S.F. City College plan to sell classes OKd S.F. City College

It's official: City College of San Francisco's on-again, off-again plan to revive some of its 800 canceled classes by soliciting donations of $6,000 per class is on again - mostly.

The college is holding out the hat to anyone willing to pony up $6,000 to pay for any semester-long class canceled for next spring, Chancellor Don Griffin told The Chronicle.

So far, eight donations have come in.

What has changed from the original plan, Griffin said, is that restored classes won't be named for their benefactors.

"It was a beautiful concept, but I don't think it works," said the chancellor, whose campus of 36,000 students attracted surprise attention from television, newspapers and bloggers across the country after he disclosed the idea to The Chronicle in June.

Locally, students and faculty members praised Griffin's creativity in the face of $18 million to $20 million in budget cuts from the state. And Griffin hoped his plan would be in place in time for the fall semester.

But the Board of Trustees balked over the naming rights. Conjuring up visions of Chevron-sponsored environmental classes or Marlboro-sponsored biology, the board allowed the start of the current semester to come and go on Aug. 17 without ever scheduling a vote on the naming concept.

If donors can't have their names on a classroom, what will be the incentive to spend $6,000 to save a class?

"Because you love to help students," Griffin said with a smile. Donors will also get a thank-you letter and be named on the college Web site, he said.

The trustees did make it clear that they wanted the university to retain control over which classes would be restored - even if donors ask to save a specific class.

"You can save classes in specific programs in, say, business, English or math," Griffin said.

But you can't aim a donation at, say, "Advanced Composition," one of the canceled English classes.

Eight people - including Griffin - have sent in checks or pledged $6,000 since the idea was floated.

One was Mary Allen, 76, who taught math at City College from 1969 to 1993, then computer science part time during the 1990s. Allen has also taken courses at the college every semester for the last quarter century, and said the many canceled classes make her sad.

"City College was good to me," she said. "Now it's pay-back time."

Allen had not asked to restore any class in particular. She would have liked to save a math class, but didn't think the college had cut any math.

But it did: Three intermediate algebras, three elementary algebras and two basic mathematics have all been canceled.

After hearing that, Allen immediately phoned the City College Foundation to ask that her donation save a math class.

They promised it would - but said she couldn't choose which class to save.

"It does my heart good, knowing that a mathematics class will be saved," Allen said. "I hope it'll be intermediate algebra."