At a Glance
Fast Facts
University of South Florida St. Petersburg campus is Pinellas County’s only residential, public research institution. Located on Bayboro Harbor and in the heart of the city’s Innovation District, the USF St. Petersburg campus offers more than 40 undergraduate and graduate programs. USF's St. Petersburg campus has many of the advantages of a large public university while maintaining the ability to offer small class sizes in a close-knit learning environment.
Many USF St. Petersburg campus students take the opportunity to engage in research and internships, and have done everything from working on presidential primary campaigns to creating startups to researching the abundance and distribution of microplastics in Tampa Bay.
The USF St. Petersburg campus is home to more than 80 student organizations, from the Co-Ed Sailing Team to the Puppy Raisers Club.
New state-of-the-art facilities include a STEM robotics lab that infuses teaching with the latest in science, technology, education and math, a Wealth Management Center equipped with the resources and technology utilized by financial experts around the world and a new residence hall that will include the campus’ first full service dining facility.
Entrepreneur Kate Tiedemann donated $10 million in 2014 to name the USF St. Petersburg campus School of Business and Finance and pledged an additional $3 million in 2019 to endow the campus dean’s position within the school.
Research
Research funding has increased exponentially over the last three years. From $4.5 million dollars awarded in fiscal year 2017-18, to $6.1 million in 2018-19 and now more than $20 million and counting in 2019-20.
Our award-winning faculty have earned grants from major funding agencies and organizations, including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Archives.
Faculty members have taken part in a variety of exciting endeavors, including: being part of the first team to film the elusive giant squid in U.S. waters, writing books that have become national PBS documentaries, conducting cutting edge research on Alzheimer's disease and studying the economic impact of domestic violence and climate change.
Sustainability
USF St. Petersburg is committed to environmental stewardship and sustainability. We strive to improve the environment through funding renewable energy projects, building green, improving our energy efficiency, saving water, planting native species and more. As one of the university’s five core values, care for our natural environment and sustainability is a large part of the culture and identity of the campus.
More than 140kW of on-site solar energy helps to power our parking garage and a portion of our Warehouse Laboratory that contain biology and physics labs. This includes a 100-kW solar array and a 200-kW Tesla battery storage system installed in partnership with Duke Energy on top of our 5th Avenue Parking Facility, and a 40-kW solar array carport with an overhead canopy to cover parking areas.
The Warehouse Laboratory was awarded LEED Platinum status, which is the highest and most challenging certification to earn from the most widely used green building rating system in the world. It is the first building in USF to earn this recognition.
With funding from the Ford Motor Company Fund, USF St. Petersburg helped to create a greenhouse at the St. Pete Youth Farm that is providing the community with fresh vegetables and fish while giving students the opportunity to learn about sustainable and innovative farming methods. The new greenhouse is enhancing urban agriculture and helping address food insecurity in south St. Petersburg, where access to affordable and nutritious food is limited.