- By James Salazar | Examiner staff writer
- May 7, 2026 (SFExaminer.com)
San Francisco State University is expanding into a new home in the heart of The City with help from another local institution.
The university’s Lam Family College of Business will relocate from the west side to UC Law San Francisco’s Academic Village on McAllister Street, it announced last week.
The 14-story complex includes retail and academic spaces, as well as housing for nearly 700 graduate students. SFSU will lease 3,200 square feet of teaching and office facilities from UC Law, in addition to sharing classrooms with the school.
The graduate business school will move into its new digs in July and classes for the fall semester begin one month later. In placing students at an urban core comprising San Francisco’s Civic Center, Mid-Market and Tenderloin neighborhoods, school leaders said students will have improved access to internships, networking opportunities and other career advancements.
UC Law’s Academic Village is already home to campuses filled with students, faculty and staff from other Bay Area academic institutions. SFSU will be joining a complex that includes the University of San Francisco and UC Davis, among other members. The facility opened in October 2023.
Lam Family College of Business Dean Eugene Sivadas said the new relationship reflects the institutions’ “shared commitment to The City, student success, access and public impact.” SFSU students in select business programs will be able to use the Academic Village’s classrooms, conference rooms, library and study spaces. They will also be able to use support services for residential life and campus events.
In addition to those amenities, the building comes with lounges, on-site dining and fully-furnished apartment-style living for students and employees. Graduate business students and alumni will be eligible for discounted tuition if they enroll in UC Law’s Master of Legal Studies, a program designed for professions whose work intersects with the law.
Graduate business students will be placed in a collaborative environment where Sivadas said they “can connect their learning directly to real-world opportunities.” SFSU’s new downtown location will put graduate students closer to prospective employers and industry partners, as well as transit systems operated by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and BART. Sivadas said students are also moving closer to The City’s hub for economic and civic activity.
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In a statement, UC Law SF Chancellor and Dean David Faigman said SFSU will be “an excellent addition to our Academic Village.” In collaborating with other academic institutions, Faigman said UC Law has brought “vibrancy and energy to the heart of the city.” The school’s students and associated programs “will benefit from the interdisciplinary opportunities that will arise,” he said of the SFSFU relationship.
While building on its presence in The City, SFSU said the relationship with UC Law will help the university better meet the needs of San Francisco’s evolving workforce. Through internships and other opportunities, students will get hands-on experiences that can possibly shape their professional aspirations, education leaders said. In a statement, SFSU President Lynn Mahoney said the new campus will help “build connections, gain experience and achieve their goals for meaningful careers and upward mobility.”
Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, whose District 5 includes the school, said the downtown campus “is exactly the kind of investment” needed by the Tenderloin, Civic Center and Mid-Market areas.
By bringing students into the neighborhoods and connecting them with local companies, Mahmood said there will also be opportunities to increase foot traffic in the surrounding area, support small businesses and find other creative ways of stimulating economic activity, be that through events or other gatherings.
“This is how we grow an inclusive economy: by expanding access, diversifying opportunity and ensuring the benefits of progress are felt by the communities who live here,” Mahmood said.
As SFSU wraps up the spring semester, Sivadas said he already has an eye on the fall because his school is “excited for students to engage with The City’s energy, innovation, community organizations and with UC Law students.”
James Salazar
Neighborhoods & Culture Correspondent
