schools has grown since then. This is why I am highly skeptical of SDSU's ability to push the envelope much further. As long as they are in the CSU system, they will be under pressure to lower standards. There will also be opposition to a mega campus of 40,000+ students. Put bluntly I don;t think they can count on another dollar of state funding. This is the political dynamic of California higher education policy.

If I could somehow be King for awhile in California, I would split the CSU system in two, plucking the highest resource schools to build a true 2nd tier system with residential housing and admission standards much closer to Cal Poly than the general CSU. SDSU, Cal Poly (probably both campuses) and San Jose State would be in that group of schools, and maybe two more (need one of the LA Basin schools, and maybe one more in the North). But that is not the situation today. SDSU is constrained by the CSU office. (I'd love to see SDSU and SJSU grow, with the largess of tech industry doted on them)

Thank you for that info. I've been reading posts about SDSU growing and getting to different levels but I have always thought of SDSU as a commuter school with a ceiling that has already been reached. You are the first one in this post to say that. Not knocking SDSU, but there are certain limitations preventing them from being what they are. That's the case for most non-flagship, not elite private school across America. I think a lot of fans think they can change their school into one of those 2 categories, but I've never seen it happen in my lifetime.