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USF's space crunch will likely get worse

By 2011, the main campus may have less than 40 percent of the classroom and laboratory space it needs.

By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published April 30, 2006

TAMPA - At the University of South Florida, freezers filled with tissue samples sit in medical school hallways because research labs are too crowded.

Classroom space is so tight that courses are taught in off-campus movie theaters. Core classes like algebra have hundreds of students each.

"If you don't understand, you don't feel like you can stop to ask a question," said criminal justice major Devin Harvey, 20, of Tampa. "There's just too many people."

And more are coming, prompting USF leaders to warn that the long-standing crowding problems on the Tampa campus will likely get worse unless the school gets more construction money.

By 2011, according to state enrollment projections, USF's main campus will have the most dire space crunch of any public university in Florida. Students and professors will have less than 40 percent of the classroom and laboratory space they need.

"We keep falling further behind," said Carl Carlucci, USF's executive vice president and chief financial officer. "And we have to squeeze more from less."

USF's space predicament is the most extreme example of a problem that has been building in Florida for years. The children of baby boomers are graduating from the state's crowded high schools in record numbers. Many that would have gone to out-of-state schools 10 years ago are staying in Florida, lured by low tuition and merit scholarships such as Bright Futures.

Florida's university system will need at least another 10-million square feet of classroom space to hold all the students expected to enroll in the next five years, said chancellor Mark Rosenberg. That's enough to fill a school almost two-thirds the size of the University of Florida.

The schools in growing metropolitan areas - USF, the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida International University in Miami - are most in need of additional buildings, according to a Board of Governors study.

But the state fund for education construction, derived from a tax on electricity and telecommunications, continues to fall short.

USF officials say that even as state construction money goes toward the enhancement of its regional campuses in St. Petersburg, Lakeland and Sarasota, the 50-year-old Tampa campus is falling further behind.

And a proposal floating around the Legislature could make things even worse.

To come up with $1.1-billion for reducing class sizes in kindergarten through 12th grade, lawmakers are considering taking as much as $500-million from the pot of construction money that typically goes to universities and community colleges.

If that happens, 22 state university projects would be sacrificed, including a $40-million science classroom and research building for USF's Tampa campus.

"USF is the big loser in this," Rosenberg said.

USF leaders say they can ill afford such cuts. The university now has nearly 44,000 students, more than 25,000 of them full-time. By 2011, USF's full-time enrollment could exceed 40,000.

New facilities proposed over the next five years offer scant relief for USF, which has become a nationally recognized research institution despite its laboratory shortages. Even if all the proposed buildings are constructed, USF would still meet less than half of its space needs in Tampa, where the majority of students attend classes.

"When the space is like this, you wonder if you're doing a disservice to your students," said provost Renu Khator. "Are our students any less important than the students in the rest of Florida? We are a top research university, and we should be treated that way."

Instead, students take classes at the University Mall theater. Twelve classes are being held there this semester.

Nearly 200 students are enrolled in criminology professor Kathleen M. Heide's class, "Crime and Justice in America," which meets twice a week. But only about 80 to 100 students usually show up.

"They need to build in half an hour at least to get here and park," Heide said. "Because of the distance, these theater classes have less attendance. That's the reality."

Enrollment at USF is growing faster than at other schools in the state, but Florida's construction fund is divided every year among universities, community colleges and K-12 schools.

Rosenberg said it's up to university leaders to prioritize their construction projects. USF, he said, has chosen to spend much of its allocation on its regional campuses.

"The end result for USF on the main campus are some challenges," Rosenberg said.

But USF officials say Florida lawmakers give them no choice.

After a push several years ago to make USF St. Petersburg an independent school, the Legislature ordered USF to submit separate budgets each year for each of its three regional campuses, a requirement no other public Florida university faces, said USF vice provost Ralph Wilcox.

Depending on the power and whim of legislators, some branches fare better than others, Wilcox said.

"If you've got a powerful delegation in Pinellas or Polk, they're going to work for those constituents rather than for the greater good of the university," he said.

Last week, Gina Daly, 23, settled into the middle of Theater 14 for Heide's criminology class, oblivious to the complicated factors that had put her there.

Still, Daly said she never expected to be attending classes at the movies. She doesn't mind the theater, which has lots of room and good acoustics. The problem is making it back to campus in time for her next class.

Latecomers to that class sometimes have to sit on the floor, Daly said.

"On test days, we make sure to get there early."

[Last modified April 30, 2006, 01:30:17]