The University of the Pacific (Pacific or UOP, although the University would rather not be called UOP because most people outside of the Central Valley do not know what UOP stands for, and the University of Phoenix uses the abbreviation of UOP) is a private northern California liberal-arts university originally chartered on July 10, 1851 in Santa Clara, California, under the name California Wesleyan College by the California Supreme Court. In 1858, the college opened the first medical school on the West Coast. The medical school later became part of Stanford University and is now California Pacific Medical Center.
In 1871, the campus was moved from Santa Clara to San Jose and the college opened its doors to women, becoming the first independent co-educational campus in California. In 1878, the Conservatory of Music was established at Pacific, making it the first of its kind west of the Mississippi River. In 1911, the name was changed to College of the Pacific (COP). In 1925, the campus moved to Stockton, and in 1961, it was renamed University of the Pacific.
In 1962, Pacific merged with the San Francisco College of Physicians and Surgeons, and then in 1966, with the McGeorge School of Law (established in 1924 in Sacramento).
Pacific was one of the state's first institutions for higher learning, chartered at about the same time as the present Santa Clara University. The school now has three professional schools: the Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry in San Francisco, the McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, and the Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences on the main campus in Stockton. |
