Student Center/Residence Hall

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Student Center/Residence Hall

The Student Center and Atala Residence Hall, which opened in August 2024, marked the first major expansion of the campus since it opened in 2006.

The six-story, 100,000-square-foot complex include suitess and apartment-style residences for 200 students, a ballroom, bookstore, dining facilities, study lounges and meeting rooms, as well as offices for student government, USF World and other organizations.

Students in the Muma College of Business, College of Education and the Judy Genshaft Honors College also will live in Atala Hall as members of an interdisciplinary Living Learning Community.

Please visit USF Housing's website for more information.

The student center and residence hall will help recruit and retain students, and infuse students’ college experience with a new vibrancy that will allow the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus to forever shed the moniker of being a ‘commuter college.

Karen Holbrook, regional chancellor
USF Sarasota-Manatee campus

First students move into Atala Hall

August 23, 2024

Students move into the new Atala Hall, the first residences on the Sarasota-Manatee campus.

Ribbon cutting for residence hall on campus

August 19, 2024

The six-story, 100,000-square-foot building represents the first significant expansion of the Sarasota-Manatee campus. It will house Atala Hall student residences, as well as the student center on its first two floors.

Residence hall gets a name

April 24, 2024

USF Sarasota-Manatee Regional Chancellor Karen Holbrook announces that the residence hall portion of the new building will be named Atala Hall, after a rare tropical butterfly that frequents the campus.

Construction Celebration

January 22, 2024

USF announces that the first residents of the new residence hall will be eligible for up to $4,000 in scholarships over two semesters in 2024-25 to make living on campus more affordable. Also, USF announces that CORE Construction donated $200,000 to the USF Foundation to name the new student center's ballroom lounge. It is the first naming gift in support of the facility.

Housing applications open

September 2023

USF Housing begins accepting applications from current students who want to live in the new residence hall.

Building momentum

June 28, 2023

Construction crews start using large crane to install the first of almost 600 pre-cast concrete panels that will make up the building.

Groundbreaking

March 1, 2023

USF students, community leaders and other guests gathered for a ceremonial groundbreaking ceremony.

Project gets OK

Sept. 14, 2022

The Florida Board of Governors unanimously approved building a housing and student center complex on the University of South Florida’s Sarasota-Manatee campus, advancing USF’s bold plans to expand the campus and transform the college experience for students.