CORRECTION: This article has been changed to reflect that CityLab Jacksonville refers to the master’s in architecture program. The Alligator initially reported that the master’s in architecture program would be relocated from CityLab Jacksonville to UF’s temporary campus.
Gov. Ron DeSantis approved $75 million for UF’s Jacksonville graduate campus in the “Focus on Florida’s Future” budget June 12, edging the campus closer to its required $300 million for construction.
For more than a year, UF has been making progress toward establishing a graduate campus in Jacksonville, obtaining approval from the Board of Trustees and permission from the Board of Governors to establish a temporary campus location in downtown Jacksonville.
UF President Ben Sasse announced plans for the campus in February 2023 — a day after he assumed the post — and it has since become a tentpole of his strategic plan.
The Jacksonville campus has received support from the City of Jacksonville, the University of North Florida and the Jacksonville Jaguars, who offered the fairgrounds near EverBank Stadium as the campus’s permanent location.
UF will sublease a temporary location in downtown Jacksonville with classes set to start Fall 2025. There will be nine graduate degrees offered.
Funding and partnerships
Kurt Dudas, a partner at a wealth management firm, was tapped by Sasse in October to lead the Jacksonville initiative. Dudas, who now serves in Sasse’s cabinet as a UF vice president, wrote in an email that about $260 million of the required $300 million has been raised for the campus as of June.
On top of the $150 million the campus has received from state appropriations, the City of Jacksonville donated $50 million and UF received about $60 million from individual donations and supportive businesses. Donors include the Jacksonville-based CSX Corporation, and Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan, according to The Florida Times-Union.
“I have spent the past several months getting to know the Jacksonville community and have found it to be welcoming and dynamic,” Dudas wrote. “I have no doubt this will be a constructive partnership.”
Sasse received letters of support for the Jacksonville campus. One letter came from Moez Limayem, president of UNF who recommended the formation of a joint task force between both universities. The task force was officially created during the March 27 Board of Governors meeting.
“We don't want to offer the same thing in the same town,” UNF Vice President Paul Eason said. “It just doesn't make sense to compete directly like that. We want to create complementary academic programs, look for ways for our faculty to collaborate more in either teaching or in research and potentially share spaces that are built by Florida taxpayer dollars.”
The task force is composed of UNF and UF deans from their respective colleges of medicine, engineering, business, computer science, law and construction and Vice Presidents Dudas and Eason.
“Jacksonville is a major metropolitan market, so the more we can do to create an educated workforce, the better,” Eason said.
Mark Halley, president of UNF’s United Faculty of Florida chapter, said faculty have questions about the Jacksonville campus and want to be involved.
“You're at a university that's kind of the premier university in your area and another university is moving in town,” he said. “People wonder, 'OK, what's that mean for me? What's going to happen next?'”
Halley said the Jacksonville campus is coming at a time when UNF is trying to be classified as an R1 Doctoral University with Very High Research Activity under the Carnegie Classification.
“We're hoping that the rising tide will raise all the ships,” said Tobias Huning, vice president of UFF-UNF.
Curriculum
The Jacksonville campus will offer nine graduate degrees, including three exclusively at the campus: a master’s in management with an artificial intelligence concentration, a master‘s in engineering management in data analytics and a master’s in computer science.
“The workforce-oriented degrees will feature new curricula that integrate the latest advances in artificial intelligence and data analytics to serve the state’s rapidly growing needs in business, engineering, health sciences, law and related fields,” Dudas wrote.
During a Board of Trustees meeting June 13, he said a hospital risk and compliance program for mid-career nursing students and a master’s in medical entomology were also being considered.
Prospective location
Dudas announced during the June 13 UF Board of Trustees meeting that the Prime F. Osborn III Convention Center and the fairgrounds near the EverBank Stadium are being prioritized for UF Jacksonville campus’ permanent location. A decision will be made either late summer or early fall.
UF will begin renting about half of the fifth floor of the JEA headquarters building near downtown Jacksonville as a temporary location for the campus in July. The floor has about 10,500 square feet of space and will have classrooms, study rooms and a lounge. The Jacksonville campus will remain at that location for several years until the permanent campus is constructed.
During the Board of Trustees meeting, Dudas said UF will establish administrative offices and the UF College of Design, Construction and Planning’s architecture graduate program in the JEA building this fall. He said classes are on track to start in fall 2025.
The campus will be a Type III campus, which enrolls between 300 and 1,000 students, although Dudas wrote UF aims to have “north of 1,500 students in five years.” The site approval request said many students will attend part-time classes in the evenings and weekends. The permanent campus will have student housing.
The tuition rate is still being worked on, Dudas wrote. UF is anticipating hiring 81 professors for the campus.
UF already has an established academic health center in Jacksonville that has faculty and students from the Colleges of Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy.
The Florida Semiconductor Institute, which received $80 million from this year’s state budget, could be at Jacksonville in the future. Its current location has yet to be decided, Dudas wrote.
“It's been there for a while for the University of Florida, but we never really put it all together,” said UF Board of Trustees chair Mori Hosseini during the June 13 meeting. “Financial technology and medical technology, put them all together under the same roof, and with our hospitals, that's really going to make a big difference.“
Contact Timothy Wang at twang@alligator.org. Follow him on X @timothyw_g
Timothy Wang is a junior journalism student and the Fall 2024 Santa Fe College Reporter. He was the University Administration reporter for Summer 2024. His hobbies include gaming or reading manga.
