:: History Site Index
:: Historical Overview
:: Timeline of Events
:: Hall of Presidents

:: USF Site & Name
:: John Allen Legacy
:: 40 Years of Memories
:: Named Buildings & Sites
:: Medical School History
:: Medicine's 1st 25 years
:: Marshall Center History
:: Early Women's Athletics
:: Student Trends
:: Snow at USF!

:: 1st Student
:: 1st Professor
:: 1st Basketball Team
:: 1st Football Team
:: 1st Marching Band
:: 1st Years of The Oracle
:: 1st Trustees

:: USF Sarasota/Manatee
:: USF St Petersburg
:: USF Lakeland

:: Traditions Overview
:: Alma Mater
:: Academic Mace
:: USF Seal & Symbols

:: Rocky the Bull
:: Herd of Thunder

:: Homecoming
:: Student Gov. Ceremony
:: Bull Market
:: Movies On The Lawn
:: "Go Bulls" Hand Symbol
:: Retired Athletic Jerseys

Beginning with a bang - 40 Years of Memories

"There was a hurricane the first 10 days of September (1960). We were still having faculty orientation. John (Allen) was an astronomer. So he gave a little dissertation on meteorology. Some of the 'yankees' got over their flutters. Elliot Hardaway (USF's first librarian) said-he was such a wag-'I want to tell you how to enjoy a hurricane. Batten down the hatches. Call in the neighbors. Fill the bathtub with gin and don't go outside until you're sober.'"

Margaret Fisher, a native of Austin, Texas and no stranger to Gulf storms, was among USF's first administrators - the dean of women.

She remembers the campus had a total of four buildings-Chemistry, Administration, the University Center and the Theatre. "There was a big hole where Alpha Hall was going to be, which turned into a lake during the hurricane." The library (now the Student Services building) was a pile of sand.

"It was a good time to be here because you had very strong, experienced people." Fisher was drawn to the university by Allen's 'innovative' focus on multidisciplinary instruction which emphasized interdepartmental collaboration, large block courses distributed throughout a student's four years of study and a senior seminar, an interdisciplinary examination of current issues.

"Mackey (USF's second president) killed the senior seminar. Mackey fired (Russell) Cooper and busted the colleges up. He closed the College of Basic Studies and folded it into the College of Liberal Arts. What really hurt us was Mackey coming in and taking the thing apart," bringing on a period of compartmentalized curriculum.

But curriculum swings are to be expected, Fisher philosophizes. They happen about every 20 years. Interdisciplinary studies was part of a post-war renewal. Now it's making a comeback, as the university swings back toward its roots with the development of learning communities and the new liberal arts curriculum.

"What's an exit course? I figured this was something everyone wanted to get out of. This is the substitution for the senior seminar."

(1996)

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