A bill under consideration by the Florida House would shake the foundation of the University of South Florida by revoking the separate accreditation of its St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Manatee campuses.
Before lawmakers acted in 2002, USF St. Petersburg and USF Sarasota-Manatee acted as satellite campuses of the larger Tampa campus.
Now, under the proposed House version of the Higher Education Bill, USF would again be required to operate under one accreditation. University leaders would have to come up with a plan by January of next year.
It's not clear who came up with the proposal, which is not in the Senate version of the bill.
However, USF officials released a statement saying that minimizing the impact of such a move would be their number one priority.
The proposal is scheduled to be discussed in committee Wednesday morning.
