During these difficult economic times, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that businesses and colleges are looking for more creative ways to balance their budgets. According to a recent article in the New York Times, one measure being taken by some colleges is to actually work out partnerships with businesses who serve as “sponsors” of certain classes.

The New York Times article reports that the City College of San Francisco is offering businesses the opportunity to sponsor classes at the rate of $6,000 per class. The college decided to take this step after being faced with the possibility of having to cut or even postpone nearly 800 courses this school year. Even after reducing administrative salaries, freezing hiring and cutting student support services, the school is still facing a $20 million deficit.

“Our goal is to try to raise money to cover these sections, about $5 million,” said Don Griffin, who is the chancellor of 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.”

Originally, Griffon’s proposal to the school board included allowing the sponsor to name the course that it is sponsoring. School board members, however, were concerned about what courses companies might choose to sponsor. A tobacco company choosing to sponsor a health course, for example, might represent a conflict of interest. Therefore, the school ultimately decided not to give sponsors naming rights. In addition, while the sponsors can name the department they wish to support, the department will determine which class will be reinstated from the sponsorship.

“I don’t think that’s going to stop people from sponsoring,” Mr. Griffin said. “The corporations and individuals I’ve been going to say they are interested in helping the college, not having a course named after them.”

So far, the City College of San Francisco seems to be the only college that is taking this approach in an effort to reinstate courses. Furthermore, the plan had not received official approval from the school board at this point. Yet, it will likely be implemented anyway.
“We haven’t approved it, but it’s going forward,” said Milton Marks, who is the president of the school board. “I’m comfortable with it going forward. The thing I’m not comfortable with is that I believe public education needs to be fully funded by the public. But the reality is that we’re in such a bad place that we need to do outside fundraising. I just don’t want support for outside fundraising to take away from our advocating for full public funding.”