USF St. Pete Faculty Senate President Says Currents Plans for Consolidation Are a Disaster

There’s a growing controversy over the preliminary plans unveiled last week by the University of South Florida’s new President—Steven Currall—over the re-consolidation of USF’s three campuses—Tampa, St. Petersburg and Sarasota.

President Currall unveiled a preliminary blueprint last week that would move control of the ST. Pete and Sarasota campuses back to Tampa.

But the state legislature ordered consolidation last year—and there’s a November 1^st deadline for the USF president to submit the first draft of his plan for consolidation.

Currently the regional chancellors in St. Petersburg and Sarasota have a lot of local control- including hiring faculty and managing academic budgets. That power has grown over the last 19 years. Much of that power would be taken away under the consolidation plan.

In St. Petersburg one of the most outspoken critics of the current consolidation plan is Ray Arsenault.  He is the John Hope Franklin Professor of Southern History and Program Advisor of the Florida Studies Program at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, where he has taught since 1980. I spoke with him earlier today.