The New, Six-story, 100,000-square-foot Building Marks The First Major Expansion To The Campus Since It Moved To Its Current Location In 2006
The story of the new Campus Student Center and Atala Residence Hall begins with a butterfly.
What’s in a name?
When Paul Kirchman, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at USF Sarasota-Manatee and former field biologist for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, read about local efforts to restore the Atala butterfly population he decided to ask campus Vice Chancellor Brett Kemker if he could plant verbena and sweet almond on the grounds in the hope the fragrant plants might attract the imperiled butterflies to campus.
Elsewhere on campus, construction of an approximately $43 million student center and residence hall was just heating up.
Over the next several months, two things happened. The six-story, 100,000-square-foot building began to take shape and, to Kirchman’s delight, students, faculty and staff began reporting sightings of small butterflies with bright red bodies and inky black wings with iridescent blue spots.
“They're pretty striking,” Kirchman said of the butterflies, which can live up to three months under ideal conditions and whose wingspan can measure a little over five centimeters.
While Kirchman isn’t sure the fragrant plants were responsible for bringing the Atala butterflies to the Sarasota-Manatee campus, their presence certainly made an impression on the 300 students, faculty and staff, who voted to name the new residence hall after the winged insect.
“The Atalas symbolize transformation, resilience and the importance of harmony with the natural world,” Regional Chancellor Karen Holbrook said. “Like these butterflies, our unique students come here for a short while, to live, learn and grow. They then fly away to their next adventure and fly back as alumni to enjoy the campus year after year. Now both our students and the butterflies have a dedicated place to call home.”
Inside the CAMPUS Student Center and Atala Residence Hall
It’s difficult to overstate just how significant the addition of the new Campus Student Center and Atala Residence Hall is for the tight-knit Sarasota-Manatee campus community. Situated on U.S. 41, between Sarasota Bay and Sarasota Bradenton International Airport, USF’s youngest campus previously consisted of a single, three-story, 134,540 square-foot building.
When the new building opened its doors on Aug. 19, for a ribbon cutting, hundreds of students, faculty, staff and community members flooded into the sunny atrium, buzzing with anticipation.
“Seeing this project advance from a vision to a reality is especially meaningful for
me,” President Rhea Law said. “I served as the chair of the Board of Trustees when
USF Sarasota-Manatee welcomed its first class of students in 2006, and I remember
attending the groundbreaking ceremony for this beautiful bayfront campus and thinking
about the limitless possibilities for its future.”
In addition to the atrium, the first floor of the Campus Student Center is also home
to a ballroom, a dining room, a bookstore, a game room and USF World — a strategic
decision by Holbrook, who served as the first senior vice president of USF World and
believes strongly in the value of study abroad as a catalyst for personal growth.
The second floor boasts additional office space for student organizations, study lounges, conference rooms available for community use and an expansive terrace for campus and community events.
“Student support is quite literally the foundation on which our students now live, learn and grow,” said Kemker, also the regional vice chancellor of academic affairs and student success at USF Sarasota-Manatee.
When campus leadership welcomed the first students to Atala Residence Hall, which sits on the top four floors of the building on Aug. 23, volunteers sporting green “Atala Haul” shirts ferried carts with pillows, microwaves, miniature refrigerators and other domestic items from the trunks of cars to suites and apartments on the top four floors of the new building.
“Everything looks amazing,” said Isabelle Sorensen, a student and campus tour guide who kept up with the building’s construction, which started in March 2023.
“I am ready to be here all the time.”
Residents like Sorensen, who lives in a two-bedroom apartment on the sixth-floor of Atala Hall, enjoy suite- and apartment-style housing in one of four configurations that accommodate groups of one, two or four students. In addition to suite-style bathrooms, apartments also include a kitchenette and a living room. Each room boasts views of the campus courtyard — where the titular Atala butterflies nest among the sprawling coontie — Sarasota Bradenton International Airport or, in Sorensen’s case, Sarasota Bay and the downtown Sarasota skyline.
On the fourth floor, a cohort of more than 40 students from the Muma College of Business, the College of Education and the Judy Genshaft Honors College make up the campus’s first living learning community, which provides an array of programs and experiences — such as special events and opportunities for internships — designed to complement and expand the students’ academic interests.
A ‘third place’ dedicated to students
Ask Sarasota-Manatee students what they like best about the new building and they’ll talk about the many ways it has transformed campus life. Prior to the fall 2024 semester, USF Sarasota-Manatee was a commuter campus — a temporary destination students traveled to for class before commuting, sometimes long distances, home. Now, it is a full-service campus with the capacity to serve a wider student audience.
“We opened the door for a new profile of students,” said student governor Spence Gerber. “High school students from anywhere in the state — and country, for that matter — can now add USF Sarasota-Manatee to their wish list.”
Gerber is the fifth in his family to attend USF after his mother, attorney Maria Gerber, and his three older brothers.
“My family members are a little jealous,” he said.
“For years, our students have thrived academically without a place they could truly call their own, but now, for the first time, they have a community space and a home,” said Kemker. “This comprehensive facility ensures our students have everything they need to succeed both academically and socially.”
Former student body vice president Evan Fruehauf attributed the thriving student culture to the addition of what he calls “third places,” or places between the apartments and classrooms, like the atrium, the dining hall and the collaboration lounge.
“People will forge lifelong friendships, experience brand-new ideas, and hopefully leave their mark on the campus,” he said.