USF Polytechnic has now received conditional approval from the Florida Board of Governors to transition itself into a free-standing state university as indicated by clicking on this link. One condition is for it to reach a full-time (FTE) student enrollment of 1200+. Yet, ASU Polytechnic already has 4000+ FTE and its location along the Phoenix-Tucson corridor is similar to that of USF Polytechnic in the Tampa-Orlando corridor. In particular, the distance between Tampa and USF Polytechnic is approximately the same (~35 miles) as the distance between Phoenix and ASU Polytechnic.Despite opposition and controversey, many business and civic leaders in Central Florida expressed their support for an independent Polytech. Here are some interesting links of parallelisms between the proposed separation of USF Polytechnic and ASU Polytechnic:
http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/print-edition/2011/08/12/usf-polytechnic-autonomy-recommended.html
http://www.theledger.com/article/20111031/NEWS/111039925/1053/YOURTOWN06?p=all&tc=pgall
Here is a link that describes the disadvantages of a university branch campus model:
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110817/article/110819645?p=1&tc=pg
Here is the strategic business plan for the separation proposal of USF Polytechnic:
USF Polytechnic Business Plan
