University of Tampa Informations

The University of Tampa (UT) is a private university in Tampa, Florida. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. UT offers more than 200 programs of study, including 14 master's degrees and a broad variety of majors, minors, pre-professional programs, and certificates.

Plant Hall, UT's central building, once housed the Tampa Bay Hotel, a resort built by Henry B. Plant in 1891, and the Moorish minarets atop the distinctive structure have long been seen as an "iconic symbol" of Tampa.

Frederic H. Spaulding, the former principal of Tampa's Hillsborough High School, founded the private Tampa Junior College in 1931 to serve as one of the first institutions of higher education in the Tampa Bay area. In 1933, the school moved to its current location, the then-defunct Tampa Bay Hotel. The former resort had been opened in 1891 by Florida railroad magnate Henry B. Plant but closed due to a significant downturn in tourism with the coming of the Great Depression. The main hotel building covers about 6 acres of land and once held over 500 guest rooms. With the move to a much larger facility, Spaulding decided to expand the scope of the school. Tampa Junior College became the University of Tampa, and the hotel's main building was renamed Plant Hall.

In 1941, the city of Tampa signed a 99-year lease on the former hotel with the school for a dollar a year. The lease excluded the southeast wing of the former hotel to allow for the housing of the Henry B. Plant Museum.

The university grew slowly over the next few decades, becoming a well-respected institution of learning that predominately served students from the greater Tampa Bay area. In 1951, the university received full accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).

While the University of Tampa succeeded academically, it faced intermittent financial difficulties for much of its history. These problems first surfaced in the mid-1930s, when the deepening Great Depression decreased enrollment and strained the new school's ability to educate students while maintaining the large Plant Hall and gradually converting hotel rooms into classrooms and offices. Another crisis several decades later forced a 1974 decision to fold the successful University of Tampa Spartans football program because the school could no longer afford the cost of competing in NCAA Division I-A football.

In 1986, local businessman Bruce Samson dropped out of Tampa's mayoral campaign to become UT's president, a position he was offered due in part to his background in banking and finance. Samson successfully eliminated the school's $1.4 million annual budget deficit through "hardnosed" decisions, including withdrawing from all NCAA Division I sports. However, after he left in 1991 to return to private business, the school again fell into financial difficulties. Declining enrollment led to the return of serious budget deficits, leading to serious cuts to faculty positions and academic programs. UT faced an uncertain future, and some local leaders suggested that the cross-town public University of South Florida should take over operations of the long-time private school.

In 1995, the Board of Trustees elected Ronald L. Vaughn, then dean of UT's College of Business, as the school's new president. His initial efforts were aimed at bringing the campus up-to-date with new dorms and a major renovation to the business school. Dr. Vaughn also launched the "Take UT to the Top" campaign with the goal of raising $70 million in 10 years and restoring the University's endowment. The campaign raised $83 million, and later observers credit this very successful drive with saving and modernizing the university. Two important contributions came from the John H. Sykes family of Tampa - a gift of $10 million in 1997 and another donation of $28 million in 2000, which was thought to be the largest such gift to a Florida university at the time.

The additional funds were used to purchase new land and to implement a faster-paced building program; over $575 million in construction has been completed on campus since 1998. The university has also hired additional faculty, permitting the school to expand its student population while maintaining a 17:1 student-faculty ratio. For his efforts in rescuing the university and increasing enrollment, Vaughn has a salary that is in the top 10 of mid-sized, private institutions.

UT offers 200 areas of study for undergraduate and graduate students. Classes maintain a 17:1 student-faculty ratio. UT employs no teaching assistants.

Some of UT's most popular majors include international business, biology, marketing, marine science, criminology, finance, communication, psychology, sport management, entrepreneurship and nursing. UT recently launched a new major in cybersecurity.

The university is organized into four colleges: College of Arts and Letters; College of Social Sciences, Mathematics and Education; College of Natural and Health Sciences; and Sykes College of Business, which is accredited at the undergraduate and graduate levels by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

The University of Tampa has an Honors Program, which "allows students to go beyond the classroom and regular course work to study one-on-one with faculty through enrichment tutorials, Honors Abroad, internships, research and classroom-to-community outreach."

UT also offers a host of international study-abroad options led by UT professors. The university is an associate member of the European Council of International Schools (ECIS).

The Lowth Entrepreneurship Center at The University of Tampa has been awarded the Entrepreneurship Teaching and Pedagogical Innovation Award by the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers (GCEC).

For UT undergraduates desiring to be commissioned as officers in the U.S. Army following graduation, the campus is home to an Army ROTC unit. For those students wishing to be commissioned as officers in the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Air Force upon graduation, cross-campus agreements are in place for UT students to affiliate with either the Naval ROTC unit or Air Force ROTC Detachment 158 at the University of South Florida.

Forbes ranks the University of Tampa as #483 in the United States overall as of 2019. The U.S. News and World Report 2019 rankings placed UT as #20 in the Regional Universities South category, compared to the 149 other universities listed in that category.

UT's campus features 60 buildings on 110 landscaped acres. Plant Hall – a National Historic Landmark built in 1891 by Henry B. Plant – is a leading example of Moorish Revival architecture in the southeastern United States and a focal point of downtown Tampa. In addition to serving as a main location of classrooms and faculty and administrative offices, the building is also home to the Henry B. Plant Museum. The campus also includes the former McKay Auditorium, built in the 1920s and remodeled in the late 1990s to become the Sykes College of Business. In the last 16 years,[when?] UT has invested approximately $575 million in new residence halls, classrooms, labs and other facilities.

The UT campus is relatively small for a school with 9,304 students. On its east side is the Hillsborough River, and Kennedy Boulevard is to the south. Recent expansions have seen the campus grounds move northward and eastward following purchases of sections of Tampa Preparatory School and vacant lots across the east-side railroad tracks.

Although the university is located in a major metropolitan area, palm trees, stately oaks, rose bushes and azaleas can be found in abundance on campus. UT's grounds include Plant Park, a landscaped, palm-tree-lined riverside area in front of Plant Hall's main entrance. It features cannons from Tampa's original harbor fort and the Sticks of Fire sculpture. It also is home to the oak tree under which Hernando de Soto supposedly met the chief of the local Native American tribes upon first coming ashore at what is now Tampa. The campus also includes the former Florida State Fair grounds, where legend has it Babe Ruth hit a home run of 630 feet (190 m), the longest of his career.

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