USF website pulls together research, services for veterans

Posted May 15, 2012 by Lindsay Peterson

Updated May 15, 2012 at 01:45 PM

USF is looking for veterans to participate in a study of whether a recent head injury affects one’s ability to walk, and possibly to think clearly.

There seems to be a link, researchers say, between an unsteady gait and impaired cognition.

The study involves filling out a questionnaire and wearing a GPS recorder on two nonconsecutive days, then doing the same thing a year later.

In return for your help, you’ll get two $25 gift cards, one after completing each of the two phases of the study.

If you’re interested, you can go here.

This is only one of the many, many USF studies looking at traumatic brain disorder, post-traumatic stress, back injury, prosthetics and robotics and the other issues affecting veterans.

You can find them all at one website, here.

It’s part of the USF Veterans Reintegration program, which has already brought acclaim to USF. First Lady Michelle Obama singled it out at a program in Virginia earlier this year unveiling a federal
veterans initiative called Joining Forces.

And it’s the beginning of what USF officials hope could be a new facility focused on rehabilitation of both veterans and older people.

 

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USF Poly budget director Bresler says he’ll fight efforts to fire him

Posted May 14, 2012 by Lindsay Peterson

Updated May 14, 2012 at 08:59 PM

USF Polytechnic budget director Josh Bresler is fighting USF’s plans to get rid of him amid an investigation into financial mismanagement at Poly.

He’s given his life to USF, he wrote in a response letter on May 4 and a news release issued by his lawyer Robert McKee today.

In the May 4 letter, he appealed directly to USF President Judy Genshaft to take into account his years of above-and-beyond service to USF. But McKee, of Tampa, said he got word this morning that USF intended to make his termination final today.

In today’s news release, he wrote that USF Polytechnic staff and administrators were “caught in the midst of a political storm” revolving around the Legislature’s decision this year to close USF Polytechnic and take its budget and assets to open the new Florida Polytechnic University in Lakeland.

Eleven of 16 people picked internally in October to help start an independent Polytechinc USF have been fired or chased away, Bresler wrote, concluding, “The strategy to dismantle and discredit this transition team is obvious and is injust on an unimaginable scale.”

The investigation that led to Bresler’s case began with complaints to USF in February. Officials released their results three weeks ago in a report that focused on then-Chancellor Marshall Goodman, saying he created a “hostile” environment with “threats, intimidation and retaliation that resulted in violation of policy and statute.”

It detailed about a dozen violations and recommended that Bresler and Alice Murray, vice chancellor for planning and facilities, be fired. It honed in on their roles in getting state funds to cover a soda fountain in an off-campus facility.

The campus foundation had paid for it at one time, but when it refused to continue, the USF investigative report said, Bresler, seeking to appease Goodman, put it through as an “equipment rental” cost.

Murray, who was also involved, resigned last week.

Bresler is pushing back, saying he wasn’t aware of the misinformation on the requisition when he signed it. He said the episode pales against his long unblemished career.

USF doesn’t see it that way. “Your apparent efforts to circumvent University financial controls or claimed ignorance of those controls cannot be tolerated,” said the notice of termination letter.

 

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Incoming Speaker Weatherford speaks at USF conference on college access

Posted May 11, 2012 by Lindsay Peterson

Updated May 11, 2012 at 03:19 PM

Incoming House Speaker Will Weatherford outlined his vision for higher education today at USF.

It’s online.

Weatherford spoke at the Florida Goal 2025 College Access & Success Summit, presented by the Florida College Access Network.

Weatherford, left, is a Republican from Wesley Chapel

It’s not the first time he’s talked in public about online learning.

In January, he came to the state university Board of Governors meeting to say Florida should create an online university.

“Technology has brought with it ‘disruptive innovations’ for higher education and we should embrace it with open arms,” Weatherford wrote in a letter to the board.

An online university would have no statues or football teams. “Yet what it lacks in traditions, it more than makes up with innovation, a student-centered approach, limitless knowledge resources, and lower costs.”

At USF today, Weatherford was careful to say that online learning won’t replace traditional universities, but it will make higher education more accessible to people.

You can read more about this in a USF News report by Peter Howard.

Weatherford’s online idea is likely to gain traction, considering he will run the Florida House of Representatives next year.

If anyone wondered, state Sen. JD Alexander showed what a powerful lawmaker can do, with his successful bill this year to severe USF from its Polytechnic campus to create an independent university in Lakeland.

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USF St. Pete forms alumni society

Posted May 11, 2012 by Lindsay Peterson

Updated May 11, 2012 at 02:08 PM

A little more than five years after becoming separately accredited, USF St. Petersburg is taking another major step toward establishing a distinctive identity.

It’s created an alumni society.

More than 4,200 people have graduated from USFSP since it became accredited in December 2006.

USFSP spokesman Tom Scherberger says thousands more consider USFSP their primary campus, though most of them received their degrees from USF Tampa.

The new alumni group held its first meeting in February; about 35 people came.

It was a mixture of USFSP grads and USF Tampa grads who consider St. Pete their home campus, Scherberger said.

“They have one thing in common, regardless of whether their diplomas said USF or USFSP: They all love this campus and consider it their alma mater,” said Scherberger, who started at USFSP in February.

The next alumni meeting is at 6 p.m. on Wednesday in the Community Room at Harbor Hall (formerly the Dali Museum), 1000 Third Street S., St. Petersburg.

They’ll be electing officers.

If you plan to be there, email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or call (727) 873-4452.

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Goodbye Michael Kovac; nanotechnologist, roller coaster lover

Posted May 11, 2012 by Lindsay Peterson

Updated May 11, 2012 at 09:09 AM

USF President Judy Genshaft said it all in her tribute yesterday to Michael Kovac, who died on Wedneday at 70.

“Michael Kovac made his mark as an engineer, an inventor and, most importantly, a visionary who helped shape the University of South Florida’s achievements in technology and innovation,” she said in a statement.

“He was instrumental in the development of the I-4 Corridor as an emerging high-tech region for Florida and in putting USF on the cutting-edge of new technology. He inspired students and faculty to work diligently to help shape our world for the better.

“His commitment to education, ingenuity and creativity is more than his legacy, it has become part of who we are as a university.”

You can go here to read more about the former College of Engineering dean.

The family is holding a reception this evening, 6-8, at the Terrace Oaks Chapel in Temple Terrace. A funeral Mass will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday at Corpus Christi Catholic Church.

And instead of flowers, the family asks for donations to Corpus Christi Haiti Mission or to Moffitt Cancer Foundation-Sarcoma Division.

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