USF Students, Profs Get New Spaces On Tampa Campus

Science, music, arts and athletics occupy new spaces on the Tampa campus of the University of South Florida (USF) thanks to new construction.

USF spokesperson Michael Hoad says the expansion is necessary to accommodate new demands.

"The University of South Florida is a totally different institution today than it was 10 years ago. Forty percent of the buildings on the Tampa campus are new,'' says Hoad. "The athletic facilities will be a wonderful place to catch a game. The new music building is acoustically perfect, perhaps the best in the nation."

USF's Athletic Facilities received major improvements that include a basketball-practice facility, baseball improvements to the stadium, the addition of a softball stadium, football practice fields and the relocation of existing recreation fields.

The 13,500-square-foot Music Teaching & Performance Building and its companion Visual & Performing Arts Facility opened in January 2011. The new space includes a 500-seat concert hall and a 100-seat student recital hall and practice rooms, classrooms and offices.

Hoad adds that research demands were a strong impetus for physical growth. A 238,500-square-foot Interdisciplinary Science Teaching and Research facility will open in August 2011.

"That's why we say this is a high impact university. Its research has grown faster than any other university in the country. And our outreach really means USF in now a global research university," says Hoad.

The science and research facility will house physics, chemistry and biology programs, and will allow these disciplines to share the core facilities. The plan includes two 300-seat classrooms and two smaller classrooms to accommodate growing enrollment. USF's Tampa campus now serves more than 40,000 students, including an 8 percent increase in freshmen enrollment in 2010-11.

Writer: Missy Kavanaugh
Source: Michael Hoad, University of South Florida