UF president confirms interest in moving USF Poly toward independence

Posted Nov 22, 2011 by Lindsay Peterson

Updated Nov 22, 2011 at 05:14 PM

Two weeks ago, the state Board of Governors put USF in charge of a plan to launch its Polytechnic campus as an independent university.

But now University of Florida President Bernie Machen is offering to take over the job.

“Several members of BOG asked if UF would consider assisting in the transition to independence and I said that, if asked, we will be willing to help,” Machen said in a statement today. He didn’t identify the board members.

It’s just one more twist in the tortuous efforts to break Polytechnic away from USF.

The university board said Poly could become independent if it met a list of benchmarks first, such as achieving campus accreditation.

At the time the move satisfied both USF, which opposed the split, and State Sen. JD Alexander, the Lake Wales Republican and budget committee chairman who was pushing for Poly’s independence.

Alexander, however, warned that night that if he sensed USF wasn’t working hard enough for an independent Poly, he’d try to put another university in charge.

By the next day, he said he’d decided he wanted USF out of the picture.

UF looked like the most logical candidate, after Machen praised the independence plan that Polytechnic’s Chancellor Marshall Goodman presented to the university board.

Machen confirmed it today, adding in his statement, “I am supportive of Polytech becoming an independent university. This is, in part, because I do not endorse the branch-campus model of research universities.”

Alexander lashed out at USF last week in a letter sent to the board of governor’s chairwoman Ava Parker.

He asked that several USF officials, including President Judy Genshaft, be investigated for waging a “campaign of misinformation” in the debate over Poly’s independence.