Zia Amador: "Quasquicentennial."

That's right.

"Quasquicentennial."

It's a quirky name for a major milestone, a 125-year anniversary.

San Diego State University celebrates this milestone in 2022, having been chartered as a normal school in 1897.

John F. Kennedy: By the citizens of this state of the importance of education-- Zia: The university is the oldest in the San Diego region and is intrinsically linked to the region's growth as a trans-border metroplex.

Dr. Adela de la Torre: San Diego State is at the forefront of change, and this has been happening for decades.

Zia: We'll open the SDSU time capsule, glance at the present, and peek into the future of San Diego State University.

Zia: The school started humbly above a store in Downtown San Diego on March 13, 1897.

With a stroke of the pen by California Governor James Budd, the San Diego Normal School was officially chartered.

The board of trustees of the San Diego Normal School appointed Samuel T. Black as its first president, and he served in that position until 1910.

Dr. Seth Mallios: Samuel T. Black is a fascinating character.

He is our founding president.

He's the George Washington of San Diego State.

He was both incredibly professional and courteous, and I think that served him very well in those 13 years.

Zia: The school's main purpose was to train women to be elementary school teachers, and the first commencement graduated 23 students in 1900.

The school built a permanent home on Normal Street in the University Heights neighborhood.

Dr. Mallios: And that's where they're able to grow from 70 students to 400, from 9 faculty to 17.

That's where you see this expansion both in terms of numbers and the kinds of courses that are offered.

male: Well, as a journalism major, I hope that it's some newspapers.

female: Some old pennants?

Maybe some jerseys?

Dr. Mallios: Time capsules are fantastic in that they're snapshots of the priorities of the time period.

Our time capsules had been fairly conservative in terms of the items in them: an American flag--it's neat, the 1898 American flag only had 45 stars; campus catalogs, schedule of classes, and in 1997, they included a parking citation in the time capsule, emphasizing what a difficulty parking was on campus.

Zia: 1913 was a significant year for the student body.

The local newspaper, the "Normal News Weekly," began publishing.

It became "The Daily Aztec" in 1960 and publishes twice a week to this day.

Also, the student governing body began meeting, which incorporated as the Associated Students in 1932.

In those early years, students spent their free time in a variety of ways, and one endeavor made history.

Dr. Mallios: My favorite example is the "S" on Cowles Mountain.

They end up creating this 400-foot "S," the largest collegiate symbol on the planet at the time, and this becomes part of the annual tradition for nearly 50 years.

They would end up perfecting it by bringing up powdered limestone and brushing in the limestone and wetting it down so it was this beautiful, white "S" that was on the mountain.

That tradition died out in the '70s.

male: I will say six.

female: But there's nine, right?

Zia: There have been nine permanent and three acting presidents leading the various institutions over the years.

The school eventually began offering a four-year degree and more teaching credentials.

Its name changed to, appropriately, the San Diego Teachers College, which remained the name until 1935.

Dr. Mallios: There's a reason there are so many things named President Hardy on this campus.

There's Hardy Tower, there's Hardy School.

You name it, he has the most things named after him.

It's because he had the longest term and the widest impact.

He took it from this narrow Normal School, just teaching teachers, to having a broad curriculum that intersected with all of the community.

It definitely was a focus on teacher training for many decades, and, yet that's still one of our strengths.

Business ranks first, and then, in that top five, you also see psychology, you see economics, you see nursing, you see teaching.

Honorable Dana M. Sabraw: When I look back on San Diego State, I'm just so grateful for the experience.

It was just a magical time.

You know, I was 20, 21 years old, and it was everything I had hoped it would be, including the curriculum.

Dr. Lisa M. Kath: I think San Diego State is a really unique place because we focused both on research and on teaching to have people who really care about teaching at undergraduate and the graduate levels, but I also love being able to have an active research lab.

Zia: Currently, the university is led by Dr. Adela de la Torre, the school's first Latina president, and is a nationally recognized public research institution with over 30,000 undergrad students.

male: We're a bunch of different things.

female: Seven.

Zia: There have been five official names for the school over the years.

Dr. Mallios: I love the story of the start of San Diego State.

On the second floor in rented office space, they're there for two years, and then the magnificent structure opens up in University Heights, and this was iconic for San Diego during those early decades of the 1900s, but then San Diego State grows too big, and then they find this spot out here.

What was known as Mission Palisades, today is Montezuma Mesa.

male: There were photos of the school when it first was built, and you just saw it on a hill when it was nothing and a very small building, and it's just crazy to see how far it's come, how so much has been built around it.

Zia: Growth and the space needed to support it has been a perennial part of SDSU's history.

That necessity for expansion and transformation is recognized today.

The building of classrooms, labs, and other properties to fulfill its diverse educational and research missions requires sufficient land.

SDSU and much of San Diego County is on Indigenous land, and SDSU acknowledges this.

The text states, in part, "It is the legacy of the red and black.

It is the land of the Kumeyaay."

Dr. Mallios: The faculty senate worked with different Indigenous groups to create that land acknowledgement that not only states explicitly that this is Kumeyaay land but pulls in Kumeyaay values as driving much of what we do at the university.

Zia: The university has campuses on the mesa in the city of San Diego, Imperial Valley, and the country of Georgia.

There are several former campuses in San Diego County as well.

Dr. Mallios: We have a historic district on campus that is on the National Register of Historic Places: Hepner Hall, Hardy Tower, life sciences, physical sciences music building.

There's the stadium, and then there's Donal Hord's Sculpture of the "Aztec."

Because the football stadium was on the register, they had to come up with mitigation, and that's why we have the most interesting-looking basketball arena on the planet that sits inside of an old football stadium.

Brian Dutcher: When I came here in 1999, the campus doesn't look anything like it does now, new math and geology building, new engineering building, arts and letters.

You look at the new student union, the new rec center that's going up.

The buildings are incredible, the new Snapdragon Stadium that's goin' in, but through the whole process, it has nothing to do with the buildings.

It has everything to do with the people you interact with here.

Ashley Tejada: I think of legacy, the legacy that all of those before us have left and really set up the foundation for San Diego State to continue to progress.

Ralph Rubio: I'm just so proud of the institution.

I mean, 125 years, what it's done.

It's iconic in the community.

I feel the energy.

It's always growing in so many ways.

Zia: The United States Armed Forces has long been established in San Diego and parallels the 125-year arc of SDSU's history.

The late '30s and early '40s was a decisive era in world history.

The outbreak of the Second World War solidified a unique bond between the school and the military.

Dr. Mallios: Where you have over 3,000 San Diego State students, faculty, and staff in serving World War II, the casualty rate was extremely high for San Diego State because so many of our Aztecs were pilots, and that was one of the most dangerous occupations in the war effort.

President Hepner is a key ally in terms of this military partnership.

Hepner was in the Coast Guard.

On weekends, he would have his boat out, and he would help the Coast Guard patrol, and at the same time, he facilitated easy access for those on the GI Bill to come to San Diego State and then tripling the curriculum, hiring new professors to make sure you could accommodate all those new students.

Zia: The postwar boom of the late '40s and '50s was integral to the development of San Diego State College.

Dr. Adela de la Torre: I'm very, very proud to say that we have over 4,000 affiliated military students and veterans on our campus.

We actually have incredible, robust partnership with many of the different sectors of the military services.

Zia: The Veterans Center offers programs that support a smooth transition to academics for active duty and retired military personnel.

Elisa East: So, coming to San Diego State, I feel that I saw what I had seen in my experience in the military, like, very diverse.

On top of that, I didn't realize how huge of a community of support there is for military and their veterans, and once I had access to that, I feel like I gained the support that I needed to excel.

male: So I was in the Navy for 21 years.

If you're a veteran and you come here, you should check out the Vet Center 'cause it's located on campus, and they give you any information you need.

I think it's really cool that I'm gonna graduate on the 125th year.

Zia: The SDSU Veterans War Memorial on Aztec green honors those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

It's a 25-foot-high granite column designed by former art professor Jesus Dominguez.

Dr. del la Torre: We are one of the few campuses in the country that actually has a war memorial for all of the alumni who have died in the different wars.

male: I would say it's inclusive because of the, you know, enrollment that they give opportunities to everybody, but it can improve.

I think that there's barriers and lines that have been made over years, of 125 years, of the way it was.

Zia: On May 29, 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at the open-air theater on campus and urged all Americans to help pass the Civil Rights Act, a law to purge the nation of racism, bigotry, and intolerance.

Dr. Mallios: It's tricky to look at the dichotomy between San Diego State and San Diego during the Civil Rights Movement because San Diego was still ultra-conservative.

San Diego was segregated.

San Diego was known as the "Selma of the West."

That's how bad race relations were in San Diego.

Harold K. Brown: The city of San Diego was highly discriminatory and racially divided in the schools as well.

Zia: Harold K. Brown is a San Diego civil rights pioneer and leader in education, business, and economics.

He was SDSU's first black administrator, in the Office of Academic Affairs, and then became associate dean of External Relations in the College of Business Administration, currently known as Fowler College of Business.

Harold: I developed a program called Afro-American Studies.

The university really supported that program to be developed in the business college.

I developed a program called the Center for Community Economic Development.

It was viewed as being very successful throughout the city of San Diego.

Oh, there are still problems, but I'm telling you, we have come a long way, a long way.

Zia: Protests have occurred on the SDSU campus for a number of causes over the years.

Recently, people nationwide have protested police violence and racism.

They advocate for more racial and gender diversity, equity, and inclusion, similar to the civil rights movements that preceded it in the '60s and '70s.

Malcolm A.

Love was president during this era.

He championed the school's transformation from a liberal arts college to a full-fledged University.

Dr. Mallios: President love was the people's president.

He was absolutely adored by the universe population.

He oversaw this golden age for San Diego State, and this is when we start giving out joint doctorates.

Malcolm Love has his thumbprint all over the identity of this university.

Zia: Other movements were active on campus too, including agricultural workers' rights and women's rights.

On September 17, 1976, labor leader Cesar Chavez spoke on campus.

male: They do like to emphasize Hispanic-Serving Institution, however, there's not many services that students can go to for this.

Dr. Isidro D. Ortiz: Well, especially for the students who come from historically underrepresented communities, like people of color, now they come to this campus.

Often, they're the first members of their families to come to college.

Part of my work, it has been working with colleagues and other departments is to make sure that those students are afforded the opportunities that they are capable of achievement.

Zia: SDSU's Women's Liberation Group pushed for the nation's first Women's Studies program.

Dr. del la Torre: Individual women have always played leadership roles in different formats in San Diego State.

The first Women's Studies program in the country, we started one of the first majors.

We celebrate our 50-year anniversary in 2020. female: There is just so much opportunity here, and you can really make the best out of your experience here.

Dr. Kath: The diversity of the students on campus makes the campus feel really lively because you get all these different perspectives and different opinions and different experiences.

That, I think, supports a lot of innovation.

Zia: SDSU is classified as a Research Level II Institution on the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education list.

It hopes to attain R1 status, which can help spark even more high-level funding and research achievement.

male: I know we're aiming to be very top-ranked research school.

Not quite there yet, but the university has a lot of promise that way.

Dr. del la Torre: We have exceptional scholars that are world-renowned.

We actually have doctoral students who have joint doctoral degrees.

Dr. Mallios: I think this attainment of Research 1 Status by the Carnegie Classification is an inevitability.

Zia: It has 23 doctoral programs with more than 900 student researchers and an economic impact stretching over $5.5 billion dollars.

Two SDSU School of Engineering graduates advanced into careers at NASA.

Astronaut Ellen Ochoa was the first Latina in space aboard the shuttle "Discovery" in 1993.

Dr. Ellen Ochoa: It's a fantastic experience.

It's pretty hard to compare to anything else 'cause it's quite a bit different.

I think, when you're waiting to launch, what's most helpful, at least for me, was just to think about, okay, just pretend like you're back in the simulator.

You've done this many times before.

Zia: Later in her career, she became the first Hispanic and second female director of the Johnson Space Center.

Dr. Ochoa: What NASA looks for is, of course, primarily just a very solid educational foundation in some kind of STEM field, right, science or engineering or maybe medical school.

I got that foundation at San Diego State.

Zia: Jordan Evans led a team that put the Mars rover safely on the Red Planet.

Jordan Evans: Successfully flew to Mars, and then, on the surface, I led the engineering team that would review the health and safety of the rover each day for the first six months on the surface, and I can tell you that my undergraduate education--that allows me to really take those physics concepts and tackle really, really tough problems on par with anyone else, and so I value that experience.

Zia: San Diego's own Ralph Rubio took a trip to San Felipe, in Baja California, as a freshman living on campus in Zura Hall, where he first encountered local stands selling fish tacos and beer.

The visit and the food inspired him to open his own restaurant.

Ralph: Selling fish tacos on Mission Bay in 1983.

So it's a family business.

It grows to about 12 restaurants, then we go public in 1999.

And we're public, and we grow to almost 200 restaurants.

Just the fundamentals that I learned here, from an education point of view, really prepared me to accomplish what I was able to do in leading the company to other levels, you know, from here, to here, to here, and I just couldn't have done it without San Diego State.

female: I don't think that there's enough scholarships at the school, and so it's kind of ironic that I even came here because it's so expensive.

Zia: The SDSU community has endured many hard lessons over the years, and some are still a work in progress today.

Economic challenges like the high cost of living, learning, and working in California, racial, gender, and ethnic equality issues persist, and sadly, gun violence has also struck on campus.

Dr. Mallios: President Day came to San Diego State in 1978.

He had a reputation that he liked.

He was a self-proclaimed battle-ax.

Through the '70s into the '80s, the budget had its highs and lows, but it was '92 when it was at its lowest, and that's when President Day authorized the termination of over 100 tenured faculty members.

1992 wreaked havoc on the university, and it wasn't just the budget cuts.

It was the reaction to the budget cuts.

You had student protests, faculty protests.

The media was here, 24-hour vigils.

Jordan: It was a tough time for everybody.

It was a tough time for the leadership of the university.

It was a tough time for the faculty, the uncertainty; the uncertainty for the students.

I mean, I was almost done, and I was interning at my dream place of NASA, and then my major gets canceled.

Zia: After heavy pressure from the campus community, these events ended when the CSU chancellor ordered all terminations to be reversed, but it left an unfortunate legacy for SDSU to deal with.

Dr. Mallios: At the time, this was the biggest firing of tenured professors in the history of education.

Ultimately, some of them got their jobs back, but by that point, many had taken early retirement or had taken lesser jobs at other institutions.

Zia: Early on, at the Normal School, the students used unofficial nicknames like the "Normies," "Professors," and "Wampus Cats."

Later, the student body chose the "Aztec" moniker, and it stuck permanently.

In 1937, at the behest of the chair of the Art Department, a statue was commissioned.

Dr. Mallios: And Donal Hord created that WPA piece, and he called it "Aztec," and at the time, this piece was celebrated as the finest sculpture in all of the Americas.

Now this piece is a lightning rod.

Because Hord was a white artist and because he depicted an Indigenous individual crouching, now it's interpreted in a very different power dynamic, and since 2000, there have been a series of resolutions by different student groups protesting the use of the name "Aztecs," the use of Aztec as a mascot, and most importantly, a human designation of an Aztec mascot.

And what we've seen through this evolution is the Aztec as a mascot, to the Aztec as an ambassador, to the Aztec as a spirit leader, and now there is no human representation.

male: Let's see.

We're in San Diego.

Volleyball?

male: I would say, baseball?

female: Track?

Zia: In the early days of the San Diego Normal School, the popular sport was rowing probably because of San Diego's maritime environment.

These days Aztec basketball is one of the most popular sports on campus.

It wasn't always that way in the '80s and '90s, and the administration sought to change that.

Dr. Mallios: The university embarked on a two-pronged plan to improve basketball.

One was build a state-of-the-art arena for the team, and two was land a top-tier coach.

Steve Fisher: I wouldn't have taken the job had we not had Cox Arena, now Viejas.

I knew that I could sell that among other things that San Diego and San Diego State provided for me to sell.

At the time, the program wasn't very good.

When Kawhi Leonard came to town as a freshman, we went to the NCAA Tournament, and then that allowed the momentum to grow into that next year.

Zia: Aztec Men's Basketball has earned eight Conference regular season championships and made it to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 in 2011 and 2014.

The head coaching job was succeeded by Brian Dutcher in 2017.

Brian: I think we're the hidden gem of the West Coast.

People are startin' to realize that nationally.

We already know that here.

If you spend time on this campus, you know what a special place this is.

This university will continue to grow, and it'll be a crown jewel.

Zia: Local legend and Baseball Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn was a two-sport star with the Aztecs.

He participated in four seasons of basketball and three of baseball.

He played his entire pro baseball career at the San Diego Padres before retiring and becoming head coach of Aztec baseball for 12 seasons.

His son, Anthony Gwynn Jr., followed in his dad's footsteps as an Aztec and in the major leagues.

Anthony Gwynn Jr.: My family is really rooted in this university, so that's really what makes it important to me, and, you know, I think, as I've gotten older and you start to get a chance to meet different generations of Aztecs, you start to see of how important this university is to the Southern California region.

Zia: The trans-border area of Southern California and Mexico is a large and complex cultural center.

The art and murals on the SDSU campus reflect the students, their artistic and educational endeavors, and common struggles of the region.

Dr. Mallios: Mural art has a long history at San Diego State's campus here on Montezuma Mesa.

In the '30s, students were doing WPA-era murals.

Then there's this second wave of murals, the Chicano Mural Movement in the 1960s.

Gilberto Ramirez, he's invited to campus, and he recruits a couple of students, one of them being Guillermo Aranda, to help him create this three-part mural that is all about the Chicano experience.

Guillermo Aranda: My life changed in working on "Triptico," you know?

That happened here at San Diego State.

Definitely, I enjoyed my classes, my art classes.

I experienced beautiful things, you know?

I think, for me, as an artist and in fulfilling my visions in my life, this is where it was sparked.

Dr. Mallios: And what's so great about mural art is it was part of their design was making a statement for all to see.

female: It's really easy to kind of get involved in the community and, like, find different opportunities and internships and jobs.

There's just so much going on here.

Zia: As SDSU and the region move past the COVID-19 pandemic era, it continues to adapt and offer educational innovation and cultural opportunities for generations to come.

Dr. Mallios: You can see the momentum that San Diego State creates with its impact on the community in the billions of dollars each year, but you also see that trajectory in terms of where it's headed for the future, and we start with the Mission Valley campus.

Zia: Snapdragon Stadium, with a 35,000-person capacity, is the first of many development projects at the new SDSU Mission Valley.

Dr. del la Torre: When people think about Mission Valley, it will become a destination, and it will become a model for other cities to look at in terms of creating the kind of urban experience that I think post-pandemic people would like to have, and that is one of broad-based community.

Dr. Mallios: It's the most exciting time for the campus, I would say, since the '30s.

Zia: San Diego State University seems well positioned to act as a key driver of the San Diego-Mexico border region's development for the next 125 years, just as it has been since 1897.

Jacob Waipuk Alvarado: You stand upon the land that carries the footsteps of millennia of Kumeyaay people.

They are people with traditional lifeways intertwined with a worldview of earth and sky and a community of living beings.

This land is part of a relationship that has nourished, healed, protected, and embraced the Kumeyaay people to the present day.

It is part of a worldview founded in the harmony of the cycle of the sky and the balance and forces of life.

For the Kumeyaay, the red, black represent the balance of those forces that provide for harmony within our bodies as well as the world around us.

As students, faculty, staff, and alumni of San Diego State University, they acknowledge this legacy from the Kumeyaay.

We promote this balance in life as we pursue our goals of knowledge and understanding.

We find inspiration in the Kumeyaay spirit to open our mind and hearts as legacy of the red and black.

It is the land of the Kumeyaay.

Eyay e'Huun.

My heart is good.

[singing in foreign language]