USF Polytechnic Stuck In Debate

[achiever1911]

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/jan/29/na-usf-polytechnic-site-is-a-vision/

Sounds like this might be interesting if it ever comes to fruition....

By BILLY TOWNSEND, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 29, 2008

Updated: 01/29/2008 12:11 am

LAKELAND - A few questions hold the key to whether USF builds the state's first public polytechnic campus in north Lakeland: Does Florida's higher education bureaucracy support it? Will the Legislature pay for it? Can it survive Gov. Charlie Crist's veto pen?

But just beyond these questions lies a far-reaching debate - about the future of the University of South Florida, how the state provides a 21st century education at a time of diminishing resources and who gets to set the course for Florida's universities.

In Lakeland, USF aims to replace a sleepy, two-year regional campus for juniors, seniors and graduate students with Florida's first four-year public university dedicated to information technology and applied sciences.

It's a sweeping, expensive vision, and it has the backing of USF President Judy Genshaft and the endorsement of USF's board of trustees.

USF Polytechnic, as it is being called, would be built on donated land near Interstate 4 and the Polk Parkway in north Lakeland. Supporters pitch the campus as a keystone of a high-tech I-4 corridor, an economic engine for Lakeland and Polk County, and a business incubator for nanotechnology, biotechnology and other emerging industries.

What's more, backers see USF Polytechnic as part of a more decentralized USF - a network of niche campuses across the Tampa Bay region.

However, there's concern about pursuing such a model in tight budget times. At Thursday's meeting of the state board of governors, member John Dasburg tried to remove $15 million for USF Lakeland from the 2008 list of priority construction projects. Genshaft defended the campus, and Dasburg's effort failed.

Securing money for construction is just the first hurdle for USF Polytechnic.

A Growing Need

The campus's enrollment, up 57 percent in one year to 2,266 students, grew the fastest of any of USF's four regional campuses. It remains the smallest of the four, though, with 500 fewer students than USF Sarasota.

That's fine with Aaron Bates, a 26-year-old Lakeland native and married father of two, who started college fresh out of high school at USF's main campus in Tampa.

He now attends the Lakeland campus as a marketing major, which provides a "more personal education," Bates said. "The classes were smaller. I got to know my professors."

Bates is younger than the average age of a USF Lakeland student, which is 29. He mixes work and education, common among students at the campus, holding down a job with the Lakeland Area Chamber of Commerce while his wife works as a teacher.

There will be more Aaron Bateses.

Squeezed between the Tampa Bay and Orlando areas, Polk County has grown rapidly in recent years. Nearly 600,000 people now call it home.

Bates said Lakeland has evolved from an economically stagnant afterthought to a city that combines urban amenities with the intimacy of a small town. He wants to stay.

Genshaft said many state officials don't realize Polk County is big, in population and area. People living here and across the wider Heartland region, stretching south into Highlands and Hardee counties, deserve a public university, Genshaft said, and one tailored to the needs of workers and employers in the area.

"My commitment to this campus has never wavered," Genshaft said.

Backers project 16,000 students one day for USF Polytechnic. The polytechnic approach, with its emphasis on applied science and tactile technical instruction, would preserve the more personal education Bates has enjoyed.

The polytechnic idea took off when Marshall Goodman, former provost of California's San Jose State University, was hired in 2006 as a USF vice president and the CEO of USF Lakeland. San Jose is in the heart of the northern California high-tech corridor known as Silicon Valley.

Private schools have long operated on this model in Florida, including Florida Tech in Brevard County and the aviation school Embry-Riddle in Daytona Beach. USF Polytechnic would be the first public school of its kind, aligned closely with the logistics and agriculture industries, which have strong Polk presences.

These specialties, though, are expected to draw students from a wider area.

In 2007, supporters thought they were on track to kick-start the new campus, but Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed $10 million for the project, sending the process back to square one.

Goodman said Crist's veto, never clearly explained, cost far more than $10 million. It cast a pall of uncertainty across the vision for USF Polytechnic and made potential donors hesitate.

"It put a question mark in a lot of people's minds," Goodman said.

Private donations are vital because of money questions raised by the board of governors and others. Goodman said USF Polytechnic can't rely on the state to help it grow. He said the campus's applied science focus will make it a magnet for private investment in research and work force development.

He doesn't see the vision as a cost to the community or to Florida.

"We are a profit center for the state. We'll draw resources into the community."

The Polk community has already committed its own resources, with the county commission and city of Lakeland each pledging $5 million to the campus. That $10 million is eligible for a state economic development matching grant.

Supporters are optimistic that if construction money makes it through the Legislature, it will escape Crist's veto this time.

Debating The Future

With a push from legislators, USF is on the verge of allowing its Sarasota and Lakeland campuses to pursue independent accreditation within a centralized layer of administration.

Money for new university construction comes from sources different than operational costs and is less subject to economic conditions. The polytechnic vision may be a tough sell because the campus will need money for operations. All Florida universities face budget cuts and layoffs from a souring economy.

USF may also find itself in a larger power struggle among universities, state government and the board of governors over who gets to decide what universities can do with tuition, admissions and other fundamental higher education questions.

For example, the staff of the board of governors recently quashed a plan to create a 100-student freshman class in polytechnic studies at USF Lakeland's existing campus, on U.S. 98 in south Lakeland. USF lacks the authority to do that on its own, said Bill Edmonds, a board of governors spokesman.

The new Lakeland campus "may make perfectly good sense" for Polk County's work force, said Sheila McDevitt of Tampa, vice chairwoman of the board of governors. However, McDevitt said the board must consider the financial impact of expanded regional campuses on the entire higher education system.

She isn't convinced it makes sense to have "a full-blown campus with every program."

USF Polytechnic backers see only benefits for the state system from decentralized campuses.

They compare Polk County's potential with Silicon Valley in California and the Research Triangle of North Carolina's Raleigh-Durham area. Those economic hubs were built on a critical mass of public and private educational and research facilities that fed off of each other, Goodman said.

Orlando, as well as South Florida's major cities, have benefited from placing themselves at the heart of strong, multicounty and multicity regions that wield political and economic clout within the state, Genshaft said.

Tampa, she said, should look to do the same thing, and she sees enhancing USF Lakeland and USF Sarasota is a step in that direction.

[hbryan]

That girl in the picture looks like Jessica Alba  ;D

[CyberBull]

Is USF undermining it's own growth by pouring so much effort and resources into our satellite campuses, that will at some point break away and become a stand alone Universities?

USF has already lost New College, and essentially lost USF-St.Pete. Wouldn't our hard won state dollars be better spent into building up the main campus?

Is USF trying to build a Penn State type of system?