USF finds flaws in Poly separation plan

Posted Nov 5, 2011 by Lindsay Peterson

Updated Nov 7, 2011 at 01:15 PM

The more USF officials study the plan to launch USF Polytechnic as a separate university, the more doubts they have.

After receiving yet another version of the separation plan, the state Board of Governors asked USF for the second analysis, which was completed this week. Here it is.

It questions enrollment projections, teacher recruitment, accreditation and funding assumptions.

The plan released last week projects that an independent Poly will jump to 16,000 students in 15 years, with annual growth between 14 and 27 percent.

That’s “unusually high,” USF says, especially considering the different kind of admission process Poly plans to use, including essays and portfolio reviews.

And Poly says little about how it plans to recruit the high quality students it seeks.

In a dozen other ways, the Poly plan lacks key details and exaggerates prospects, USF officials say.

Poly says it has $77.4 million in assets, but USF says only $14.5 million is available for use. And its assumptions about the cost of taking over shared services, such as information technology, are “overly optimistic.”

Poly plans to offer its students a one-time chance to transfer to other USF campuses, but they may not meet their admission requirements.

A big concern, discussed in USF’s first analysis, is that depending on how the transition is handled,  it could endanger USF’s accreditation.

To avoid accreditation dangers, USF President Judy Genshaft has asked the board to make a definitive decision when it meets on Wednesday.

Either cut Poly loose entirely to begin seeking accreditation on its own immediately or maintain it as a USF campus, as it is now.