USF Sarasota Manatee Campus Facilities
The USF Sarasota-Manatee campus facilities opened to students in August 2006. With the capability to serve 5,000 students, the three-story, 134,540 gross-square-foot building provides improved access to higher education for the local community.
Highlights of the campus physical facilities include the following:
- A three-story-high entrance rotunda that functions as the signature visual element and central social space for the campus community;
- Multiple classrooms of varying size adaptable to the most-preferred teaching environment; each classroom is equipped with advanced instructional technology, projection, and recording capabilities. Classrooms and teaching labs equipped with portable laptop computers;
- Classrooms equipped with lecture/capture capabilities;
- Training and open-use computer labs;
- Video-conference classrooms equipped to accommodate distance learning;
- A 200-seat lecture facility, capable of accommodating a variety of functions with multiple seating arrangements and equipped with advanced-technology equipment for teaching, projection and recording, and distance learning;
- Separate and distinct building areas for each college and academic unit, including faculty and administrative offices and conference spaces; these areas are designed to provide an identifiable presence for each college while promoting greater opportunities for faculty interactions;
- An Information Commons for study and research that is electronically linked to the USF Tampa campus library and the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus and New College of Florida shared-use library;
- An enlarged and prominently-located student services area to promote greater access to one-stop services for students, including records, registration, academic advising, financial aid, career counseling, and recruiting;
- A centrally located business office area to promote consolidated services to the campus community for financial transactions, human resources, photocopying, and administrative services;
- Student activity rooms, student government offices, conference rooms, social areas, a recreation lounge, and a fitness center to support student activities;
- On-campus food service with spacious, interior seating and a pleasant, trellis-covered, outdoor dining and social area;
- A central exterior courtyard and pond for passive and active recreational use; physical improvements to enhance the quality of the courtyard, increase security, and promote usage by the campus community were completed in 2009, including additional landscaping, fountains, lighting, shade structures, and other amenities;
- 650 parking spaces with adequate parking for campus activities;
- Physical facilities that exceed the ADA minimum requirements for accessibility by the physically challenged;
- Wireless technology available throughout the campus, including outdoor public spaces; and
- A separate physical plant facility to provide adequate utility and infrastructure services to support the campus physical facilities.
In addition to the facilities described above, USF Sarasota-Manatee campus operates and maintains four (4) one –story buildings comprising a total of 18,059 gross-square-feet on a 3.3 acre tract of land located approximately ¼ mile south of the main facilities. These buildings, referred to as the Viking Complex, were constructed in 1959 and purchased by the State of Florida in 1983 for future campus expansion. One (1) of the buildings houses the campus bookstore that a private-sector vendor operates and manages to provide services for USF Sarasota-Manatee campus and New College of Florida. The remaining four (3) buildings provide administrative support, office space, and storage.