The University of South Florida: A History of Growth, Research, and Community Engagement
The University of South Florida (USF), a public research university, stands as one of the 12 members of the State University System of Florida. Its main campus is in Tampa, Florida, with satellite campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. With the motto "Truth and Wisdom," USF has grown into a major educational and research institution since its founding in 1956.
Founding and Early Years
USF was established on December 18, 1956. Representative Samuel Gibbons played a crucial role in its creation. The university initially opened as a school for whites only but integrated in 1961 when it admitted its first African-American student, Ernest Boger, who graduated in 1964 with a B.A.
John S. Allen, the university's first president, significantly shaped its early development. In 1958, he commissioned a seal to represent education on a global scale. The original colors of USF were green, gold, and purple, inspired by Allen's fraternity, Lambda Chi Alpha. Purple was later dropped, leaving green and gold as the official colors, although purple accents remain on some older buildings, including the John and Grace Allen Building. The first graduation ceremony was held in 1963.
Expansion and Development
The university expanded rapidly. The USF St. Petersburg campus opened in 1965. In 1970, M. Cecil Mackey became the university's second president, opening the medical school, School of Nursing, and the first Ph.D. program. Mackey also worked to strengthen the St. Petersburg campus.
USF emerged as a major research institution during the 1980s under the leadership of its third president, John Lott Brown. The USF Graduate School was established in 1980, and in 1986, Brown oversaw the opening of the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute on the Tampa campus. On February 15, 1988, USF became the first university in the nation to offer a Ph.D. in public health.
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Leadership and Transformation
Francis T. Borkowski became the university's fourth president. Betty Castor became the university's fifth president and first female president when she was inaugurated in January 1994, serving for six years until 1999. Judy Genshaft was selected as the new president in 2000. Under Genshaft's leadership, the university achieved "preeminence" per the Florida Board of Governors in June 2018 and became a major economic engine, with an annual economic impact of $3.7 billion in the 2018-2019 fiscal year.
In 2006, Castor returned to lead the Dr. Kiran C. Patel Center for Global Solutions, stepping down in 2009. The university expanded its global reach, opening the first Confucius Institute in Florida in 2008 and creating the Genshaft/Greenbaum Passport Scholarship Fund in 2011 to support USF students studying abroad. USF has been consistently ranked among the top veteran-friendly universities in the country. In 2009, it became the first university to partner with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs to offer specialized services for veterans using the new G.I. Bill.
The university's seventh president, Steven C. Currall, led USF until his retirement in August 2021. Rhea Law was appointed as interim president and then selected for the permanent role in March 2022.
Governance and Structure
The University of South Florida is governed by a Board of Trustees (BOT). The BOT has many responsibilities, including setting the school's budget, strategic goals and objectives, and establishing policies related to academic programs. The USF BOT also appoints the USF president, who also serves as the chancellor of the Tampa campus and in turn appoints the chancellors of the St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Manatee campuses.
USF was previously identified as a university system from 1965 until 2020 but is now chartered as one university geographically distributed across three campus locations: Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Sarasota-Manatee. Before being consolidated, the University of South Florida System included three member institutions: USF Tampa (the flagship campus), USF St. Petersburg, and USF Sarasota-Manatee. The Sarasota institution was originally a private college called New College, which sold itself to USF in 1975 to pay off debt, becoming New College of the University of South Florida. New College was allowed to keep its unique grading system. It shared a campus with USF Sarasota-Manatee, which opened in 1975, but was accredited differently as USFSM was considered a branch campus rather than a member institution. New College became independent of the USF system in 2001, and USFSM took its place as a member institution, but they continued to share a campus until a new campus was completed for USFSM across the street in 2006.
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Campus Locations
Tampa Campus
Established in 1956, the USF Tampa campus serves over 41,000 students. It houses 14 colleges and is the doctoral granting campus of USF. The campus is located in North Tampa, east of the University neighborhood, about seven miles north of downtown. Known for having over 19,000 trees, the campus has been named a Tree Campus USA by the Arbor Day Foundation every year since 2011. Nearly all streets on campus are named after trees, as are six of the 14 dorms.
St. Petersburg Campus
USF first occupied the site of the USF St. Petersburg campus, the Maritime Training Center, along Bayboro Harbor in downtown St. Petersburg. It is located next to Albert Whitted Airport and less than a mile from the Salvador Dalí Museum and Al Lang Stadium.
Sarasota-Manatee Campus
When USF Sarasota-Manatee was established as a branch campus in 1975, it originally shared a campus with the independent New College of Florida. Nearly 2,000 students take classes at USFSM each year.
Academics and Rankings
USF offers a wide range of academic programs. The Fall 2022 Freshman class of approximately 4,000 students earned admission with an average SAT score of 1309 out of 1600, an ACT score of 29 out of 36, and a high school GPA of 4.21. 41% of the incoming class graduated in the top 10% of their high school class.
In the 2026 edition of Best Colleges, University of South Florida is ranked No. 88 in National Universities and No. 21 in Top Performers on Social Mobility. In 2020, USF was ranked #103 on the list of all universities, and #46 among public universities, and #181 among all national and #100 among public universities in 2010. This ranking also put USF as #4 in Florida overall and #3 in Florida among public universities. News, USF was the only Florida university in the Top 10 Best Value Colleges, at #8 among public universities. News ranking of top National Universities for Social Mobility. Niche ranked USF #19 for top public universities in America and #67 for best colleges in America 2023.
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As of 2022, there were more than 15,000 instructional faculty, and the student to faculty ratio was 22:1. Approximately 86 percent of full-time faculty members held the highest degree in their field.
Tuition costs vary by campus and residency. For example, at the Sarasota-Manatee campus, tuition is $211.19 per credit hour for in-state students and $611.39 per credit hour for out-of-state and international students. At the St. Petersburg campus, tuition is $431.43 per credit hour for in-state students and $921.74 per credit hour for out-of-state and international students.
Research and Innovation
USF is known for its research and innovation. In its 2018 ranking, the Intellectual Property Owners Association placed USF 1st in Florida, 7th in the United States, and 16th worldwide in the number of US patents granted. USF faculty, staff, students, and alumni collectively hold over 2,400 patents.
Several research centers and institutes contribute to USF's research output, including:
- The Center for Urban Transportation Research: Founded in 1988, it conducts over $13 million in research annually.
- The Florida Center for Community Design and Research: Established by the Florida Legislature in 1986.
- The Materials Simulation Laboratory: Established in 2002.
Campus Life and Traditions
USF offers a vibrant campus life with numerous activities and traditions. The university has a total of 9 life-size bronze bull statues across the three campuses.
One of the most popular gathering spots on the Tampa campus is Martin Luther King, Jr. Plaza, marked by a bust of the civil rights activist. The 15-acre botanical garden on USF's Tampa campus was established in 1969. Castor Beach is an artificial beach on campus by the lake outside of Betty Castor Hall.
The Campus Recreation Center on the USF Tampa campus is a 21,000-square-foot fitness facility. The Campus Recreation Department also offers over 40 club sports teams to students.
The original USF student union was built in 1959 and opened in 1960. In 2008 the university opened a new student union called the Marshall Student Center. Centre Gallery, established in 1984, is the only fully student run, non-profit, exhibition space in the state of Florida.
Sustainability Initiatives
USF has made significant efforts to create an environmentally conscious campus. USF was given a gold rating by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. In 2010, the USF School of Global Sustainability was created. In 2012, the new Patel College of Global Sustainability was formed. The nearly 20,000 trees on the Tampa campus provide an estimated $1.8 million yearly benefit to the university. Currently, the university has six LEED-certified buildings.
ROTC Programs
The USF Tampa campus offers three Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) programs: Air Force, Army, and Navy. USF is one of only 38 universities in the nation to offer all three service ROTC programs. The university was the first in the nation to create a Joint Military Leadership Center (JMLC) to house all three programs.
Libraries
In addition to the Tampa library, the USF Libraries system includes two regional library spaces and the USF Health Libraries. The regional library spaces are the Nelson Poynter Memorial Library, located on the USF St. Petersburg campus, and the Jane Bancroft Cook Library, located on the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus.
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