Donations May Save College Courses From Extinction

Last June, we heard about a community college that was allowing donors to name a college course after themselves if they donated enough money to keep the course active during cutbacks. Basically, sponsor a class, have it named after you.
Unfortunately, that plan fell through. Some school officials were afraid of the implications that the rule could have had. What if a tobacco company sponsored a health class? Or a church sponsored a world religion class? The views of the class might be a little skewed, which would decrease the quality of the education students would receive.
Now, the City College of San Francisco is simply asking for donations to resurrect classes that have been cut. For $6,000, sponsors can bring back any one of the more than 800 classes that have been cut during the past school year.
“Our goal is to try to raise money to cover these sections, about $5 million,” said Don Griffin, the chancellor of the 100,000-student community college. “The $6,000 represents the minimum we’d be paying faculty to teach one section of classes, three hours a week for 17-and-a-half weeks. We have 8 or 10 people who’ve come forward so far, and prospects for a lot more.”
Donors may choose which department their donation goes to; however, the department itself will decide which classes to bring back, not the donor.
As of today, the plan has not been approved by the board. The good news is that the president of the board says he supports this plan and sees it being approved without any problems.
Hopefully, creative plans like this will help to save some classes at City College of San Francisco and other community colleges across the USA.
Via NY Times