As the humid fall semester dawns at USF, nervous rookies, middle-aged optimists and lots of procrastinators whip out the plastic and try to get their heads on straight.
By STEPHANIE HAYES
Published August 27, 2004
[Times photo: Mike Pease]
A.J. Rollo hurriedly stocks books last week at the university bookstore in anticipation of Monday. The USF freshman works part time at the bookstore and gets a discount.
Dexter Hadley, 61, waits for his daughter outside the bookstore last week. This is his fifth daughter to attend college, he said, so retirement will have to wait.
Ashley Blanke, 18, and her mother, Cheryl Blanke, both of Lakeland, move some of Ashley’s belongings to Betty Castor Hall, her new home.
Former skydiving instructor Nancy Fletcher stocks books last week. She was to begin her junior year at USF on Monday and wants to teach English when she graduates.
UNIVERSITY - Dexter Hadley sat outside the University of South Florida bookstore waiting for his daughter to emerge.
He was bored. Watching water boil would have been better.
Why wasn't he panicked? Twitching? Giving death stares to college boys? He was, after all, leaving his baby girl alone in a new place, ready to dive head first into the real world.
"This is my fifth child," he groaned. "I was planning to retire this year, but I didn't make it."
USF's fall semester started Monday, and most of the nerves belonged to confused students milling around the bookstore. They blinked vacantly at the stacks of text sorted by numbers, abbreviations and a catalog system best understood by little green space men.
"I'm getting World Lit, Latin . . .," said Elise Hess, a 20-year-old transfer student. Hess gripped a crumpled piece of paper in one hand and a shopping basket in the other. Was she worried about dropping a potential Cabriolet down payment on books? "I have a credit card," she said, grinning. Plastic can also ease the pain of tuition, which costs $532.21 per credit hour for undergraduate, nonresident Tampa students. Full-time students take at least 12 hours, forking out more than $6,000 for classes each semester.
Resident students pay $103.09 per credit hour, though they tack on $1,494 to $2,475 per semester to live on campus.
Books can cost hundreds. Parking costs up to $69.55 per semester. The USF ID card is $10. A six-pack of Budweiser is about five bucks.
Through minimum-wage jobs, student loans and stacks of plastic, 41,392 students were enrolled at USF last year.
A mad dash
Nancy Fletcher used to work as a skydiving instructor. Now in her 50s, she was motivated to head to college after seeing her son graduate with a master's degree. Plus, sitting in class is generally safer than leaping from speeding airplanes.
"Statistically, it's not good to do that after 50," said Fletcher, slapping shrink-wrapped books onto a stack at the bookstore.
Around her, students were stocking up - slowly - on the costly texts.
"Students have a "Let me wait until the last minute' attitude," said Sylvia Salter, director of the USF Center for Advising. "Then they come in and they're all panicked."
Transfer student Izumi Ekawa, 20, didn't have much of a choice.
"I was just accepted yesterday," she said, sitting tensely in the USF ID card center five days before the start of classes. "I haven't done anything. I'm going to look for housing."
While Ekawa pondered the amenities of a campus bench, engaged couple Richard Brown and Laurel Henry dealt with their own set of school-related issues.
Brown and Henry are blind. They said special textbooks take a while to get, and they often have to rely on fellow students for help.
"People are very friendly and helpful," said Henry, 23. Henry held tight to her Seeing Eye dog, Vigor, who sat patiently as flip-flop-clad collegiate feet trampled by on the way to the bagel shop.
Brown, 40, showed disdain for the gnarly pathways around campus.
"Every sidewalk turns in a different direction," Brown said. "Some of the sidewalks, they're useless."
But the couple was confident, undeterred by barriers.
"If you have good skills, you can do anything," Henry said.
Pros and rookies
"Fall semester" is something of a misnomer, as the first day of class falls in the dead of August heat.
Some students have dressed up for the big day, but by noon, sweatiness takes over. Next time, they will wear shorts.
The rookies hustle by, clenching freshly printed schedules and lugging thick backpacks. Some wear old high school garments while others go overboard with the college logo, appearing confused and excited all at once. The pros swagger by with barely a notebook and pen.
Rookies stop by Burger King for lunch. The pros know the rookies will regret those fast-food dips by year's end. Then they'll discover the athletic center.
A bundle of school newspapers has burst open, and glossy coupons litter the sidewalks. Students grab the crossword puzzle and sports section and leave the rest on the ground.
Professors tow roller luggage filled with manuals and handouts. They smile, but they mean business, wheeling in 20 seconds before start time.
Professors have a knack for that.
Crash course
Before the semester started, a group of incoming freshmen made creative use of one of the straighter sidewalks outside the USF Special Events Center.
The mission of the Jump Start University Experience class: to get acquainted with the campus lifestyle before it hits them like a ton of textbooks.
"They do tons of team building," said Christina Darpino, a class instructor.
The day's team activity involved figuring out how to transfer a marble into a bucket using a series of grooved sticks. The students ran frantically from end to end. They knelt, stood and sweated. One student lost balance and toppled onto the grass.
"Any of you guys getting frustrated?" called out instructor Stacy Koshko.
Richard Brown, 40, and his fiancee, Laurel Henry, 23, leave the Marshall Center on the way to the campus shuttle bus. Henry said the people are helpful, but Brown said the campus pathways are not. “Some of the sidewalks, they’re useless,” he said.
