UPDATE: USF Polytechnic has achieved independence and is now Florida Polytechnic University, the 12th state university in Florida.The Florida Board of Governors granted conditional approval for the USF Polytechnic campus to transition into a free-standing state university. One such condition requires a full-time (FTE) student enrollment of 1200+. Yet, ASU Polytechnic already has 3500+ FTE and its location in the Phoenix-Tucson corridor has some similarities to the location of USF Polytechnic along 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 controversy, 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
http://www.theledger.com/article/20120324/NEWS/120329553
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 website advocating for the vision of the Florida Polytechnic University:
Florida Poly Vision
