ST. PETERSBURG - Dave Carr remembers when the University of South Florida St. Petersburg was a few, quaint buildings and 800 students.
Professors convened at noon for a spirited game of volleyball in the campus pool while their students continued their class discussions at nearby taverns, recalls Carr, a history professor since 1971.
Back then, the tiny campus known as Bayboro had little ambition. Moving there from the main campus in Tampa was considered a step down.
That's changing.
It has a different name and is developing more autonomy, which has helped attract 60 new faculty members and 11 new administrators with experience from as far away as the Sorbonne in Paris. Three buildings are undergoing major renovations, leaving some professors to take up residence in any vacant corner.
"There is no question that people, in some cases, have turned into temporary gypsies," Carr said.
The campus received an additional $7-million, about a 30 percent increase, in 2002-03 for construction, renovation and salaries. It plans eventually to boost student enrollment from 4,000 to 10,000, and some students will live on campus for the first time.
The massive expansion comes as the school tries to prove it can make its own decisions in finances, curriculum and promotions in an attempt to gain separate accreditation from the main campus.
It's not necessarily a move toward independence from USF - lawmakers tried to force that on the campus two years ago - but the threat still exists.
State Sen. Jim Sebesta, a St. Petersburg Republican who helped craft the bill to make USF St. Petersburg a separate university, said he is keeping his eye on the move to autonomy.
"That's going to go on for years," he said.
A building boom
More than 600 new students, a third of them freshmen, are expected to show up this fall. They might find comfort in knowing campus administrators are giddy about their new professors.
"We got an enviable cohort of new faculty," said Gary Olson, interim associate vice president of academic affairs.
It also doesn't hurt that students can now complete work on 45 degrees in St. Petersburg, including English, finance and early childhood education, without setting a foot in Tampa.
That couldn't happen three years ago.
The 35-year-old campus, once a mishmash of offices strung across several buildings, has designated centers for the colleges of education, business and arts and sciences.
The College of Business has a new home just a few blocks from campus on the third floor of the Bayboro Station building on Third Street S. About 27,000 square feet will house 39 offices, five classrooms and a student computer lab for at least five years. The colleges of Education and Arts and Sciences will be in newly renovated Coquina and Davis halls.
"It's like living in a perpetual earthquake," said Ray Arsenault, a history professor at the campus for 23 years.
Other additions include the construction of a welcome center, complete with a drive-through for information such as parking passes and campus maps; eight new science laboratories in the former Piano Man Building; and a small amount of space for a game room and a multicultural center in a corner of the campus called the Terrace.
Student Government pushed to create more space for students.
"It creates life on campus," said Susan Sietsma, president of the Student Government at USF St. Petersburg. Student life, in turn, attracts more students, she added.
Future plans are equally bold.
The first group of residence halls will open in 2004, followed by a new Barnes & Noble bookstore and parking garage in 2006. Short-term goals also include asking the state to help pay for a $30-million science and technology building. All will help the campus achieve its goal of having 10,000 students in five years.
"The future here is a bright one. We have a brand-new energy," said Karen White, the new vice president and campus executive officer. "The public has the right to have expectations of us. I have every confidence that we are going to meet those expectations."
That doesn't mean there won't be challenges along the way. Parking, a perennial problem on college campuses, will remain a challenge. The campus, near the Bayboro Harbor and Albert Whitted Airport, is landlocked and can't go higher because incoming airplanes need space to land.
The good news is, the new College of Business comes with at least 108 parking spaces, and the school is discussing plans with All Children's Hospital and other downtown businesses to stave off parking rage on campus.
"In 1971, you never had to fight for a parking spot," said Carr, the longtime professor.
Creating new schools
Local lawmakers who failed in 2001 to win legislative support for complete independence for the campus settled for a law requiring the university to seek separate accreditation and to try again if the effort failed.
Accreditation signifies that an institution has met certain standards in its academic programs, faculty credentials, campus facilities and other areas.
For students, accreditation could be essential. For example, federal financial aid goes only to accredited institutions, and other colleges accept credits only from those that are accredited.
USF St. Petersburg, accredited through its affiliation with the main campus, already has spent two years and hundreds of thousands of dollars on the long, arduous process.
It must prove that faculty promotion and other key decisions are made at the campus, not in Tampa.
To meet those standards, USF is creating three schools in education, business and arts and sciences and hiring administrators to supervise enrollment, research and finances.
"So far, USF has kept faith with the agreement," said Don Sullivan, a former senator who spearheaded the idea and is now an administrator at St. Petersburg College. "I think you've got to give them more time."
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools wrote a letter in 2002 questioning whether the head of the campus would still answer to the president of the main campus in Tampa.
That has not changed, but USF administrators hope they can convince SACS that the relationship remains the best option for the school.
Ann Chard, SACS associate executive director of commission on colleges, said she expects to ask for an updated report this summer. Then, she said, SACS will visit the campus before a decision is made, probably next summer.
These days, there is no outright talk of independence but the topic has never completely gone away.
St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker said he supports keeping the campus part of USF, but only if it expands, is autonomous and moves ahead on construction projects. He said he is pleased with what he has seen so far, though he wants more construction.
"Everyone's being watchful right now," Baker said. "For so many years, things were not happening. I think people want to believe it's happening now. People will remain cautious."
Administrators and faculty, who oppose independence, say there are many benefits to the campus having a strong relationship with USF - athletics, alumni support and the cachet of being part of a large, major research university.
Most of the new faculty, they said, would not have come otherwise.
"You can have a lot of independence and still be part of the system," said Bill Heller, the longtime leader of the campus who stepped down last year.
USF president Judy Genshaft said she understands and welcomes the scrutiny as the campus expands and grows like never before.
"If others are sitting back watching, that's fine with us," she said. "We have a real story to tell."
