USF trustees cool to Polytechnic split

University of South Florida's trustees said on Thursday they'll help USF Polytechnic break off to become an independent university, but they want some things in return.

In its first official statement on the issue, the board said that if state lawmakers approve the break, they should pay back the money taken from USF to develop the Polytechnic campus, in Lakeland.

Also, the trustees want legislators to start funding USF as generously as the state's other top research universities and to ensure that Polytechnic isn't developed at the expense of USF or any other university.

The trustees bear no ill will toward the Polk County leaders backing Poly's independence, including the powerful Senate budget chief, JD Alexander, board chairman John Ramil said.

"This isn't an 'us vs. them' " statement, Ramil said of the document the board approved, which stopped short of taking a position against independence.

"This is a difference of opinion. … Whatever is decided, we will live by."

One trustee, Gene Engle, the chair of the USF Polytechnic board, has come out against the split, and it was clear on Thursday that other trustees are aggrieved by the proposal.

Trustee Rhea Law said that USF Polytechnic was funded "off the backs" of the Tampa campus.

"And the others," USF President Judy Genshaft quickly interjected, referring to the St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Manatee campuses.

USF opened the campus in Polk in 1988, but it's grown fast in the past few years as Alexander, a Lake Wales Republican, pushed for funding.

This year, Gov. Rick Scott and the Legislature allocated $57 million to the state universities for building needs. More than half of that went to Polytechnic so it can build a new campus and leave the space it shares with Polk State College.

The breakaway effort became public in July after 29 Polk community leaders wrote to the state Board of Governors with concerns that under USF, Polytechnic wasn't thriving as it could.

On Thursday, USF trustees grilled Polytechnic Chancellor Marshall Goodman on his support for the split.

His campus is very small now, with only about 1,300 students, noted trustee Stephanie Goforth. How could it do a better job of attracting top professors than a campus tied to USF, with its growing national reputation, she asked.

Ramil reminded Goodman that just a few years ago, he was arguing that Polytechnic needed to be part of the USF system. "Now all of a sudden it doesn't fit?"

Polytechnic will always be subordinate to other campus needs if it's tied to USF, Goodman said. His vision is to one day compete with schools such as Georgia Tech and Cal Poly, in California.

The statewide Board of Governors will bring up the proposal to split off Polytechnic for a vote in November, and the Legislature will decide next year whether to fund the independence bid.