USF’s hospitality management major is currently housed at the Sarasota-Manatee campus.
Courtesy of USF
By Annalise Anderson
Prospective USF students looking to climb the ranks as an event planner, hotel manager or executive chef may soon be able to earn a hospitality management degree from any of the university’s three campuses.
USF’s hospitality management major is currently housed at the Sarasota-Manatee campus and is primarily classroom-based. But a proposed hybrid model of the program will make the major available to students at St. Petersburg and Tampa.
An agreement by the St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Manatee campuses, Muma College of Business, and the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management was signed on Oct. 13, initiating the first step of the program’s transition to a hybrid model.
St. Petersburg Regional Chancellor Martin Tadlock announced the proposed change during a St. Petersburg Campus Board meeting on Oct. 14.
“We’ve heard from our community for several years that they would like the [hospitality management] major offered in St. Petersburg, so this is a nice addition to this campus,” Tadlock said. “We can add it to our list of opportunities for students to come here, to a very distinctive place, and get prepared for that industry. We’re very pleased with that.”
If approved by USF’s accrediting agency, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), the hybrid model will be available to students at all three campuses next fall.
With the hybrid model, a minimum 50% of the classes will be synchronous online. It will be designed to accommodate a four-year degree path for first-time-in-college students and a two-year path for transfer students with an associate degree.
According to Carrie O’Brion, St. Petersburg director of communications and marketing, it’s too soon in the process for USF to begin marketing the hospitality management major to prospective St. Petersburg and Tampa students.
If the hybrid model is approved, the hospitality management major will continue to house its administrative activity at Sarasota-Manatee.
