USF Poly senate expresses alarm at independence bill in the Legislature

Posted Feb 12, 2012 by Lindsay Peterson

Updated Feb 12, 2012 at 04:52 PM

The USF Polytechnic Faculty Senate fired off a letter last night to every member of the Florida Senate, expressing the faculty members’ “great dismay” with a measure that could immediately sever Poly from the USF system to become an independent university.

The bill would short circuit an effort that began in November, when the state board of governors constructed a plan for USF Poly to become independent over time – after it gained campus accreditation, enrolled more students and constructed the buildings it needs.

The board put USF in charge of pushing the effort forward.

State Sen. JD Alexander, however, has said he has no faith that USF will carry out the board mandate.

The faculty senate letter makes it clear that Alexander’s statement is an insult to the people who have been working diligently since the board made its decision. A USF Poly team has already submitted the pounds of paperwork that put USF Poly on track to be SACS accredited by 2014.

“If you know of a faster way for the new university to achieve separate accreditation, we would appreciate the information,” writes Sherry Kragler, USF Poly faculty senate president.

And she points out that others are working just as hard on building enrollment and developing new science and technology programs to fulfill Poly’s STEM mission.

Listening to Alexander, Sen. Evelyn Lynn, who says she wrote the bill, and others in the Senate, it would seem they knew nothing about any of this.

Kragler also raises an issue lurking in the background of the controversy - that lawmakers seem to think they can shift USF Poly over to the University of Florida for quick accreditation.

Accreditation officials say the process is a little more complicated than that.

Kragler poses a question for the state senators: What promising university researcher would want to come to a place that cut off a relationship with an established research university to start from scratch at an institution with no accreditation?

She concludes, “We can meet the benchmarks set by the BOG, and we believe far more expeditiously than could be accomplished by a newly-created entity with no faculty, no accreditation, and no established support for research.”