About Haas

History of Haas

The visionary concept of a College of Commerce at the University of California was first proposed in an 1883 commencement address by Arthur Rodgers, a Berkeley graduate and well-traveled businessman.

He stirred his audience, inspired the governor, and set in motion ideas that, 15 years later, would create the nation's first college of commerce at a public university.

At the time of Rodgers' commencement address, the university itself was only 15 years old. It owed its existence to the gold rush pioneers and the preachers and teachers who had followed them west. Their collective vision for a College of California predated even the admission of California as a state in 1850.

This is the history of the first 100 years of the Haas School of Business, 1898-1998 (2.6 MB, PDF format;Acrobat Reader required).