By Jeffrey Waitkevich
Interim Regional Chancellor Martin Tadlock sought faculty and staff opinions at a Friday forum while keeping hush about his own.
“I have my own thoughts about this, but my job is to ensure that we are advantaged to every extent possible,” said Tadlock.
He also stressed that this was not a move from USF Tampa or the USF system. “Judy (Genshaft) was just as surprised as we were.”
“It’s kind of a wait and see, folks. You know what we know,” said Tadlock. “We’re just cautiously optimistic and waiting to see where things go … There is not going be a strong voice saying USF system is absolutely opposed to this or the Board of Trustees are absolutely opposed to this.”
Despite not knowing what the future holds, professors, students and community leaders openly voiced their opinions on House Bill 423.
Jay Sokolovsky, Director of Anthropology
“If there wasn’t the history of the dominance in how Tampa used their (resources), there wouldn’t be this apprehension. We certainly were not consulted about this. We’ve got some emails from faculty who have said that their students are concerned and would prefer the situation to stay the same.
“It’s relatively unusual to have the level of turnovers and the firings of heads of campus here…There’s often been this relatively widespread feeling from faculty that we are the step-children rather than the full siblings of the campus. And there were some issues that emerged after we became autonomous that Tampa was hurting us financially by either not fully sending along funds that were supposed to be system funds going to all the campuses or overcharging for services.”
Deanna Michael, Former Faculty Senate President
“I know a lot of the top administrators, and they’ve worked really well with us. I can have a really optimistic view. If the legislature decides to do it, there’s very little I can do. The thing to do is to look at how well we’ve worked together.
“There was that surprise and then there was this surprise … I don’t think the campus had quite recovered from that, even though Dr. Tadlock had really been involved in campus and answered questions and offered stability.”
Mark Durand, Psychology Department Chair
“People are probably in shock. We spent so much time and effort across campus to get our initial accreditation. Now it feels like we wasted our time to do something that was just going to be taken away.
“This just deflates everybody. It feels like we wasted our time to do something that was taken away. It leaves in doubt so many different questions about hiring. It leaves us with many consequences and a lot of unknowns.
“The fact that this existed came as quite a surprise to everybody…I think it’s devastating…this is another example of somebody making decisions that really has no idea what the consequences are.”
Steve Lang, Faculty Senate Member
“From my perspective, it probably will not affect students … SACS accreditations standards are the same regardless of whether or not the report is done by the university system or whether it’s done by each institution … The standards are the same and the assurance of quality that the standards represent—meaning that the faculty have proper qualifications, and everything is done according to SACS standards.
“I kind of think that accreditation is not the best vehicle to make an institution independent. In my opinion, if you want to have an independent institution, the legislature probably should vote to create a new board of trustees, create a new president and have a completely independent institution.”
Ray Arsenault, professor of Southern history at USF St. Petersburg
Legislative committees “that have no expertise in intellectual education matters are exercising a kind of control in matters they should stay out of … Springing this on us without a full airing is foolish … It is very destructive to feel that we are subject to the whims of Tallahassee.”
David Thompson, Student Body President
“The point I want to make is that the name does not define USFSP; it’s the people. It’s the students here, the staff, the organizations and as long as we’re still committed to this university, it’s still going to feel like home to us. The organizations and what we have here is really what makes USFSP what it is. That I think is going to continue regardless, even in this intermediary point where we don’t know what’s happening. I don’t think anyone should panic…There’s going to be a decision made and when that decision is made, we’re going to be prepared and in the meantime, we have to keep doing what we’re doing.”
Andrew Becht, former student body president at USF Sarasota-Manatee
“Local government governs best. The administration in Tampa does not understand what it is like to be a student at Sarasota or St. Pete … I have no faith that a unified system would see more funding coming to Sarasota or St. Pete.”
State Rep. Ray Rodrigues, R-Estero, a sponsor of House Bill 423
“I dismiss those concerns (of critics who say the Legislature is meddling in academic affairs). Constitutionally it’s our responsibility to provide the appropriations (for universities). With responsibility comes accountability. We are responsible for all students.”
Charlie Crist, U.S. Representative for Florida’s 13th Congressional District
“USF St. Petersburg has blossomed since gaining individual accreditation in 2006. The proposed move in Tallahassee to strip independence without appropriate public input is unwise and not in the best interests of the student body.”
Sen. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton
Ending USF Sarasota-Manatee’s independent accreditation “will increase efficiency, effectiveness, accountability and access to preeminence (funds) … I intend to talk to a lot of folks. Having said that, USFSM had to go into (financial) reserves last year while USF main saw record funding … I want equity and fair support for our campus. Status quo is not working.”
Header Photo: Jonah Hinebaugh | The Crow’s Nest
