City College of San Francisco Chancellor Don Griffin.

By Luke Thomas

June 22, 2009

A proposal by Chancellor Don Griffin to sell the naming rights of classes offered at City College of San Francisco has come under fire, Fog City Journal has learned.

According to an article in today’s San Francisco Chronicle, Griffin is hawking the naming rights to each of the 800 classes for $6,000 to help offset $25 million in State budget cuts.

Not so fast, says Board Trustee John Rizzo.

“The Board of Trustees never approved this, and was not even informed that this was an idea in the works,” Rizzo told Fog City Journal. “We’ve had many hours of discussions regarding the $25 million budget deficit at Board meetings and committee hearings. We were never informed.”

“I have serious concerns about this,” Rizzo said, “and have asked the Chancellor to agendize this for our Thursday Board of Trustees meeting. I don’t even know if it is legal under the California Education Code.”

“There are also ethical questions. Who will be allowed to put their name on a public educational course? Will courses be named after sweatshop owners, tobacco companies, the liquor industry, anti-labor factions?”

“This should have been discussed in public with the governing board of City College. This lack of transparency comes at a time when the progressives on the Board are fighting to get a Sunshine Policy adopted to institute open governance.”

Rizzo said he will be asking the Board’s attorney to look into the legality of Griffin’s proposal.

The Chancellor’s office has not returned requests for comment as of time of publishing. We’ll update this post if a comment is forthcoming.