For years, the University of South Florida's St. Petersburg campus was a neglected jewel on the downtown waterfront. The lovely campus was barely used during the day; most of the students were working professionals who commuted to school in the evenings seeking academic credentials needed to advance in their jobs. People occasionally talked of its potential, but the campus was more often treated as an afterthought - by USF administrators and Pinellas residents alike.
Today, the potential of USF St. Petersburg is being realized more rapidly than even many of its advocates envisioned. The campus is bustling throughout the day and evening, with hundreds of new undergraduate students and dozens of new faculty members creating an energy that has spilled over into a revitalized downtown. And, thanks to changes in governance that give real autonomy to USF St. Petersburg administrators, the campus is on course to continue growing and prospering.
Much of the credit for USF St. Petersburg's progress goes to USF president Judy Genshaft. The issue was forced on Genshaft from her first day on the job, when she had to react immediately to an effort by some area politicians to turn the St. Petersburg campus into an independent university. Genshaft is keeping the promises she made as part of the compromise that fended off those independence pressures. She has given administrators at USF St. Petersburg autonomy over such issues as student admissions, course offerings, hiring and tenure. And that new governance structure should set the stage for USF St. Petersburg to win separate accreditation.
Credit also goes to the public officials who had long championed USF St. Petersburg's development into an autonomous institution. The efforts to turn USF St. Petersburg into an independent university overnight were misdirected. The campus' students and faculty could not afford to lose the many benefits of being part of a major research university. However, the pressure forced USF administrators to move beyond decades of neglect and broken promises.
There is no ignoring USF St. Petersburg now. The campus' journalism department is set to become the first to gain separate accreditation from the Tampa campus. Business, education and other programs should follow soon. And the governance changes announced this month should go a long way toward satisfying the remaining concerns of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, which oversees accreditation in this region. Full independence may still be part of USF St. Petersburg's future. For now, though, the campus is flourishing as a distinctive, self-sustaining element of a growing USF.
