![Students walk across the campus of the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, which now functions separately from USF's main campus in Tampa. The schools are separately accredited, they have separate administrations, separate line items in the state budget and they separately measure metrics such as graduation rates. That would change under a bill in the Florida House. [SCOTT KEELER | Times]](http://www.tampabay.com/storyimage/HI/20180116/ARTICLE/301169573/AR/0/AR-301169573.jpg?MaxW=2000 "Students walk across the campus of the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, which now functions separately from USF's main campus in Tampa. The schools are separately accredited, they have separate administrations, separate line items in the state budget and they separately measure metrics such as graduation rates. That would change under a bill in the Florida House. [SCOTT KEELER | Times]")
![Students walk across the campus of the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, which now functions separately from USF's main campus in Tampa. The schools are separately accredited, they have separate administrations, separate line items in the state budget and they separately measure metrics such as graduation rates. That would change under a bill in the Florida House. [SCOTT KEELER | Times]](http://www.tampabay.com/storyimage/HI/20180116/ARTICLE/301169573/AR/0/AR-301169573.jpg&MaxW=600&imageVersion=Rotator)
Graduates of those schools frame diplomas bearing the name of their own universities, which all fall under the umbrella of the Tampa-based USF System.
But under proposed changes to a bill moving through the Florida House of Representatives, the USF System as it stands today could be no more.
Instead, USF could have to phase out its separate accreditation at St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Manatee, melding the entire system into one unit.
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The provision is tucked away in a proposed committee substitute to the House’s version of a massive higher education package that passed unanimously in the Senate last week. Among other changes, the Senate bill would boost Bright Futures merit scholarships and tweak the way the state rewards university performance.
The House version mostly follows suit.
But a proposed version, to be discussed Wednesday morning in the House’s Post-Secondary Education Committee, adds the USF provision and gives the school a hard deadline of January 2019 to come up with a consolidation plan.
The move would return USF to an earlier arrangement, when USFSP and USFSM served as satellite campuses of the larger university. In the late 1990s, Florida lawmakers started process to formally separate USFSP from the Tampa campus, and the Legislature made it official in 2002. The St. Petersburg school received separate accreditation in 2006.
The House bill remains in early stages, and as such, many questions remain. It’s not yet clear where the USF provision originated and whether it will survive as the bill is debated and amended. It’s not clear what such a consolidation plan would look like, or how it would truly affect the universities, which already share resources. Details big and small — like those diplomas — would have to be addressed as USF leaders negotiate the potential transition.
"The values of the USF System include unity, loyalty and the recognition that we are stronger when we work together," USF spokeswoman Lara Wade wrote in a statement. "We intend to use those principles to help guide us through this process."
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Wade said that, should the bill become law, the university’s No. 1 priority would be to minimize the impact on students, faculty and staff. She said university leaders from all three institutions would work with trustees, state leaders, elected officials and community leaders to come up with a plan.
"Regardless of the outcome, we intend for each USF System campus to continue achieving higher levels of student success and scholarly activity, and as a result we will provide all students with the world-class education they came here to earn," Wade said.
She said the school will stay focused on serving the entire Tampa Bay region.
Currently, under separate accreditation, USFSP and USFSM function separately from USF Tampa in terms of administration and budget. State funds are appropriated in separate line items. They both have their own campus boards and leaders, who report to USF System President Judy Genshaft. They measure their own metrics, such as graduation and retention rates.
The proposed changes to House Bill 423, which is sponsored by Rep. Ray Rodrigues, R-Fort Myers, would bring an end to separate Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges accreditation at those two institutions by July 2020. That would bring all of USF’s complex parts under a single, unified accreditation.
Then, USF would report all metrics to the state as one university, rather than splintering graduation rates and other data across institutions. This would play a critical role in a state university system that funds schools based on performance in key areas, such as retention.
The bill says that certain students would not be counted by the state when crunching USF’s graduation and retention rates. For example, any student enrolled before spring 2019 at USFSP or USFSM would not be counted in those rates.
And any student originally admitted to USFSP or USFSM who chooses to leave the USF System, without graduating, before the separate accreditation is phased out wouldn’t count.
A spokesman at USFSP deferred comment to Tampa.
This is a developing story. Check back later for updates.
Contact Claire McNeill at [email protected] or (727) 893-8321.