BREAKING RECORDS ON ALL FRONTS

CAMPUS WELCOMES HISTORIC NUMBERS OF RESIDENTIAL STUDENTS AND NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLARS

Matthew Cimitile

When the USF St. Petersburg campus broke ground on Osprey Suites in April 2019, university leadership envisioned the newest residence hall as a transformative project that would change the student experience on campus. The 125,000 square foot, 375-bed facility would expand housing by nearly 70 percent, include the campus’ first full-service dining facility and play an integral part in fostering new experiences while contributing to academic success.

“The students who live here will experience community, build relationships with one another and foster memories that will last a lifetime,” said Jacob Diaz, regional assistant vice chancellor of student success and dean of students, during the ceremony in front of 200 students, faculty and community members.

Then came the pandemic. While Osprey Suites was being built, residence halls and classrooms were shuttered. When they did re-open, precautions were put in place to promote the health and well-being of students, limiting the number in on-campus housing.

But after an unprecedented couple of years, the vision outlined during that groundbreaking ceremony was finally and fully realized at the start of the fall 2022 semester. The USF St. Petersburg campus welcomed nearly 930 students into residence halls, a new record that brought a renewed energy to the student experience.

“It’s an exciting time and we were eager to welcome a record number of students who now call this campus home. The diversity of backgrounds they bring strengthen student life and add to the already rich academic and social experiences on campus,” said Christian Hardigree, regional chancellor of the USF St. Petersburg campus.

The previous record for the number of residential students living on the St. Petersburg campus was fewer than 730, which was set in the 2017-2018 academic year. This year represents an increase of more than 25 percent, and includes students from 33 states and Puerto Rico, as well as 17 different countries.

“We saw a lot of students coming out of their pandemic situation and being really excited to come back to an in-person setting to engage in the classroom, engage outside the classroom and be a part of a vibrant community where they will have hundreds of their peers as neighbors,” said Susan Kimbrough, director of housing and residential education on the St. Petersburg campus.

For more than a decade, USF placed a strategic focus on offering a residential campus experience and adding housing capacity as part of an overall commitment to student success. Studies show that a vibrant oncampus environment can have a direct impact on improving the academic performance of students, as well as helping build stronger connections with peers.

That strategic focus paid off on all USF campuses. USF’s Tampa campus had a record-setting number of residential students during the fall 2022 semester as well, with nearly 6,500 living in residence halls. And in September, the Florida Board of Governors unanimously approved building a housing and student center complex on the SarasotaManatee campus. The building will be the campus’ first residence hall.

ACADEMIC TALENT FROM ACROSS THE COUNTRY

The historic numbers in housing coincides with another record, that of National Merit Scholars.

Last year, USF’s St. Petersburg campus welcomed five National Merit Scholars to its incoming class, the first such scholars in the school’s history. This year, however, the campus exceeded those numbers with eight National Merit Scholars.

“To continue to bring such talented students to this campus is a recognition of the incredible academic reputation, personalized educational setting and vast opportunities for growth, support and engagement that we provide,” Hardigree said.

The scholarship program was created by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation in 1955 to honor scholastically talented youth and encourage academic excellence at all levels of education. National Merit Scholar finalists are chosen out of more than 1.5 million students across the country who started by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarships Qualifying Test during their junior year of high school. Out of that original number, just 7,500 students are chosen to receive the national scholarship.

The students who live here will experience community, build relationships with one another and foster memories that will last a lifetime.

The increased enrollment of such students at USF comes from a concerted effort by the state of Florida and public universities to bring academic talent to the state. In 2016, the newly created Benacquisto Scholarship Program helped universities recruit students by including merit scholarship benefits for high school graduates who receive recognition as National Merit Scholars.

In addition, it gives USF the ability to recruit both Florida and non-Florida National Merit finalists by offering them full tuition waivers, on-campus housing, financial support for textbooks, study abroad aid and more.

“The scholarship did play a big part in choosing USF, but I also liked that it was a fairly modern school, that it is constantly trying to improve, evolve and progress, and I like that idea from an academic standpoint,” said Garrett Floerchinger of Rockford, Mich., who is majoring in Environmental Science and Policy because of an appreciation for the outdoors and wanting to sustain natural recourses for future generations. “I also enjoy the proximity to the water and being right next to downtown.”

Along with Michigan, National Merit Scholars in the 2022-2023 incoming class hail from states such as Alabama, California, Colorado, Iowa, Missouri and Ohio. Overall, the University of South Florida enrolled 79 National Merit Scholars for the fall 2022 semester, the highest number ever for an incoming class and a more than 25 percent increase from the previous record of 62 last year.

Trends in on-campus population and recruiting academic talent from across the nation reflect the general interest in high school students in the University of South Florida, as witnessed by the largest and strongest academic incoming class of first-year students in the university’s nearly 70-year history. A total of 6,919 students enrolled this academic year, an increase from 6,324 last year. The fall 2022 class is the strongest academically in USF history, with the group carrying an average high school GPA of 4.20, an average SAT score of 1308 and an average ACT score of 29. Overall, more than 65,000 prospective students applied to USF, which is approximately 15,000 more than last year and another school record.

“The size and strength of our incoming class shows that students and their families see the value and significant return on investment that comes with earning a degree from the University of South Florida,” USF President Rhea Law said. “We are excited to welcome this new group of students to our university, and we are committed to maximizing their success and preparing them for careers in high-demand fields.”