The group stood before the elevator doors on the ground floor of the Florida Atlantic University stadium as Tampa SG Vice President Zachary Johnson reminded them again: no talking, no protesting—you’re here representing the university.
“Everyone is going to be watching you,” he said.
An hour and a half after arriving at FAU, students representing the four corners of the USF system—Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota and Lakeland, but mostly Tampa—were on the verge of making a wordless statement with their numbers and matching T-shirts with “United as One” written across the front.
“Our shirt” it’s called, the game day Bulls fan uniform.
It took three elevator trips to bring the nearly 40 students to the third floor club-level lounge. Officials from the state’s 11 universities mingled at the back of the room near the bar where waiters in white shirts and black ties served sandwiches and drinks, and large stainless steel urns allowed the coffee to flow freely.
The students moved along the edge of the room to occupy a section of seats at the front left. They made a small sea of green, in color and in youth, in contrast to the well-tailored, middle-aged and older bureaucrats and politicians. Many of that set wore their own kind of uniform: matching USF lapel pins.
On the far side of the room members of the media sat staring into laptops, looking up occasionally at the square of tables where the decision-makers in the state university system—governors, presidents and board members—discussed PECO funds, dentistry programs and capital improvement projects.
The big one, the vote that would decide the fate of Polytechnic as a regional branch of the University of South Florida, would come last.
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“You know why we’re here,” Tampa SG President Matthew Diaz told the students before leaving Tampa at 7 a.m., “remember the message: United as one! United as one! United as one!”
When the bus reached FAU four hours later, a police escort led the way into the campus. “They were afraid we were going to cause a ruckus,” joked Lindsay Lewis, the Tampa SG director of government affairs.
To show the hidden concern in that statement, while eating lunch in the FAU student union, she told the group: “No speaking, no chanting … don’t speak out of turn. That would reflect poorly on us.”
“If you talk to the media, we encourage you to be on message,” Johnson added.
Packets with filled with rules and talking points were given to each student.
They were there to provide a “presence,” Lewis said. “We are allowed in that room because we are not protestors.”
FAU’s free speech guidelines were included in the packet. Any student wishing to express their First Amendment right of free speech was welcome to do so outside, in the grass next to Parking Lot 11, as long as they did not use voice amplifiers or cause a disturbance, as determined by university police.
The plan to attend the meeting was described as a grassroots demonstration—the students standing up for the university they love—but the effort was largely organized from the top by Diaz with additional help from behind the scenes. As president of the Tampa Student Government, he is also a member of the USF board of trustees. A pillar of his presidency has been an unambiguous opposition to a split in the USF system.
The three other USF student governments signed on, each passing nearly identical resolutions opposing the possibility of Polytechnic becoming an independent university.
The venture was funded by a secret donor, a former USF trustee, who provided the bus that brought students the 220 miles from Tampa to Boca Raton at a cost of more than $1,800. The donor also bought boxes of muffins, bottles of water, plastic packets of Kool-Aid, trail mix, sandwiches and pizza for the silent protestors.
Tampa SG fronted the costs and the receipts will be sent to the benefactor, said Associate Dean for Students Danielle McDonald. No A&S fees were used for the demonstration, she assured, and the administration did not take an official stance.
“From administration’s point of view, we just want you to be safe” and to get home on time, McDonald said. “Really Student Government are the ones leading today.”
“We don’t want people to think we’re pushing them one way or another,” said Student Government Director Gary Manka to a Tampa SG senator prior to departure.
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Empty water bottles stacked up around the board members as the meeting dragged on past the scheduled 5 p.m. conclusion. The setting sun casted long shadows across the faces of the audience comprised mostly of USF students, officials, alumni and board members. Many got up and stood at the back of the room. “Do you think they’ll vote on it today?” several asked.
After sitting through nearly six hours of deliberation, students stepped out, one row at a time, to get food. They would return with half eaten slices of pizza, holding them low and sneaking bites to preserve decorum.
Two and a half hours after the scheduled departure time, a vote seemed inevitable, but the bus driver and administrative chaperones were getting antsy. “The bus is leaving in 20 minutes,” Johnson told students.
Finally, the last speaker said his piece. A move to vote was seconded.
The vote was quick: 12 board members supported the plan to gradually transition Polytechnic into an independent university while three opposed. The 13th supporting vote came via conference call. The students were quickly shepherded out of the room and gathered in the dining hall in the stadium.
Diaz, with his jacket off, sleeves rolled up and tie loosened, addressed the group. “There are much larger issues than just this,” he said, referring to a plan to take tuition concerns directly to Tallahassee in February.
“This is not a loss,” he said. “This is a demonstration of how we can be united. These people will have to start listening to us.”
Photos by Christopher Guinn/Featured photo: The green and gold student contingent occupies the front rows during the meeting, displaying the message “United as one” on their matching T-shirts. The group left the Marshall Center in Tampa at 7:00 a.m. on Nov. 9 and returned home 17-and-a-half hours later.
