Pictured above: University officials said construction for USF St. Petersburg’s new dorm, The Osprey, will be finished in July and will add 375 more beds to on-campus housing.
Thomas Iacobucci | The Crow’s Nest
By Jonah Hinebaugh
USF St. Petersburg’s new dorm, The Osprey, will receive $1.5 million from USF Tampa’s dining auxiliary fund.
The gap in funding was “something known from the early stages of the project,” according to an agenda from the Feb. 18 Board of Trustees’ finance committee meeting.
But there was “an expectation that discussions with Sodexo based on increased enrollment and opportunities would present workable solutions to fund the gap and finish the facility,” the document said.
Sodexo USA, a food service company that the university contracts for The Reef, reached an agreement in March 2019 with USF St. Petersburg to contribute $2.9 million to renovate the existing dining center and equip the new one with furniture, fixtures, kitchen equipment, hoods, millwork, finishes and flooring.
The Tampa Bay Business Journal reported the $1.5 million from Tampa would largely be used for plumbing, HVAC and electrical work.
But the increase in enrollment that was expected to cover any extra expenditures never came.
According to a Crow’s Nest article published in December, the number of first-time-in-college students dropped by 52 percent between fall 2018 and 2019.
In a Jan. 20 article in The Crow’s Nest, Regional Chancellor Martin Tadlock said this was an “expected dip.” As enrollment requirements have risen, incoming FTIC freshmen numbers have dropped.
Before the decision to take the $1.5 million from the Tampa campus’ dining auxiliary, Sodexo suggested three other solutions: Increase student meal plan rates, pay an annual fee to Sodexo for the additional cost of capital and/or renegotiate commission rates.
“USF does not find any of these options acceptable,” the document said.
“The University believes it is in its best interest to fund the $1.5M dining center improvements with dining auxiliary cash reserves to keep the St. Petersburg dining meal plan costs to students affordable, preserve USF St. Petersburg’s opportunity to realize dining commissions, and benefit from the cost and schedule controls with Beck performing the added dining scope,” it said.
The document said there is an expectation the funds will be repaid over time.
In the Business Journal, David Lechner, senior vice president of business and financial strategy, said, “Tampa took reserves they had and gave an advance on the money to be paid back over a number of years,” so the unaccounted costs didn’t get “pushed down to students.”
According to the document, the contribution is in addition to the $30.7 million contract between USF Financing Corporation and The Beck Group –– an architectural, real estate and construction company based in Dallas –– to design and build the 375-bed housing facility and an “unimproved” dining center.
