Pictured Above: The signs on Fifth Avenue and Fourth Street S (left) and the University Student Center (right) are two of the campus’ most recognizable. An inventory of the campus’ signage “to determine what needs to be updated,” is underway, according to Carrie O’Brion, the marketing and communications director at USF St. Petersburg.
Patrick Tobin | The Crow’s Nest
By Nancy McCann
It’s the law: The two smaller campuses of USF “shall be known as the ‘University of South Florida St. Petersburg’ and the ‘University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee.’ ”
That’s what Chapter 1004 of the 2019 Florida Statutes says.
However, those are not the names just adopted by USF’s administration.
On Aug. 31, two months after consolidation of the three USF campuses became official, the St. Petersburg campus was informed that its name is now “USF St. Petersburg campus” – with a lowercase “c.”
USF Provost Ralph Wilcox told members of a Board of Trustees committee on Aug. 25 that naming the campuses exactly as the law specifies is a sensitive issue.
He said the statutory wording “creates a little disconnect” with the regional accrediting agency — the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) — because the three campuses cannot be “viewed as separate institutions” under single accreditation.
“All members of the University of South Florida community, whether student, faculty, staff, should (say) in their signature blocks and everywhere else that we represent one university (and) refer to our campuses as ‘campuses,’ ” Wilcox said. “We should never forget or neglect to include … USF Tampa campus; USF St. Petersburg campus; USF Sarasota-Manatee campus.”
What seems like a tiny adjustment could be a priority for SACSCOC, administrators said. They even displayed a slide that suggested that if USF’s status as “a new, consolidated institution” is jeopardized, the accrediting agency might have to “recommend that the branch campuses seek separate accreditation.”
In response to questions from The Crow’s Nest, Belle Wheelan, the president of SACSCOC, said that the names specified in the law could be a problem for the newly consolidated university.
“It is not as clear that it is USF that is accredited if the word CAMPUS is not included,” Wheelan wrote in an email.
But what do the Pinellas County legislators who championed that 2019 law think?
Neither Rep. Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor, nor Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, responded to requests for comments from The Crow’s Nest.
In the past, however, they have been peeved by the administration’s attempts to diminish the status of the two smaller campuses.
USF spokesperson Adam Freeman said the administration is “very cognizant” that state law and “local public sentiment” favor preserving the names USF St. Petersburg and USF Sarasota-Manatee.
The administration has not raised the issue with legislators, Freeman said, but will do so “should that become necessary” after a determination by SACSCOC.
“Until notified otherwise,” Freeman said, the administration believes the names USF Tampa campus, USF St. Petersburg campus and USF Sarasota-Manatee campus satisfy “both state law and SACSCOC’s accreditation requirements.”
Meanwhile, the administration is pressing ahead with the name changes.
In an email to faculty and staff, Carrie O’Brion, St. Petersburg’s marketing and communications director, said that USF leadership has directed the adoption of “the word ‘campus’ as a part of our name and logo.”
“Please use the word ‘campus’ with a lowercase ‘c’ when referring to our geographic location. For example, ‘I am a professor on USF’s St. Petersburg campus’ or ‘The event will be held by the waterfront on the USF St. Petersburg campus,’” O’Brion said.
She also gave instructions for changing email signature blocks, and provided a new logo to use for letterhead, fliers and PowerPoint presentations.
O’Brion told The Crow’s Nest that an inventory of campus signage is underway (such as the prominent ones at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Fourth Street S and on the University Student Center) “to determine what needs to be updated,” and then a cost estimate to change the signs will be prepared.
Newcomers to the university might wonder why the precise name of the St. Petersburg campus seems so important.
Those familiar with the arduous two-year process of turning three separately accredited institutions into a singly accredited USF — which took effect July 1 — know that anything associated with preserving the identity of USF St. Petersburg is a delicate topic.
In the rush to consolidation, planning documents prepared by the administration of then-USF President Judy Genshaft were Tampa-centric, with a vision for USF St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Manatee that would have diminished the campuses to less prestigious instructional sites controlled from Tampa.
Following opposition from the St. Petersburg community, the Florida Legislature in the spring of 2019 amended state law dealing with USF consolidation to ensure that the two smaller campuses would become full branch campuses under the definition of the regional accrediting agency.
This means the two smaller campuses should have their own budgetary and hiring authority and their own faculty and administrative organization.
The Legislature also preserved the names of the institutions that had grown in the USF system with their separate accreditations.
When asked what he thinks about the modified names of the campuses, Martin Tadlock, St. Petersburg’s regional chancellor, said his focus is on the students.
“We are still USF St. Petersburg and ‘campus’ specifies a location,” said Tadlock. “We still have our priority on students and student success.
“This (lowercase campus) refers to all three campuses and aligns with the accreditor’s expectations.”
Although the Executive Council of SACSCOC’s Board of Trustees approved the consolidation plan on June 12, the process will continue through next year.
The university must provide a study to SACSCOC by Dec. 14 that demonstrates USF is meeting the accrediting agency’s principles for the newly consolidated university.
This “self-study” will cover areas like financial resources, faculty assignments, student support, physical facilities and admission policies, according to Theresa Chisolm, USF’s vice provost for strategic planning, performance and accountability.
Then a SACSCOC team will visit the three campuses Jan. 25-28. The site-visit team will submit a report to the SACSCOC Board of Trustees, Chisolm said, and the university will be given five months to answer questions and respond to concerns.
The accrediting agency’s final decision on USF’s consolidation will be made in June or December next year “depending on the timing,” she said.
History shows that Tampa administrators and accreditors weren’t always so finicky about campus names.
When the Legislature made the tiny satellite campus on Bayboro Harbor the first branch campus in the state university system in 1969, it was named the University of South Florida-St. Petersburg.
Seek separate accreditation?
