Breaking Ground on Our New Home

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ECEMBER 1, 2020 WAS A HISTORIC DAY for our College, as USF broke ground on our new home, a five-story, 85,000-square-foot facility on the Tampa campus. “The Judy Genshaft Honors College building will be a remarkable enhancement to our world-class Honors College and will benefit our university, students, and faculty,” said USF President Steve Currall at the small groundbreaking ceremony. “The new building will advance USF’s strategic goals and long-term aspirations to attract and support Florida’s most accomplished students. We are deeply grateful for the generosity of Judy Genshaft and Steve Greenbaum.” Private gifts totaling $43 million have been pledged and received for the project, including a historic College-naming gift of $20 million from USF President Emerita and Professor Judy Genshaft and her husband Steve Greenbaum. “President Emerita Genshaft’s and Steve Greenbaum’s philanthropy continues to transform USF,” said USF Board of Trustees Chair Jordan Zimmerman. “On behalf of the Board of Trustees, we thank them for their steadfast commitment to student success and their vision that help propel the university to new heights.” Additional generous gifts have been made by friends of Having one of the premier honors colleges in the nation is just one way USF will distinguish itself as one of the most elite and forward-thinking institutions in the world.” – President Emerita Judy Genshaft “ the College, including Provost Ralph Wilcox, for whom the building’s Provost’s Scholars Program suite will be named, and Claudia McCorkle, for whom the College will name the Student Leadership Center. The new facility will feature interwoven spaces for classrooms, study areas, faculty and advisor offices, event areas, a computer lab, performance and creative spaces, and numerous areas for student collaboration – expanding the range of academic opportunities for students and giving them a true “home” on campus. Fittingly, it is being built along the renamed USF Genshaft Drive (formerly USF Maple Drive).

Top: From Left, USF Board of Trustees Chair Jordan Zimmerman, USF President Steven Currall, USF President Emerita and Professor Judy Genshaft, and her husband Steve Greenbaum at the groundbreaking of the new Judy Genshaft Honors College building.

Bottom: College donors and university leadership officially break ground on the innovative new building.

“Having one of the premier honors colleges in the nation is just one way USF will distinguish itself as one of the most elite and forward-thinking institutions in the world,” said President Emerita Genshaft. “This stellar new home for our already excellent college will help attract top talent to USF, making an indelible impact on our community for years to come. We are delighted to see this dream become a reality.”

By moving from the current location on the second floor of the John and Grace Allen building, the college expects to grow from its current 2,400 students to a total of 3,000 students.

“Shortly after becoming USF’s president, Dr. Genshaft decided to elevate the university honors program to the status of a college,” said Judy Genshaft Endowed Honors Dean, Charles Adams. “She and Provost Ralph Wilcox provided the college with the university resources needed to support its expanding population, and she and Steve provided very generous scholarship support. All this work, and the work that she has inspired in others, has been directed to one goal – to build one of the premier public honors colleges in the country.”

The state-of-the-art building is scheduled to be completed in fall 2022. “We look forward,” Adams says, “to welcoming our students to our new home, and seeing all the amazing work they will do there.”

For more information about naming opportunities in the new building including an exciting opportunity to move up a naming level thanks to a Challenge Grant from an anonymous foundation, please contact Judy Kane at jkane@usf. edu or 813-974-1246.”