USF made several headlines on the Tampa Bay area this summer. Here’s the rundown.
Third dorm will be smaller, come later
The St. Petersburg campus is still getting a third residence hall, but it will be smaller than first envisioned and open in the fall of 2020, not 2019.
Plans now call for a five- or six-story building with 375 beds and an adjacent dining hall on the north side of Sixth Avenue S between Third and Fourth streets.
The university once envisioned a 10-story building with 550 beds and a 25,000-square-foot conference center on the top floor.
The conference center was scrubbed from the plans, however. So was a plan to partner with a private collegiate housing firm called EdR to build and operate the dorm for the university. Now, the university will go it alone.
The residence hall project, which was approved by the USF system’s Board of Trustees in July, still needs final approval from the Florida Board of Governors – which oversees all the state’s public universities – on Nov. 8.
The project, which will cost an estimated $30.7 million, comes as the St. Petersburg campus continues efforts to shake its image as a commuter school and improve its student retention and graduation rates.
The campus’ first dormitory, Residence Hall One, opened in 2006. It houses 340 students on seven floors. The second residence hall, in the University Student Center, opened in 2012 and houses 200 students on five stories.
Freshman retention rate climbs
The freshman retention rate at the St. Petersburg campus has jumped from 65.5 to 75.5 percent.
The 10-point increase comes amid a collaborative effort by faculty and administrators to enrich the academic and extracurricular experience of students during their first year of college.
“In one agile and coordinated effort, we utilized all the best practices that you read about across the U.S.,” said Cynthia Collins, the director of academic advising, in a university news release. “We did it all in one year and we retained more students and made more progress because different initiatives impacted different student needs.”
The first-year retention rate is considered one of the key measures of success in higher education. It tracks the percentage of students who attend their freshman year and return to the same school the following year.
In 2018-2019, the St. Petersburg campus will expand its retention efforts to sophomores and juniors.
“The eventual goal is putting in place programs that ensure all our students are successful and graduate on time,” Carolina Nutt, director of the Compass First-Year Experience program, said in the news release.
Genshaft company raided by feds
An Ohio meat processing company founded and run by the family of USF system President Judy Genshaft was raided in June by federal immigration authorities.
Agents arrested 146 workers, most of them from Guatemala, on charges of immigration violations.
Genshaft has been a member of the board of the company, Fresh Mark, for years, making $8,000 a year. But she has no role in the company’s daily operations, according to the university and the company.
The company was founded by Genshaft’s father, and it is run by her brother, CEO Neil Genshaft.
Charges have not been filed against the company. The federal investigation continues.
Compiled from reports by the Akron Beacon Journal and Tampa Bay Times.
USF gets new athletic director
A sports administrator with strong ties to the Tampa Bay area is the new vice president of athletics for the USF system.
Mike Kelly, 47, has signed a five-year contract that will pay him an annual base salary of $625,000, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Kelly had been chief operating officer of the College Football Playoff since 2012. But he is well known in the bay area for directing the local organizing committees for the 2001 Super Bowl in Tampa and the 1999 basketball Final Four in St. Petersburg.
He also was associate athletic director at USF in 2001-2002.
Kelly replaces Mark Harlan, who left USF to become athletic director at the University of Utah.
Former reporter to head marketing efforts
A former reporter who once covered the city of St. Petersburg is the new director of marketing and communications for USF St. Petersburg.
Carrie Johnson O’Brion came to the university earlier this month from BluePearl Veterinary Partners, a provider of specialty veterinarian services in 20 states, where she was senior manager of communications.
She began her professional career as a journalist, first at the Richmond Times-Dispatch in 1996-2001 and then at the St. Petersburg Times (now Tampa Bay Times), where she was a reporter and editor in 2001-2008.
USF joins Phi Beta Kappa
USF has been awarded a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious academic honors organization.
The achievement, announced earlier this month, puts USF in the elite company of nearly 300 schools around the country, including six others in Florida – Eckerd College, the University of Florida, Florida State, Florida International, Stetson and the University of Miami.
According to Phi Beta Kappa, 17 U.S. presidents, 40 U.S. Supreme Court justices and 136 Nobel laureates have been members.
Header image: Jonah Hinebaugh | The Crow’s Nest
