It is home to the papers of environmental pioneer John Muir in Pacific's Holt-Atherton Special Collections and Archives.

At Pacific's William Knox Holt Memorial Library, there is a museum style presentational space for Muir's Papers.

[4][11] In 1878, the Conservatory of Music was established at Pacific, making it the first of its kind west of the Mississippi River.

In 1923, the campus relocated from the Bay Area to the city of Stockton[12] becoming the first private four-year university in the Central Valley.

In response to these financial plans and the perceived secrecy with which they had been developed, faculty voted "no confidence" in the university's president Pamela Eibeck and students protested.

The board also approved merging the Gladys L. Benerd School of Education with University College to form Benerd College, a new school focused on innovative educational programs with flexible pricing and delivery methods, including hybrid and online programs for working adults.

[20] The Stockton Campus, featuring a tower, rose gardens, architectural columns, brick-faced buildings, and numerous[21] trees, has been used in Hollywood films, due to its aesthetic likeness to East Coast Ivy League universities: High Time, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Sure Thing, Dead Man on Campus, All the King's Men, Flubber, and Dreamscape, among others.

In 2015, Pacific began a transformation of its Sacramento Campus by adding graduate and professional programs.

[29] Pacific's San Francisco Campus is located in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood, containing classrooms, administrative offices, a simulation laboratory and clinics offering dental care to the public through the Dugoni School of Dentistry.

The San Francisco Campus also includes graduate programs in analytics, audiology, food studies, and music therapy.

The on-campus dining services participates in the Farm to Fork Program, buying food locally where feasible.

[33] The university opened several LEED-certified buildings, including the Don and Karen DeRosa University Center, the John T. Chambers Technology Center, and the Vereschagin Alumni House[34] and has an interactive garden program on its Stockton and Sacramento campuses.

In 2021 and 2022, Pacific was ranked among the top 10 universities in the world for sustainable food and dining practices on college campuses.

The project, which was completed in April 2022, also involved the installation of 16 electric car ports in a partnership with Tesla.

Callahan was the founding dean of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

1 in the U.S. in career earnings for low-income students who attend colleges that enroll high percentages of Pell Grant Recipients.

[58] Pacific had previously competed in the NCAA Division II California Collegiate Athletic Association conference but left in 1950.

They remained in the WCAC until joining the Pacific Coast Athletic Association, now known as the Big West Conference, in 1969 for football and 1971 for other sports.