Name a College Course after Yourself at City College of San Francisco

Two students at City College of San Francisco look at the list of classes that will be canceled next semester. (via SFGate.com)
The College of Journalism and Mass Communication at The University of Oklahoma is named after the Gaylord Family. The football stadium at The University of Minnesota was also named after a donor, T. Denny Sanford. It’s pretty common practice: a person makes a large donation to a college, and the college names something after the donor. Well, now, City College of San Francisco is letting donors name courses after themselves.
Don Griffin, Chancellor at City College, is accepting donations of $6,000 to save classes that are on the “endangered species” list at the college. About 800 classes are endangered of being canceled next semester due to budget cuts. There are typically 30 students in each of these classes. The classes that might be canceled include everything from Financial Accounting to Advanced Kung Fu.
“If you want to pay for one class at City College, it’s $6,000,” said Griffin. “And if you designate it for that class, we’ll make sure the class is reinstated, and we’ll put your name on it.”
Griffin is putting a creative twist on a very serious issue. State lawmakers in California are cutting $630 million from the entire California community college system. In addition to cutting courses, community colleges will have to reduce or even eliminate state subsidies, which allow some of the poorest students to attend college. Experts expect almost 210,000 students to not be able to attend college without these subsidies. Also, many professors will receive pay cuts or lose their jobs.
“These cuts will really hurt the mission of the college,” Griffin said. “Our goal has been to try to keep the access.”
Let’s hope that Observational Astronomy becomes Smith’s Observational Astronomy and Elementary French becomes Petit’s Elementary French. Or hey, what’s your last name? For a cool $6K, it could be [Your Name Here] Advanced Kung Fu class!
Via The San Francisco Chronicle