St. Pete 2.0: Understanding the Role of USF’s St. Petersburg Campus in the Community [Survey Results]

The St. Petersburg renaissance has been in full swing for more than a decade. We’ve excelled in many areas and struggled in others. In our series St. Pete 2.0, we’re partnering with the St. Pete Catalyst to explore what lies on the other side of our potential – what will it take to move to the “next level” as a city? Through this series, we’ll dig into specific topics with the hope that you, our thoughtful citizens, will share your insight, experience and wisdom.

2020 has been a transformative year for the University of South Florida’s St. Petersburg campus. In July, the small waterfront school joined its counterparts in Sarasota-Manatee and Tampa under a single accreditation. At the same time, the university was faced with significant budget cuts and challenged to up its declining enrollment in 2021 while dealing with the unprecedented impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ensuring that USF’s St. Petersburg campus can remain vibrant is critical for community prosperity, entrepreneurship and economic expansion, which is why the Downtown Partnership has made support for higher education one of its key priorities. And USF is doing its part, too. In November, the university identified five targeted academic clusters in areas including STEM education and health sciences that will help the school build a campus identity, grow its student body and support economic growth.

In this edition of St. Pete 2.0, we asked Catalyst readers and members of the Downtown Partnership to share their thoughts on how the university and business community can strengthen partnerships that bring value to all stakeholders. We also sought to gain a greater understanding of the role USF’s St. Petersburg campus plays in the community and what it should look like going forward.

Click here to read what we learned on the St. Pete Catalyst.

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