Sept. 7, 1965 – Because the 5‐year‐old University of South Florida in Tampa had admitted more
freshmen than it could house, nearly 260 frosh begin their college careers in St. Petersburg. They live
and attend class in buildings on a small peninsula in Bayboro Harbor where the university’s College of
Marine Science and the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission are today.
Summer 1968 – Moving without the approval of the Legislature, USF President John S. Allen and a
dynamic young administrator named Lester Tuttle begin creating a “Bayboro Campus” on the 11.8‐acre
peninsula. Among their first moves: offering classes to juniors, seniors and graduate students in a “2+2”
partnership with St. Petersburg Junior College.
1969 – The Legislature makes the new campus official and gives it the name University of South Florida
– St. Petersburg. It is the first branch campus in the state university system.
October 1969 – Student editors produce the first issue of the USFSP Bay Campus Bulletin. The
mimeographed publication is renamed the Crow’s Nest in 1970 and adopts a newspaper format in 1993.
Feb. 11, 1975 – Voters in Clearwater reject a proposal calling for the city to donate land for a new home
for the campus there.
1976‐77 – The city of St. Petersburg acquires and clears land along the north shore of Bayboro Harbor
for an expansion of the campus.
June 1978 – Civic leaders from both sides of Tampa Bay join university officials in a groundbreaking
for the expansion.
1980‐1986 – USFSP is very much a commuter campus. Up to 85 percent of the students are juniors and
seniors, and well over half take classes in the evening.
May 1981 – Officials dedicate two new buildings – the Nelson Poynter Memorial Library (now Bayboro
Hall) and Bayboro Hall (now Davis Hall).
April 1984 – Coquina Hall is dedicated.
June 1989 – The U. S. Geological Survey’s new Center for Coastal Geology moves into a historic
building that once housed a Studebaker auto dealership at 600 Fourth St. S. In the years that follow, the
USGS and the university forge a collaborative partnership.
January 1990 – The Campus Activities Center (now called the Student Life Center) opens. It is
expanded in 1994 to include a fitness center and racquetball court and remodeled in the summer of 2015.
August 1996 – The new Nelson Poynter Memorial Library opens.
Fall 1998 – The campus accepts its first freshman class since the “overflow” classes of 1965 and 1966.
Early 2000 – State Sen. Don Sullivan, R‐Seminole, peeved at the way the Tampa campus governs the
St. Petersburg campus, shakes things up with a startling proposal: He files legislation that would transfer
most of the St. Petersburg programs to a new school that would be called “Suncoast University.”
Late 2000 – Sullivan’s proposal comes to naught in the Legislature, but it helps spark fundamental
changes for the St. Petersburg campus – an expansion of course offerings and degree programs,
increased autonomy, and planning for separate accreditation.
February 2001 – Officials dedicate the Florida Center for Teachers building, which today houses the
Department of Journalism and Media Studies and Florida Humanities Council. In 2010, the building is
named in honor of Peter Rudy Wallace, a St. Petersburg lawyer, former speaker of the Florida House of
Representative and longtime friend of the university.
June 2002 – Bill Heller, who led the campus as dean and CEO for a decade, is ousted by USF President
Judy Genshaft. He goes on to champion higher education during four years in the Legislature and is now
dean of USFSP’s College of Education.
August 2006 – The school’s first dormitory, Residence Hall One, opens at the corner of Fifth Avenue S
and Second Street.
June 2006 – After 43 years under the control of the Tampa campus, USFSP is awarded separate
accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools – the state’s first regional campus to
earn that distinction. Accreditation is crucial to a school’s credibility. Without it, recruitment suffers, its
degrees lose their value and students are not eligible for financial aid.
April 2010 – Scientists at the College of Marine Science are among the first researchers to begin
researching the impact of the disastrous Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Their findings
make national news. Their studies continue today.
August 2012 – The University Student Center, which features a dining facility, banquet hall, meeting
rooms and six‐story dormitory, opens at Sixth Avenue S and Second Street.
July 2013 – Sophia T. Wisniewska, 61, a scholar of Russian language and literature and chancellor of
Penn State Brandywine, is named regional chancellor at a salary of $265,000.
September 2014 – The USF Board of Trustees approves a strategic plan – called Vision 20/20 – that
would increase USFSP’s enrollment to 10,000 over the next decade while strengthening the university’s
commitments to teaching, research and ties to the local community.
September 2014 – International entrepreneur Kate Tiedemann donates $10 million to the university –
the largest gift in its history. The university names its College of Business in her honor, and late in the
year it breaks ground on a new building along Seventh Avenue S at Third Street. The building is
scheduled to open in fall 2016.
October 2014 – Citing Ebola‐related fears from students and faculty, the university cancels the visit of
14 African journalists traveling to the U.S. under the State Department’s Edward R. Murrow program.
Twelve of the Africans – minus two from countries where Ebola had become a serious problem – come
to St. Petersburg anyway when the Poynter Institute for Media Studies agrees to play host.
March 2015 – The USF Board of Trustees approves the purchase of nearly 4 acres from the Poynter
Institute for Media Studies for $6.2 million. The land, between Eighth and 11 avenues S and Third and
Fourth streets, might eventually be the site of a new building for science, technology, engineering and
math.
This chronology is based largely on the work of James Anthony Schnur, a historian and special collections librarian at the Nelson Poynter Memorial Library. Information from the Tampa Bay Times, Tampa Tribune and websites of USF St. Petersburg was used in this report.
For more information:
For more information and photos on the university’s history, see “From Fiddler Crabs to a Harbor with
Class,” a 32‐panel display prepared by James Anthony Schnur and the Nelson Poynter Memorial Library
for USFSP’s 40th anniversary.
