Founded as Saint Ignatius Academy by the Italian Jesuits Anthony Maraschi and Michael Accolti in
1855, USF began life in a wood frame building along Market Street in what later became downtown San Francisco. A charter from the
state of California in 1859 changed the school's name to Saint Ignatius College
and granted it the power to confer degrees. The original
curriculum included Greek, Spanish, Latin, English, French, Italian, algebra, arithmetic, history, geography, elocution, and bookkeeping.A new building was constructed in 1862 to replace the first frame building and the first degree was awarded a year later. In
1880, the college moved from Market Street to a new site on the corner of Hayes Street and Van Ness Avenue (currently occupied by
the Davies Symphony Hall). The third Saint Ignatius College
was destroyed in the earthquake and fire of 1906 and the campus moved further westward to the corner of Hayes and Shrader
Streets, close to Golden Gate Park. The college moved to its
present site, a 51 acre (206,000 m²) campus on the south slope of Lone Mountain, in 1927.To celebrate its diamond jubilee in 1930, Saint Ignatius College became the University of San Francisco. A male-only school for most of its history, USF
became fully coeducational in 1964.Today USF is organized into six academic divisions, with 7,487 students and 506 faculty members. The university also operates
five regional campuses around northern California. USF is
accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.