CIIS Featured Among S.F.'s Downtown Universities

Editorial note: San Francisco’s elected officials say building college and university campuses in the downtown area will help to bolster the city’s economic woes amid the loss of businesses since the pandemic. But as reporter Nanette Asimov explains, there are 12 colleges campuses in the downtown area that are not only thriving but also providing relief in many forms to city residents.

CIIS was prominently featured in the story as a “school that emerged from the 1960s counterculture and human potential movement (that) invites the public to view its art, hear lectures and take workshops.” In the article, “Downtown S.F. has 12 thriving colleges hiding in plain sight. Here’s how they’re helping the city,” CIIS President Brock Blomberg said he envisions a time when many of these colleges and universities can come together to form creative partnerships that build energy around education in the downtown area.

“I get why a mayor and politicians want big universities. But if you found the right way to partner with small colleges and universities — creating a cooperative for all of these institutions to share in and create energy — that would be pretty impressive,” President Blomberg told the Chronicle.

From the Chronicle’s description of CIIS: “With roots in the Bay Area’s human-potential movement, the college offers nine master’s and doctoral programs ranging from 'philosophy-cosmology and consciousness' to human sexuality that are in-person or hybrid. Undergraduate studies are online only. Professional certificates in leadership are offered through hybrid programs, as are certificates for psychedelic-assisted therapy that are open only to licensed professionals. Four of the school’s six student-staffed counseling clinics are located downtown and serve nearly 1,000 clients a year.”