coordinating agency established in 1960 by the merger of individual California state colleges, now consisting of 23 campuses. It constitutes one of the three California public systems of higher education, the other two being the Univ. of California system (see California, Univ. of ) and the California junior college system. The oldest school in the system (San Jose State Univ., founded 1857 at San Jose) was the first institution of public higher education in California. The newest campus was opened at Camarillo (Channel Islands campus) in 2004. The other campuses are at Arcata (Humboldt State Univ.), Bakersfield, Carson (Dominguez Hills campus), Chico, Fresno, Fullerton, Hayward, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Northridge, Pomona (California Polytechnic State Univ.), Rohnert Park (Sonoma State Univ.), Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego (San Diego State Univ.), San Francisco (San Francisco State Univ.), San Luis Obispo (California Polytechnic State Univ.), San Marcos, Seaside (Monterey Bay campus), Turlock (Stanislaus campus), and Vallejo (California Maritime Academy). The university's special programs include an off-campus degree program and weekend colleges. With a total enrollment of more than 400,000, it is one of the largest state university systems in the United States.

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