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USF Staff, Students, Alumni Bid Farewell To Their 'Living Room'

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By KEITH MORELLI

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 25, 2008

TAMPA - Since 1960, hundreds of thousands of University of South Florida students filed into and out of the building known since 1994 as the Marshall Student Center.

USF opened a new student center in August to replace the one named for Phyllis P. Marshall, the center's first director, who was credited with creating "student life" on a campus known for commuter enrollment.

But university staff, students and alumni couldn't let the wrecking ball fall without gathering Wednesday to say farewell to a place that never closed its doors.

"If the walls could talk," said Jennifer Meningall, vice president of student affairs, "they would say, 'Although my walls are coming down, the memories that have been birthed in this building remain.'"

Jim Vastine is a member of the first graduating class at the Tampa campus, in 1964, and worked in the library there for 35 years before retiring.

"The university center was, in fact, the university's center," he said. "It was our universe."

Greg Jackson, who took a job in the Marshall Center as a game room director, hired by Marshall herself, is assistant director of the new center. Recalling talent nights, "slappy hours" at the little bar called the Empty Keg and a weekly flea market, Jackson said he will miss the feeling of the old building.

Samuel Wright, an adjunct professor of African studies and a graduate of USF's doctoral program, started working for Marshall in 1985, he said.

"What I liked most about her is that she was well-respected not only by the students but by everyone and that she embraced diversity," he said. "She was a real fighter."

Wright, who now has an office in the new building where he advises students, said it will be a sad day when the wrecking ball comes.

"I have a lot of fond memories here," he said.

Kathy Betancourt, a 1968 USF graduate and now a university lobbyist who took part in or watched lots of sit-ins and protests at the old center, said it "was our living room. The center was the heartbeat of the university."

The new Marshall Student Center has more of just about everything, except memories.

It is part of a $282 million expansion on the Tampa campus. It cost $65 million, is four-stories high and features a 57-foot atrium.

There are computer rooms, study lounges, nearly a dozen restaurants, a 710-seat theater and a ballroom three times the size of the one in the old center. The old center had 106,000 square feet. The new one: 235,000 square feet.

A plaza and amphitheater will mark the spot the old center occupied for 48 years.

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

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