UC Hastings is now UC Law SF

A: The new name is UC College of the Law, San Francisco, or UC Law SF, for short. The California State Senate and Assembly passed Assembly Bill 1936 in late August, which revises the California Education Code to the new name. The Governor signed AB 1936 on September 23, 2022. The bill took effect on January 1, 2023.

A: Assembly Bill 1936 took effect January 1, 2023.  There is a six-month name transition period from January 1, 2023 to June 30, 2023. On January 1, we started using UC Law San Francisco/UC Law SF on all of our communications, while phasing out the use of UC Law SF across our campus, including converting all external, internal, physical, and virtual instances of our name to UC Law SF.

A: In November 2021, the College’s Board of Directors unanimously voted to remove “Hastings” from the College’s name in recognition of the harms done by the school’s founder against the Yuki Indians in the Round Valley and Eden Valley region. The Board reaffirmed that decision in June 2022 after further careful review of the historical record. Historical research sponsored by the College indicated that College founder and first dean Serranus C. Hastings funded and supported individuals who engaged in mass killings and other atrocities against the Yuki Indians, primarily from 1858 to 1860, around 20 years before he founded the College.

A: After numerous meetings, surveys, and hearings that sought input, the large majority of students, staff, faculty, and alumni preferred that the new name reflect the College’s geographic designation. The College has been located in San Francisco since its founding in 1878 and the new name captures the full breadth of what the law school represents. Located two blocks from San Francisco City Hall, at the intersection of the Civic Center, Tenderloin, and Mid-Market neighborhoods, the College is an integral part of the city in which it resides, and San Francisco is an integral part of the experience of studying at the College. It is also the uniform approach of the University of California and the California State University System to name its campuses by their geographic locations.

A: The name change took effect on January 1, 2023 and cannot be changed again without further action by the California State Legislature. The name UC College of the Law, San Francisco (UC Law SF for short) was chosen by the College’s Board of Directors after an extensive process and numerous meetings.

A: The Board of Directors considered suggestions for a Yuki language name. However, doing so was not agreed upon, even among the Yuki people. Some Yuki descendants preferred no name change, supported a geographic designation, or a Yuki-language name. Additionally, leadership of the Ramaytush Ohlone, on whose ancestral lands the College is located, did not support a Yuki name and made clear that it would cause great offense to name a College on their ancestral land in another tribe’s language. After hearing from all of the law school’s constituencies (hundreds of emails and letter), including students, staff, faculty, administrators, alumni, and the California Native community, the Board of Directors believed it would be most appropriate that a geographic name be selected.

A: As of Jan 1, 2023, the name of the law school is UC Law San Francisco. It is okay when you are referring to the new name, to add that it was formerly known as UC Hastings.

A: Your school records, diploma, and alumni status remain the same. There is no need for you to get a new diploma. If alumni are interested in ordering a new diploma with the new name, they will have an opportunity to do so.

A: It is not necessary to reopen your estate documents merely for this purpose. However, if at any point in the future you are revising those documents, it would be a best practice to make the change then.

A: Besides changing its name, the College has been working on restorative justice measures with Round Valley Indian Tribes since 2017. That has included offering pro bono legal services to California Native tribes, opening an Indigenous Law Center at the school, and installing a permanent memorial space on the College’s campus. A comprehensive history of the issue and of the law school’s restorative justice efforts are included on the Recognition and Reconciliation page of the law school’s website. The College will continue to work closely with the affected tribes on restorative justice measures even after the renaming is completed.

A: On December 30, 2022, State Superior Court Judge Richard Ulmer denied a request from a small group of alumni and descendants of the law school’s founder to enjoin the law school from using its new name while their lawsuit is being heard. The College’s motion to dismiss their lawsuit entirely is now on appeal to the California Court of Appeal. The lawsuit was filed in Sept. 2022 seeking to stop the College from being renamed. The College has moved forward with the name change and is continuing its restorative justice efforts with the support of the campus community.

Departments can use the six-month transition period, until June 30, to finish using/giving away their UC Hastings merchandise or leftover swag. However, departments should not order additional UC Hastings merchandise after January 1, as the goal is to finish distributing UC Hastings items ASAP during the transition period. New merchandise can be purchased at our new online store here.

Our new online store launched in mid-January. Check out all the cool new merchandise here.

New stationery and business card designs are being approved and will be able to be ordered through the Business Center, which has the law school’s approved logos and wordmarks. Information about ordering is available on the law school’s Intranet site: SharkNet. Departments can contact the Business Center directly at dm.stationery@ucsf.edu or 415-565-4882. However, keep in mind that our new email addresses will change over later this spring, so you may want to order only enough to get you through the next few months.

We have a new branding guide to guide the usage of our new logos and word marks. It is posted on our SharkNet Intranet page called Branding Guide. However, if you have any questions about how to use the new marks or logos, or where you can get materials you need, please reach out to Chief Communications Officer Liz Moore at: mooreelizabeth@uchastings.edu or 415-703-8266.

You may have noticed that the College’s LinkedIn page currently show the name as University of California, Hastings College of the Law (now UC Law San Francisco) as opposed to University of California College of the Law, San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings). This is a temporary change while we transition to a new page, which will ultimately read University of California College of the Law, San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings).

Per LinkedIn’s newest account change policy, since our existing page has more than 500 employees associated with it and it is a major name change, LinkedIn does not allow us to edit the name of our page. Instead, we need to follow an iterative process that includes creating a new page for the College and then migrating all employees and alumni over to that new page. This will take some time, and we appreciate your patience.

Ther are implications for the above-mentioned migration to the new LinkedIn page, including:

1. We will lose all of the content and information from our previous page (users, posts, followers, alumni, staff, students, groups etc.). We will simply rebuild our new page with fresh content.
2. When our new page is posted, you will need to go in and manually re-connect to the page with our new name on it, so we don’t lose you in the migration.
3. If someone does not manually follow UC Law SF on its new page, that person will still be connected to the old UC Hastings page. However, once the old UC Hastings page is deleted, that follower will no longer be connected by LinkedIn to the law school.

Here are some steps you should follow to adapt to the current/temporary name on LinkedIn:

1. Even if your profile is currently connected to the UC Hastings page, you will need to reconnect by editing your profile to connect to our temporary page that says: University of California, Hastings College of the Law (now UC Law San Francisco)
2. Here’s a short video that shows how to do that.
3. Reconnecting will allow you to stay connected to the law school on LinkedIn while he create our new LinkedIn page with our new name. We also will be posting instructions on our temporary page for finding and connecting to our new page with our new name.
4. Though reconnecting is optional, we strongly suggest you do it. Otherwise, there is a danger we will lose you in the migration. Without staying connected during the migration, you will need to find and connect to our new page on your own.

This is what will happen throughout this temporary name change:

1. We will be working on creating a new LinkedIn page with the new name.
2. LinkedIn will slowly be migrating existing users onto this new page.
3. We will stay in touch with anyone affiliated with the University of California, Hastings College of the Law (now UC Law San Francisco) LinkedIn page and provide updates on when the full shut down of this page will happen.

A: If you have additional questions about the school’s name change, please reach out to the law school’s Chief Communications Officer Elizabeth Moore at: mooreelizabeth@uchastings.edu or 415-703-8266.