Donations and grants from businesses and foundations were slow in coming.

It was marketed as the future of higher education, but now the survival of the much-publicized California Virtual University has been thrown into question. A few days ago, the nonprofit corporation running the university -- which actually is an online catalog -- dissolved, citing money woes. But it_s not yet clear what this means for the Internet site that acts as a clearinghouse of distance-learning classes offered by California colleges and universities. Until the end of the year, the University of California will manage the site_s home page, but it_s up to the colleges and universities themselves to keep course lists up to date. "It_s not the death of (the California Virtual University). It still exists," said Terry Colvin, UC spokesman. The university employs no professors and grants no degrees of its own, but provides class, campus, enrollment and other information. Currently about 2,700 distance learning courses at 120 California colleges and universities appear in the catalog. In the past 12 months, about 25,000 students enrolled in those courses, said J. Brown, treasurer of the now defunct California Virtual University Foundation. Last year, a nonprofit corporation took over management of the university from a state task force. But in the following months, it couldn_t come up with the $1 million annual budget needed to run the program. Donations and grants from businesses and foundations were slow in coming, and California_s public and private colleges and universities were reluctant to put up the money themselves.