Pictured Above: Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, (left) has emerged as a key player in consolidation and a critic of the way Tampa-based administrators are handling it. He said he expects Sen. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, to co-sponsor his bill.
Courtesy of Jeff Brandes on Twitter
Emily Wunderlich | The Crow’s Nest
By Nancy McCann
Legislation that would return control of student admissions to the St. Petersburg campus and expand and strengthen the authority of its Campus Advisory Board has been filed by state Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg.
The bill would give St. Petersburg “a separate admissions office” just as it once had for many years.
In July 2018, admission requirements were made uniform across USF’s three campuses, and in March 2019 control of the entire admissions process passed to Glen Besterfield, the Tampa-based dean of admissions.
Brandes, who first raised the idea of returning admissions to St. Petersburg in November, said then that “no one can highlight what USF St. Petersburg has to offer better than its local advocates.”
His bill also would increase the St. Petersburg Campus Advisory Board, Pinellas County residents who help oversee the campus, from seven members to nine.
The campus board, which is now strictly an advisory body, would be empowered to “give input and final approval to any annual recruitment, enrollment, or academic plans” affecting the campus and “recommend regional chancellor finalists” for the campus to USF’s president, the bill says.
In recent months, Brandes has emerged as a key player in the consolidation of USF’s three campuses and a critic of the way Tampa-based administrators are handling it.
He has helped lead a push to strengthen academic programs in St. Petersburg and increase the campus’ badly sagging enrollment. He also predicted that changes were coming to the 13-member Board of Trustees, which – as predicted – has gotten three new members in recent weeks.
Earlier this month, he said the legislation he was preparing came with “input from a variety of different legislators, and it’s bipartisan.
“I think they (the legislators) recognize the need for stronger legislation,” Brandes said.
Brandes was one of the key Pinellas County legislators who stunned the St. Petersburg campus in January 2018 with a proposal to abolish the independent accreditation of St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Manatee and fold them into a single accreditation with the huge Tampa campus.
Legislators brushed aside the objections of St. Petersburg and its allies in local government and business and enacted the proposal into law in March 2018. And last July, consolidation became official.
As the USF administration planned and implemented consolidation, however, some Pinellas elected officials grew increasingly vocal in their criticism of how the university is treating St. Petersburg.
In May 2019, the Legislature amended the statutes to ensure that St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Manatee would be full branch campuses – not satellite instructional sites – when consolidation took effect.
They also decreed that the branch campuses would be known as the “University of South Florida St. Petersburg” and the “University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee.”
That has become a point of contention with the USF administration, which says that – to comply with the principles of consolidation – St. Petersburg should be called “USF St. Petersburg campus” – with a lowercase “c.”
None of the Pinellas critics has been louder than Brandes.
In comments published by The Crow’s Nest on its website on Oct. 5, the senator called out the trustees. He also said that the USF administration was not transparent, that the university’s budget might be cut and that legislators might amend the law to ensure that the two smaller branch campuses are protected.
Protecting the branch campuses is the focus of the legislation that Brandes filed this week.
“Retaking control” of admissions is the most important component of the bill, Brandes told The Crow’s Nest on Thursday.
He said there will be money in the state budget “to kick-start that.”
“Once we get admissions back under control, you’re going to see that USF St. Pete is the crown jewel of the USF system,” he said.
He expects Sen. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, to sign on as a Senate co-sponsor, Brandes said, and “senior members” of the House are interesting in sponsoring the bill in their chamber.
Expanding the St. Petersburg Campus Advisory Board from seven to nine members and giving it more voice in recruiting, enrollment, academic plans and the selection of the regional chancellor would accomplish two things, Brandes said:
** It would add to the board’s sweep and diversity, “engage more businesses actively” in campus affairs and provide “a stronger voice for the community.”
** It would empower the board “to be more than just advisory … giving them the ability to have direct authority.”
For years, the board had five members and was called the St. Petersburg Campus Board. During the consolidation process, the university administration expanded it to seven members and changed the name to the St. Petersburg Campus Advisory Board.
The Sarasota-Manatee campus also has an advisory board. Brandes’ bill would expand it from seven members to nine – with five members from Manatee and four from Sarasota County.
In an interview with The Crow’s Nest late Thursday, Regional Chancellor Martin Tadlock said he needed additional details before commenting at length on the legislation.
“It’s obvious that our Pinellas delegation members are keeping a very close eye on how this campus is impacted by consolidation – and the budget situation,” he said.
Tadlock said he liked the idea of adding two members to the campus board.
Bringing “a couple of additional influential people in Pinellas County onto the Campus Advisory Board .. is never a bad thing,” he said.
The newspaper asked university spokesperson Adam Freeman for the USF administration’s reaction to the legislation.
”We have nothing to add to your story at this time,” Freeman said in an email.
Here is the text of Brandes’ bill:
Brandes-billThis is a developing story. Check back for updates.
