A Stand Up For USF Sarasota Manatee event will be held on Thursday, April 24, 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. at Anna Maria Oyster Bar Landside (6906 14th St., Bradenton, Florida). The purpose of the event is to gather information on why it’s important to keep USF Sarasota Manatee in our community.
A public records request recently obtained by WUSF revealed plans to transfer the University of South Florida’s Sarasota-Manatee campus to New College of Florida. The plan would include New College taking “full stewardship of the 32-acre campus next door” at USF Sarasota-Manatee.
“There is little offered at USF-SM that regional/local students couldn’t access more easily at other regional options or by USF in Tampa, St. Petersburg, or online,” said a question-and-answer document that was shared among top leaders at New College along with a talking points memo.
Why does USFSM matter as an employer, and to students and the community? Attendees will be invited to share information and experiences. Members of the USFSM Campus Board will participate as individual community members, not in their official board capacity.
The public is invited.
Thursday, April 24, 2025
5:30 - 7:00 p.m.
Anna Maria Oyster Bar Landside
6906 14th St. W, Bradenton
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johnschussler
FL state government officials chose to expand a college that does not have sufficient land to expand upon. They are now in an embarrassing situation. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ruled that New College can’t buy the airport land, nor can they do new construction on SRQ airport land while retaining their advantageous lease. New College is now scrambling to find some other land and financial resources by getting the state of FL to give them the Ringling Museum and USF-SM. Getting FL state government officials out of their embarrassing situation will result in plenty of collateral damage to the Sarasota Manatee Airport Authority (SMAA), the FSU’s Ringling Museums and to USF-SM. Some details follow.
Much activity now in Tallahassee regarding New College, SRQ airport, Ringling Museum, FSU and USF-SM. As the Sarasota Manatee Airport Authority Director of Properties from 2005-2018, now retired, I have some personal knowledge and insights. I was the whistleblower to the FAA who stopped the sale of 34 acres of airport land to New College by FAA letter dated April 10, 2024. Buying airport land was New College’s Plan A. New College wants more land to expand upon but the FAA will not let the SMAA sell the airport land that New College now leases. The SMAA appealed the FAA decision on May 8, 2024 but then withdrew their appeal on August 20, 2024 to avoid getting a second rejection letter. So Plan A is dead.
New College’s Plan B is/was to construct mostly new athletic fields on the airport land they lease from the SMAA. On December 18, 2024, I filed a 14 CFR Part 13 Complaint about the SMAA’s special relationship with New College. That complaint resulted in the FAA Review Report dated February 12, 2025 that restricts the ability of New College to develop the airport land they lease. The FAA put many new conditions upon any new construction by New College on airport leased land. New College/the State of Florida may not want to build on airport land under those new FAA conditions. New College may not want to renegotiate the lease with the SMAA as the FAA is requiring for any new construction, including the Beruff baseball field. The FAA will not allow the lease to be extended beyond its 2056 expiration date. New College, the State of Florida and the SMAA have not informed the public of their bad situation or what they plan to do about it. So New College's Plan B has probably also failed. I have all the referenced documents.
The governor’s recently announced Plan C is to give the Ringling Museums and land and the USF-SM campus to New College. If the governor thinks that Plan C makes sense, why did he not propose it one year ago, or two years ago? Because until April 10, 2024 he thought that the SRQ airport would sell 34 acres of airport land to New College (Plan A). And because, until February 12, 2025 he thought New College could develop the airport land until the airport leases expire in 2056 and maybe get those leases extended before they expired (Plan B). Plans A and B failed, so now comes Plan C. If New College takes over the Ringling Museum to their south and USF-SM to their north they will have more land to develop. The 3 streets of the Uplands residential area lie between the two campuses and could provide even more land for both colleges to expand upon. Merging New College, USF-SM and the Ringling Museum would reduce New College’s need for the airport land it now leases. That might be good for the SRQ airport, which could then recover its land and convert it to airport uses.
There may also be a Plan D. Although they failed with both the state and regional levels of the FAA, it is not in politicians nature to give up if they see a possible political fix. With the recent change of national government, Florida state government officials may ask the newly appointed FAA administrators in Washington to reverse the recent FAA decisions as a political favor to Governor DeSantis. Assuming this is their Plan D (to run concurrently with their Plan C) I must continue to bring public attention to this abuse of one-party state government.
Friday, April 18 Report this
Charles
Hardly any land on the museum and theater portions of land unless one envisions a soccer field in Mable's former rose garden or taking down the historic landscaping that compliments the house and museum... so that seems weird.
Estimating having to pay the expensive land values of more than 100 private homes in Uplands would be rather excessive, given some have sold recently for more than a million dollars — exercising domain still requires paying the value of the properties; plus some of them contain significant wetlands and a natural multi-acre lake system that drains into the bay and all with distinct downward slopes, another poor choice for the bully banyan sports fields. Seems a waste of money, eh?
USFSM campus is mostly built out, no room for bully banyan fields there either. What exactly could be called good land planning?
Well the hotels to the north certainly could prove a bargan for exercising domain, given they have lots of potential dorm rooms and offices, but not much in the way of bully banyan field space.
All seems pretty odd for the renownd honors college that featured unconventional education for gifted students not inclined to bully team sports — but that is all "history", I presume, even if it no longer is allowed to be taught.
Yes, the taxpayers should attend and raise objections to the foolishness being proposed. It's time to attempt to reign in all this weirdness.
Saturday, April 19 Report this