In the 1960's, students took over buildings on college campuses to demand social change. Spurred on by the Occupy movement in the fall of 2011, approximately 50 USF students on Wednesday afternoon marched to the campus' administration building, where they were greeted by Senior Vice Provost Dwayne Smith and eight other administration officials. The officials then engaged the students in a 90 minute discussion about their issues - first and foremost recent tuition hikes that the students say they can't afford.
It was a rare act of social activism on the sleepy North Tampa campus, as students gathered at 1:30 p.m. at Cooper Hall on the campus for some speeches. At 3 p.m., they took an approximately ten minute walk to the Patel Center, shouting chants such as "Judy got paid off, we got ripped off, " referring to school president Judy Genshaft, whose office is located at that building.
But Genshaft was in Boca Raton, discussing with the state's Board of Governors on whether or not to make USF-Polytechnic the state's 12th university. In her place they were met with open arms by Smith and a group of administrators that he said he had asked to join him to hear the students issues in a public forum.
