Among the other schools that have participated -- with straightforward campaigns that didn't raise eyebrows -- are Ohio State University, the University of Miami and California State University in Sacramento.

At California State, Tim Howard, who worked in PR and now is an assistant professor at California State, says he contacted the anticounterfeit group himself, which lined up a $5,000 grant from the computer electronics firm Cisco Systems. The students came up with a campaign, "Fear the fraud," and its Web site, fearthefraud.com, launched last month.

Fearthefraud.com garnered more than 48,000 hits its first week and more than 700 visitors signed an online pledge to eschew counterfeit goods. Students hyped the campaign with T-shirts and wristbands they gave out at events, and testified about counterfeit goods before the Sacramento City Council.

"It's been a valuable learning experience," Howard says. "The students were able to take PR theories and put them into practice."

The way the sponsored course found its way to Hunter College differs starkly from Sacramento. According to Melina Metzger, the Paul Werth Associates account executive who oversees the College Outreach Program, she was originally contacted by Taina Borrero, who works in Hunter's office of external affairs (and who would end up joining Cee's friend network on Facebook). When first approached to teach the course last year by James Roman, chair of the film and media studies department, Tim Portlock, an assistant professor in the department, says Roman told him that Hunter president Jennifer Raab had requested the class.

"One thing that was expressed to me was that the class was very important to the president of the school," Portlock says.

(Borrero and Roman both referred questions to Hunter spokeswoman Meredith Halpern, who wrote to Adweek that it had been "well received at many other colleges around the country" and "was offered to Hunter as an experimental course.")

Portlock, who holds master's degrees in painting and electronic visualization, says he didn't want to teach the class. "Initially I thought this was a joke because I have absolutely no experience teaching PR," says Portlock. He says he told Roman he wasn't qualified "multiple times," but Roman insisted. Portlock, 39, will be eligible for tenure in 2009, which he says put him in a precarious position.

Portlock asked Benjamin J. Weisman, who has worked as an art director and Web director at advertising and PR agencies, to co-teach the course, which he did. (Weisman did not respond to phone and e-mail requests seeking comment).