Convention to Conflict with Start of Fall Semester

Photo courtesy of 2012tampabay.com, Graphic illustration by Chelsea Daubar

The University of Tampa is preparing for the expected and the unexpected for when the Republican National Convention comes to downtown Tampa from Aug. 27-30, 2012.

According to the UT Director of Public Information Eric Cardenas, “We’re doing everything possible to provide students a typical UT educational experience when they return to campus – or start as new students – in August.”

However, students are already experiencing complications with the timing of the convention. One student, Josh Jacobs, the marketing chair for Student Productions and a graphic design major, has to come back to school two weeks before classes start in order to prepare SP events for freshmen orientation. As the event planner, Jacobs is not allowed to plan any events around the same time of the RNC. “It sucks,” he said. “Travel is also going to be a huge pain.”

The convention indeed already has the university moving its Fall 2012 schedule up. New Student Orientation has been moved to Monday, Aug. 20 and will run through Aug. 24.  Drop off day for returning students will start Saturday, Aug. 25, a day earlier than planned, so students can avoid the arrival of the majority of the RNC visitors.

The school does advise students to start planning ahead to avoid travel complications. Vice President of Operations and Planning Dr. Linda Devine, believes “now is not too early.” Additionally, as Cardenas explained, the university is training “faculty to teach classes virtually in case they physically cannot make it to campus.”

Other students are worried about the RNC for security reasons. Cassie Weber, a freshman and advertisement and public relations major, believes “Vaughn (Center) should be locked up [from the outside] because anyone could come in and scan themselves into the elevators.”

Weber also mentioned how feels that security on other campuses is a lot stricter. “You would think we would have more security because we are a private university,” she said.

Dani Sopchak, a freshman music performance and English major, hopes more blue light security systems will be installed throughout the entire UT campus due to the vast increase of visitors for the convention and the openness of the campus. “Every other university has the blue light system running through their campuses and yet ours are only set up in the parking garages,” Sopchak stated.

UT has been working on enhancing the campus security and securing the campus entrances and borders.

According to the UT website, “Faculty, staff, and students will need to be ready to present their Spartan ID cards at any time during RNC.” Every member of the UT community will be provided with a bright green and bright orange lanyards and an ID holder so that they can be identified instantly.

Unfortunately, in a worst-case scenario “there is a possibility that some rioting and violent behavior could spill west of the river and on to Plant Park. This could mean a number of possibilities from a campus lock down to tear gas in the air to random vandalism on campus,” according to a report sent out to the faculty in November of 2011. The report also said that there is a possibility that “the RNC event could cause major disruptions in traffic flow which would prevent faculty, staff and commuter students from getting to campus.” Due to this specific issue, the report from the RNC committees shows that they would like to set a rule in place: “By 6 pm the night before each faculty member will send a class e-mail and post to the course Bb site that class will or will not physically meet. Students will be directed to Bb for course work.” Nothing has been finalized so far.

Of course, the school is hoping for a best-case scenario, in which this case the disruption stays east of the river and there are limited traffic problems. Cardenas doesn’t really expect the RNC to substantially affect UT’s educational mission, especially because the university has been staying on top of the upcoming event. Last year, UT formed two committees that have been meeting regularly to plan for how the RNC may impact the school. They’ve been working closely with City of Tampa officials and the Tampa Police Department and plan on communicating with the campus community on a regular basis to keep them updated on potential RNC impacts.

Although, the university has some “concerns that students without work will resort to behaviors that may get them hurt or arrested. This especially impacts FY [first year] students,” according to the report from November.

In an email sent out to students when the spring semester began, Devine wrote, “It will be critical that all UT community members actively take part in making campus a secure and safe area.”

One student is really excited for the convention and believes that the university will not have any issues. “It’s a really good thing for Tampa. It’s an awesome opportunity for UT students between getting involved, internships and other endless possibilities” said Bayleigh Benner, a sophomore marine science biology major.

“There will be extra security and training to making it easy enough for students to get to and from campus, as well as providing enough safety information.”

For further information, visit www.ut.edu/rnc. The website will be the main information source for all UT matters impacted by the RNC and it will be updated frequently. If you have any questions or comments about the convention, you can contact the RNC committee at RNC2012@ut.edu.

Stef Crocco can be reached at stefcrocs@yahoo.com.