Girl Scout selling cookies.

This Date in UCSF History

This Date in UCSF History: When Sweets Turn Sour

[Originally published in Synapse on April 1, 1993.] An April Fool’s tale. For countless years now, Girl Scout cookies have been a part of the American landscape. Children in uniform make their way door to door, selling sweets which are clearly overpriced and yet seemingly irresistible.

April 1, 2025

Campus

history

This Date in UCSF History: Worst State Budget Crisis Ever?

January 10, 2022

[Originally published in Synapse on January 14, 2010.] California has another budget crisis. This should be no surprise to anyone...

history

This Date in UCSF History: Haight-Ashbury: From ‘Free Love’ to ‘Speed Kills’

December 4, 2021

[Originally published in Synapse on December 2, 1993.] David E. Smith, MD, founder and director of the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinics...

history

This Date in UCSF History: Doc Recalls Pre-Roe v. Wade Horrors

November 21, 2021

[Originally published in Synapse on November 21, 1996.] Before 1973, the year Roe vs. Wade guaranteed women the right to...

history

This Date in UCSF History: Student AIDS Forum Connects Patients and Caregivers

November 14, 2021

Originally published on November 15, 1990. Several prominent physicians who have devoted much of their working lives in recent years...

Score sheet

This Date in UCSF History: Music is Good Medicine

November 13, 2021

[Originally published December 12, 2011.] In many hospital rooms, the steady beeping of a cardiac monitor is the most soothing...

Students in a classroom

This Date in UCSF History: We Need Affirmative Action

November 8, 2021

[Originally published on November 13, 1997.] Last week the United States Supreme Court ruled that it would not hear a...

forensics_web

This Date in UCSF History: The Fascinating World of Forensic Medicine

October 31, 2021

[Originally published in Synapse on November 6, 2003.] What comes to your mind when you hear the words “forensic medicine?”...

depression

This Date in UCSF History: Mentioning the Unmentionable

October 25, 2021

[Originally published on October 25, 2007.] Midway through my first year preceptorship, a particularly difficult patient interview taught me the...

Multiracial group

This Date in UCSF History: Examining Race’s Impact on Medicine

October 10, 2021

[Originally published in Synapse on October 19, 2006.] What does the term “race” mean? Is it a social construct or...