Coca Cola Microfinance 101

All colleges and universities are getting creative these days about how to stay running, but this Chronicle story about SF's City College concerned some of us about the extent educators are willing to go.

The idea: get financial sponsors to "save" classes that will otherwise be canceled.

Here's an excerpt from today's Chronicle piece:

About 800 classes will be canceled at City College during the next school year thanks to the state's budget crisis. State lawmakers plan to slash at least 9 percent - a total of $630 million - from the entire California community college system this year and next.

Hundreds of thousands of students could be locked out of college as a result, including some of the neediest Californians who depend on state subsidies for books, travel and food that make attending school possible for them. In addition to the lost courses, such subsidies will be cut way back.

So for $6,000 you could save a class, and get the class named after you in return.

I suppose the Chancellor is hoping to attract individual donors, but what if businesses want to get into the mix? How would it look to have "McDonalds Investment Strategy 200" or "Pottery Barn Intro to Art" on your transcript? Let's hope the economy bounces back before that becomes an issue.