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USF St. Petersburg closer to autonomy

If separate accreditation is approved in June, it will be deemed autonomous in its day-to-day operations.

By DONNA WINCHESTER
Published May 20, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG - After earning high marks from accreditors, the University of South Florida St. Petersburg is poised to become the first regional institution in the state to attain separate accreditation, a USF official said Friday.

Regional chancellor Karen White delivered the news in her annual "Partners in Progress" report, in which she detailed more than a dozen of USF St. Petersburg's accomplishments over the past 12 months.

"At last year's annual report, we unveiled renderings of our campus master plan so we could share our dreams with you," White said. "We are here today to celebrate the fulfillment of that promise."

White delivered the report in the plaza of USF St. Petersburg's nearly completed 354-unit Residence Hall One, scheduled to open in August. The new residence hall, along with a 1,100-space parking garage, represents $33-million in new construction for the school and an anticipated economic impact of $100-million for St. Petersburg, White said.

Pausing for frequent applause, she noted that the school recently garnered legislative funding for the construction of a new science and technology building, realized a 30 percent increase in out-of-region freshman enrollment, and reaped more than $2.8-million in peer-reviewed federal and state research grants.

"For years this institution has sparkled with promise, with plans and wish lists," White said. "It will be written in our history that 2006, our 40th anniversary year, was the year that we achieved ... the institutional construct our founders envisioned so many years ago."

In the audience was Ronald Braun, a member of USF St. Petersburg's original campus advisory board who now sits on the college of education's advisory board. He praised the school's ability to attract the best and brightest educators and the high caliber of its master's and doctoral programs.

But the most exciting development, Braun said, has been USF St. Petersburg's continuing progress toward separate accreditation.

A 10-member site review committee from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools toured the campus in February and offered praise for its programs, faculty and financial accounting. The accreditors then issued a 35-page report in which they made 10 recommendations and nine observations and asked for additional information on items such as the school's mission statement and fundraising autonomy.

USF officials responded with a report nearly twice as long.

"Now we just wait," regional vice chancellor Mark Durand said Friday.

If the Commission on Colleges recommends approval in June, USF St. Petersburg will be deemed autonomous in its day-to-day operations while maintaining ties with USF at large.

The school's quest for separate accreditation began six years ago, after a local legislator tried to sever it from USF in Tampa. That effort failed, but lawmakers approved a measure in 2001 requiring USF to grant greater autonomy to its regional campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota, including budgeting independence and separate accreditation.

Since 2004, USF St. Petersburg has been able to select its own students, create its own courses, and hire, promote and grant tenure to faculty members.

[Last modified May 20, 2006, 06:37:41]