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Too Few Florida Universities Rank Among Nation's Best

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 29, 2008

The region is abuzz about two college football polls that rank the University of South Florida Bulls among the nation's best teams.

And Gainesville is still atwitter about the University of Florida being named the nation's number-one party school.

But the ranking that matters most came out last week from U.S. News & World Report, which annually names the nation's best universities.

The list gives Floridians little to cheer about.

The University of Florida remains stuck at 49th, the highest ranking for a Florida university. The private University of Miami moved up a notch - to 52nd - from last year. Florida State University, however, made a good jump - from 112th to 102nd.

Once again, USF was bunched in the third tier of universities, a position that reflects a ranking below 125th.

It's worth noting that USF and the University of Central Florida made the first list of "up and coming" universities, with UCF ranking 7th and USF 14th. This peer-nominated process speaks to a university's perceived potential, a promise that will never be realized if Florida keeps short-changing its university system.

Florida is the nation's fourth-largest state, yet lacks a top university. State lawmakers and Gov. Charlie Crist should see this systemic stagnation as the wake-up call that it is.

Florida cannot cut its way to university excellence. At the main campus of the University of South Florida in Tampa, the fall semester recently opened with overcrowded classes, paired-down teaching staffs and some of the best and brightest professors looking to flee the state.

It's discouraging to see USF, a place with big ambitions, lagging in the third tier.

But no one should be surprised, given the university's priorities. For while President Judy Genshaft says she wants USF to join the ranks of the nation's elite universities, her actions seem entirely focused on economic development, not academics.

Similarly, the university's developer-heavy board has shown more interest in developing new campuses in Lakeland and Sarasota than developing the humanities curriculum, building needed classrooms or hiring more faculty in Tampa. Already, these newborn campuses have been given their independence, which means they can spend the university's capital funds but ignore main-campus directives that would help USF move up the ranks.

How Genshaft spends her budget says everything about her priorities, which is why a story this week by Tribune reporter Brett McMurphy was so troubling.

McMurphy discovered that USF plans to hire the personal trainer, adviser and spokesman for its top basketball recruit, Gus Gilchrist. This frivolous hire is coming at the same time that the university lacks a sufficient number of professors and academic advisers for students.

But hey, did we mention the Bulls football team is ranked in the Top 25?

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