Is demand there for $15-mil USF Lakeland?

In a year when colleges are laying off staff and freezing enrollment, University of South Florida officials are strongly lobbying the Legislature for $15-million to kick-start a large new campus in Lakeland.

With a price tag of up to $200-million, the branch campus is slated to serve an eventual population that would make it larger than four of the state's 11 four-year universities.

But is the demand really there?

Read more here and here and here

Comments

Here's where the elitists at the SPT try and keep Polk County stuck in 1955. Let's not let them have higher ed, let's make them come to us. Bunch of snobs.

So the Tampa bluebloods don't want a central Florida county to have access to a real education but they don't have the spinal fortitude to question all these new law schools? Like we need more lawyers? Bunch of liberal cowards.

LOL, how predictable. The Times is always trying to get the love from Tampa so they pick on little ole Polk County. Real impressive.

So that married dynamic duo could only come up with that crap? I expected more, weak.

What is missing here is that they are trying to spend hundreds of millions in a budget that is squeezing the lifeblood out of so many programs. Even in higher education we are restricting enrollments and telling students to go elsewhere, while at the same time the K-12 enrollments are declining all over the state. Why are we building new capapcity without a thorough study of need. Why was this same campus opposed so often before. Could it be that there is not the demand in Polk, just as there is not the demand for all those community college conversions. How can they explain passing something like that when there rules have been to pass nothing with new fiscal impact. Converting 7 or 8 community colleges will also cost millions that the state does not have and the ones to suffer will be the existing community college efforts as well as the SUS schools. Is anyone in charge here? Crist shoudl veto all of this and push for these funds to go to the starving programs we already have in place. Can;t we strive for excellence, or at least mediocrity befoere we start new less than mediocre programs. I bet thousands are just standing in line for a bachelors degree for Polk or from a community college that has enough trouble keeping students in school and graduating them.

[Jason Straight]

Any county dumb enough to elect GOP legislators for 25 years dont need no college.Dey need Hamburger U and Walmart trainin..No 200 mi;;ion dollar colleich

I thought Polk Community College wanted to convert to a 4 year college. Does Polk really have a need for the expanded USF facility too. Somebody needs to get their ducks lined up and check their wallets. Money doesn't grow on citrus trees in Polk last time I checked.

Sure, lets keep it all in Tampa, don't let anyone else get and education. Bunch of snobs.

Click on to "Read more here and here and here" that will take you to an additional article which tells the real story about the need for the huge branch campus. PROFIT for the land doner and JD Alexamder. He and the other members of his "Alico" family made hunderds of millions off a similar donation in southwest Florida. And he will repeat here. Follow the money and it will take you to JD.

Thanks Jason Straight...maybe one day all Floridians will be able to be an urban-intellectual like yourself.

Your post is kind of hypocritical for a liberal...dont you think?

Last year the legislature gave 5 million and the gov. signed into law, for St.Pete College to establish a center for government ( speculation that it will be the next job for Bill Young). SPC is a bastion for Republicans including its president who brags about flying to Europe on the Vice Presidents plane and the board, almost all of whom are related to Republican elected officials.
The governor's sister now works at SPC, moving from her job as a middle school teacher.

12:33, stop doing Dockery's bidding and get back to making her a salad. Your anti-JD venom is simply boring. Find some new material.

[No Bull]

"Blueblood" and "elite" are two words that very few people, if any, associate with USF or Tampa. Aside from the fact the Polk County can probably do better than Florida's least impressive major public university, it doesn't make financial sense.

How many millions does JD Alexander have in the state budget for his own personal gain? At the same time education, health care, etc is being cut. Would someone please run against this guy, please!!!

I heard that someone may primary him---can you just see the ads now? Just run the newspaper headlines.

Doesn't JD have a mining operation in Lee county where his senate buddy Baker is attempting to get a law passed that would take away minning control from the locals and give it to the state where he and JD can influence state regulators with their threats? Where is the ethics board on this, the Lakeland college campus and the Heartland Parkway?

"...Polk County can probably do better than Florida's least impressive major public university..."

That is a pretty reckless statement to make about "Imperial" Polk County where the closest association most Polk residents have to a university is watching a football game on TV.

USF is a fine institution that matches up well with any university in Florida. USF is a tremendous asset for Polk.

Go Bulls!