They're not just portables now

Because now, they have a name. After a contest, the village of portables at SPJC's Seminole campus will be called Port VISTA.

By WILMA NORTON

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 27, 2000

SEMINOLE -- A group of 10 portable classrooms that St. Petersburg Junior College hopes will be a village of sorts for students on its Seminole campus finally has a name.

A few dozen students gathered in the courtyard of the portable buildings at noon Thursday, eating free hot dogs and salad and waiting for the name to be announced. Students had been asked to submit ideas in a naming contest.

Some of them didn't seem to have any idea why they were there, except to eat. But others were into the spirit of the name game.

"How about St. Portable Junior College?" one yelled.

Disc jockey Frank Labano played along, too.

"Someday, you'll look back and say, "I was at that little name-the-portable-village celebration and now look how big the college has grown,' " he said.

"I hope we'll have better stories than that," another person added.

Labano answered with some theme music, then, to set the mood for the unveiling: Lynyrd Skynyrd's What's Your Name?.

And with a drum roll (produced by a music machine), the student government officers unfurled a banner proclaiming the new name of the area among the portables: Port VISTA. VISTA stands for Virtual Interim Scholastic Training Assemblage.

Student Jeffery Bueg won a $50 gift certificate to the college's bookstore for winning the naming contest. (Actually, the selection committee assembled the name from two of his three entries, combining VISTA and Port Millennium.)

Provost Jim Olliver told the group that the college wanted to have some fun naming the portable village. And, he said, there was an ulterior motive.

"We wanted this group of buildings to be more than a group of buildings," Olliver said. "We wanted to build a community here."

He invited them all back next week for more free food -- pizza this time -- and to hear about the college's plans for the new 87,000-square-foot College University Center. That building, to be constructed next to the current building, will replace the portables.

Student government president Ziad Sakhleh said it was exciting to be in on the development of the campus, which opened in August 1998.

"Everybody wants to make the first time the best and most memorable," he said. "Everybody's willing to help."

Student David Duff, who had been leading the preceremony joking, calling for a pinata shaped like a portable, got serious when talking about the Seminole campus.

"This is the best campus in JC. This has the most technology. They get everything first," he said. "They involve you."

Leah Kennett agreed.

"They try real hard to do the community spirit," she said.

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