Fall 2021 was full of ups and downs for USF and the St. Petersburg campus.
Courtesy of Annalise Anderson | The Crow’s Nest
By Crow’s Nest Staff
This fall presented several achievements for USF St. Petersburg as the university’s first semester back to semi-normal campus life following more than a year of COVID-19 shutdowns.
But with its wins, the campus also saw rising tensions among faculty, staff and administration as the dust continues to settle around a consolidated OneUSF and the university grapples with its ongoing shift in leadership.
To help usher in the second half of the 2021-2022 academic year, The Crow’s Nest has compiled some of its biggest news of the fall semester:
** After 13 years under the Judy Genshaft and Steve Currall administrations, Provost Ralph Wilcox announced on Nov. 8 he would step down from his position next year to spend more time with family.
Though Wilcox received praise from St. Petersburg Regional Chancellor Martin Tadlock, he has sometimes been viewed as an obstacle to maintaining the campus’s unique identity through consolidation of all three USF campuses.
** USF St. Petersburg welcomed record-breaking numbers of residential and first-time-in-college (FTIC) students this fall. Though it was the campus’s largest incoming class since 2012, more than half of enrolled FTICs were redirected Tampa applicants.
USF Dean of Admissions Glen Besterfield’s move to redirect students followed pressures from Florida legislators to boost St. Petersburg’s badly sagging enrollment.
** The number of Hispanic, Black and Asian new freshman enrolled at St. Petersburg, when added together, almost doubled from last fall, jumping from 132 to 272. But with the campus’s surge in enrollment due in part to redirected Tampa students – who are required to call St. Petersburg their home campus for only one year – it’s unknown if the diverse enrollment numbers will remain.
** A faculty-led survey sent to faculty members at all three USF campuses revealed, of 75 St. Petersburg respondents, 72% feel they have been negatively impacted by consolidation. St. Petersburg Faculty Council Chair David Rosengrant shared the preliminary survey results during a Sept. 23 meeting, telling The Crow’s Nest “it appears that out of the three campuses, St. Petersburg faculty are the ones who are most unhappy” with consolidation.
** Despite being more than a year into consolidation, USF’s branch campus faculty continue to earn lower salaries than Tampa faculty, according to a United Faculty of Florida report.
Rosengrant suggested the pay inequities may be a result of questionable yearly performance evaluations. The St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Manatee faculty councils plan to work with university leaders to address the issue.
** USF spent millions in one-time cash reserves to cover recurring expenses used for boosting metrics in becoming a preeminent research university. What was an anticipated budget crisis has apparently been resolved thanks to U.S. President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 relief package.
While the Faculty Senate’s immediate concerns have been quieted, Faculty Senate President Tim Boaz said the university still needs to “develop a budgeting process that is more transparent, inclusive and predictable.”
** Long-time St. Petersburg Director of Student Life & Engagement Dwayne Isaacs will end his 21-year journey with USF in January to pursue his “dream job” as senior director of the J. Wayne Reitz Union at the University of Florida.
Isaacs helped oversee the opening of the University Student Center and led efforts to strengthen male student success, address food insecurity, support the LGBTQ+ campus community and foster inclusivity for all students of color.
