USF is making headlines these days, and it has nothing to do with a quarterback, a presidential search or JD Alexander and Florida Folly.
Largess is in the news, and that’s always good news for higher education.
As we saw earlier this month, the Mumas, Les and Pam, wrote a $25-million check for what will become the “Muma College of Business” on the Tampa campus. A month earlier, USF St. Petersburg named its college of business after Kate Tiedemann, who had donated $10 million.
And recall that USF’s Morsani College of Medicine recently received $20 million from the Morsanis, Frank and Carol.
And let’s not forget a rule of philanthropic thumb. Successful people, whatever their roots, residence or alma mater, tend to leaven their generosity with prudence.
These are not purely feel-good gifts and 8-figure, thank-you cards. These are also investments and votes of confidence–in an institution and in a region–by people who didn’t become millionaires by letting sentiment and good will trump the bottom line.
Benefactors such as the Mumas, Morsanis and Tiedemanns don’t just “give away” that which they worked too hard for across the decades.
And it’s not as if these donations are isolated, fortuitous happenstances. They are part of a concerted effort to fast-forward USF’s uber ambitious Unstoppable campaign to raise $1 billion. That’s billion with a “b.”
No, it’s not your parents’–or your–USF any more.
Some of us can still recall when USF, the first urban public university in Florida and the higher-ed godchild of Sam Gibbons, struggled with the unflattering labeling of “Bottle Cap U” and “Sand Spur U.” Then for the longest time, it couldn’t escape the “Drive-Thru U” and “commuter school” identity.
It surely has–and it’s been a lot more than adding major college football and on-campus dorms and fraternities.
It happens when you are a 50-something, major-market, patent-power university with sponsored research approaching a half billion dollars. And the Carnegie Foundation classifies you as a top tier research university and one of 25 in the nation officially designated as “community engaged.” And you develop signature programs in such areas as neuroscience, diabetes and sustainable communities.
It happens when your campus is home to the nationally recognized H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, as well as an eclectic mix of think tanks and institutes ranging from the Center for Urban Transportation Research to the acclaimed Graphicstudio.
It happens when you serve 48,000 students, offer180 degree programs, sport an annual budget of $1.5 billion and are among the 10 largest public universities in the country–plus your regional economic impact is more than $4 billion annually. That’s billions with a “b.”
And it happens when you have a mission and vision that puts a premium on research and partnering with the business community and local and state governments.
And, yes, it happens when you find yourself having morphed from “Sand Spur U” wannabe to a major university in a major market–where the future of higher education assuredly is. Where what is researched, taught and learned is also applied–from the colleges of business and medicine to the colleges of education and marine science. Where synergy with the hub of a major metro marketplace is light years beyond “Drive-thru U” deprecations.
Now, if USF can just agree to locate the new med school downtown–and get that football program back on track. Go, Bulls.