Student, Karly Taylor addresses the consolidation task force at the town hall event where she joined other students, faculty, staff and members of the community in praising the campus and advocating for a beneficial transition. Martha Rhine | The Crow’s Nest
By Nancy McCann
One after another, they came up to the microphone to describe what they called the special features of USF St. Petersburg.
It is a unique campus with strong ties to the community it serves, some said. A place that values diversity, close-knit relationships and quality instruction, said others.
Again and again, the task force that is helping plan the consolidation of the three campuses in the USF system heard that St. Petersburg should not be swallowed up as it returns to the control of Tampa.
More than 200 people packed the USC ballroom last Tuesday for a task force town hall meeting, and 29 of them – many speaking with evident emotion – addressed the members.
They beseeched the task force to recognize the flourishing programs and distinct identity of the campus, and some urged university leaders to help the campus capitalize on St. Petersburg’s thriving arts community by expanding arts offerings here.
“St. Petersburg is in love with making sure we are supporting each other,” Chris Steinocher, president and CEO of the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce, told the task force. “We want to make sure everyone is visible.
“The record number of interns that are engaged with our businesses — we are proud of that. That’s momentum that’s been built over these last few years.”
The 13-member task force must submit recommendations on consolidation to the USF system Board of Trustees by Feb 15.
In a conference call with task force members this summer, chairman Jonathan Ellen – the president and CEO of Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg – said it is important for them to be “seen listening” as they hear from people on all three campuses.
At the town hall meeting, they appeared to be listening. But plans for the meeting did not include reactions from task force members to the heartfelt comments they heard from speakers.
“You can tell by the pens moving around this table that you were being heard,” Ellen told the audience.
Ellen did not respond later in the week when The Crow’s Nest sought his reaction to the town hall meeting. But USF system President Judy Genshaft, a task force member, said it “was encouraging to hear from so many passionate stakeholders in St. Petersburg.”
For decades, the St. Petersburg campus fell under the control of Tampa – an era that some St. Petersburg veterans have called stifling and unhappy.
When St. Petersburg gained independent accreditation in 2006, the campus grew, thrived and became what Mayor Rick Kriseman has called a “crown jewel” of the city.
The Legislature’s surprise decision last spring to abolish the separate accreditation stirred up bad memories that seemed to underscore some of the comments offered at the task force’s town hall meeting.
USF St. Petersburg anthropology professor Jay Sokolovsky, who compared the Legislature’s surprise move to the terrorist attacks on 9/11, said legislators pushed consolidation through without input from the “community it was being imposed on.”
Now that it is underway, he said, “it’s important to recognize that we do some things better here than are done on the Tampa campus.”
Susan Churuti, a USF St. Petersburg Campus Board member who said her remarks were personal and not on behalf of the board, recounted the decades-old rivalry between Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.
“Historically, Pinellas County has been underserved by the university system,” Churuti said.
She asked for “kind and flexible” treatment of those “caught up personally in the consolidation.”
James Moy, dean of the USF Tampa College of The Arts, said his colleagues at the recent town hall meeting in Tampa said it would be “hugely problematic to transfer some of the things they have over there to other sites” because it would be costly.
Moy said he is more optimistic than some of his cohorts, and he wants to “find some greater connection” to the “deeply engaged community for the arts” in St. Petersburg.
“We are in this sort of willy-nilly drive toward STEM (science, technology, engineering and math),” said Moy. “I am not going to speak against it – President Genshaft is a huge advocate for STEM.
“But it is important to remember that innovation never occurs in the center … It happens in the margins, around the edges of the mass. It seems to me that there is a great deal of interest here in St. Pete on those marginal, cranky areas of worth … I am keen to help in any way that I can.”
But the people at the podium mostly talked about the many reasons they love USF St. Petersburg and value the individualized education it provides.
Shortly after the town hall ended, Regional Chancellor Martin Tadlock, a task force member, grew emotional when asked his reaction to the meeting.
“I’ve never been more proud in seeing those who came here and expressed their love for the campus and the community,” he said.
What they said
Four faculty members, five students, nine administrators and 11 public representatives who were mostly from the arts community spoke to the USF consolidation task force last week. Here are highlights.
Karly Taylor, student in the USF St. Petersburg College of Business and resident assistant in the housing department:
“The St. Petersburg campus asks us to be who we are as students, and not to apologize for it but to have a discussion, to create an organization, to come on campus and make your voice heard and to make a difference … I ask that in times like this, that you hear the students and that you remember that we want to be bold, and we want to be heard and that doesn’t get lost in the expansion of USF St. Pete.”
Patti Helton, USF St. Petersburg regional vice chancellor of student affairs:
“The issue of student access is a heart issue for me … Many folks are concerned that the new, higher admissions standards will limit Pinellas County student access … Don’t forget Pinellas access to higher education.”
Melanie Riedinger-Whitmore, USF St. Petersburg biology chair:
“One of the things that has been a concern to many of our faculty is how we maintain a wonderful teaching environment for our students … but also at the same time rise in research opportunities. We need space, we need buildings, we need research infrastructure. We have some fantastic graduate students who don’t yet have the advantages that USF Tampa graduate students have.”
Diane Morton, executive director of the Warehouse Arts District Association:
“We would like to see more arts and culture in the curriculum … We would just ask that you remember both in the curriculum as well as engagement with the community that we are the city of the arts and we would like to have that represented.”
Kaeden Kelso, USF St. Petersburg student body president:
“Most of us came here because we wanted those smaller classes and the professors to really know our names. Believe me, no one is anonymous here … It’s more than just a branch campus. We have our own personality, and we want to see that stay the way it is.”
Michelle Madden, USF St. Petersburg director of institutional effectiveness and assessment and campus diversity officer:
“I believe the intent is to have USF St. Petersburg and USF Sarasota-Manatee maintain branch campus status and not become instructional sites … Branch campuses have dedicated leadership, faculty and staff that address location-specific needs … Instructional sites are considered to be merely hosts of programs that are administered from a remote location.”
