The University of South Florida.
Notice how it’s become a routine — and routinely prominent — staple of our news cycle. “USF Says Oil Off Florida.” “USF Takes Up Alzheimer’s Puzzle.” “Senate Hopefuls To Debate At USF.” “At USF, Promise Of True Solar Innovation.” “USF Stem Cell Researchers Call For Ethics Consortium.” “USF In Top 25 For Entrepreneurship.” “USF’s Genshaft To Chair Tampa Bay Partnership.” Etc.
Initially USF, the first urban public university in Florida, 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 finally has. And it was more than adding big time football and on-campus dorms and fraternities.
It happens when you are a 50-something, major-market university and your sponsored research funding more than doubles — to $394 million — within a decade. And you develop signature programs in such areas as neuroscience, diabetes and sustainable communities. And the Carnegie Foundation classifies you as a top tier research university and one of 25 in the nation officially designated as “community engaged.”
It happens when you’re the ninth largest public university in the country — serving more than 47,000 students; you are among the top six employers in the area; and your regional economic impact is $3.2 billion annually.
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 — recession notwithstanding — you are in the midst of a $300-million construction boom ranging from a new music building and athletic facilities to the Patel Center for Global Solutions and the Interdisciplinary Science Teaching & Research building.
It happens when you have a mission and vision that puts a premium on research and partnering with the business community. Under the highly visible and eminently accessible Judy Genshaft, now in her 10th year as president, USF more than continued the momentum it had been gathering under former president Betty Castor, who finally made USF a player in Tallahassee.
Now USF is a recognized, major cog in the Tampa Bay economy with Genshaft as president and chief salesperson–whether it’s regionally to the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce or nationally to the NCAA, where she now chairs its board of directors.
Of course, USF has areas that need improvement — from graduation rates to a long-sought Phi Beta Kappa chapter. But this is no “mere” commuter school. Let alone “Sand Spur U.”
Just ask BP.
Take another bow, Sam Gibbons.