Friday morning sunlight streamed through the windows as students hauled their belongings into Atala Hall, the Sarasota-Manatee campus' first ever dormitory.
The six-story building is named after the tropical butterfly that can be found flitting its black wings through the campus courtyard. It also marks a new chapter for what used to be a commuter school.
The new residential hall houses 200 beds and features amenities such as a ballroom, dining hall, lounge, gaming area, meeting rooms and a bookstore.
Quincy Sheppard, a first year biology student, was amazed when he first set foot in his dorm on the sixth floor.
"My first impression was that, 'Oh my god, it looks so good. Like, I love the scenery of this place,'" said Sheppard.
Through a dorm window, he can see an expanse of green trees and the glistening waters of the Sarasota Bay. Sheppard, who grew up in a small city in Polk County, said getting to live and study by the beach is a dream.
He already loves his department counselor and is meeting new people. It's the full college experience he said he wouldn't have gotten if he had to commute two hours from home.
And, Sheppard added with a laugh, "It's kind of far away from Tampa, which I do not mind, because the farther away from my parents, the better."
Atala Hall cost $43.9 million to build and marks the first major expansion of the campus since 2006. The project was made possible through bonds and a portion of the activity and services fee — funding that former USF students voted to use towards the new building.
Karen Holbrook, the Sarasota-Manatee campus regional chancellor, called the new hall an investment in student success.
"You want students to make this a part of their life," said Holbrook. "Having them here on a regular basis is so important, and I think they get so much more out of it, rather than just run in and take a class and then run back to their jobs."
About 15,000 students across all three of USF's campuses, which include Tampa and St. Petersburg, are enrolled in courses offered through Sarasota-Manatee.
And, about 60% of the campus's course offerings are online, said Holbrook.
"Our goal, I think, at all three institutions, is to have more students face-to-face, because you learn so much more when you're really with your professor and with your colleagues," she said.
With the addition of Atala Hall, USF, as a whole, is housing about 7,500 students on campus this year, a new record according to university officials.
A portion of Atala Hall's beds are also being offered to New College of Florida students, which sits just a mile south. Holbrook said the school is still in the midst of building a reputation as a place to live and study.
Dorm mates Claire Metcalf and Jordan Jones are both USFSM freshmen.
Metcalf is an accounting major from Michigan and said she chose the campus in Sarasota "as an adventure." And Jones, who studies speech pathology, said the school is close to her family in Venice.
They're both part of the Living Learning Community initiative, which is made up of students from the College of Education, the Muma College of Business and the Judy Genshaft Honors College. In the program, students live and attend events together, and are offered a $4,000 academic scholarship.
Cheryl Ellerbrock, dean of the College of Education at USF Sarasota-Manatee, said the interdisciplinary nature of the program makes it unique.
"We take them out into the community and go tour businesses, [teach] study skills, stress relief. These are just some of the many things offered in the Living Learning Community," said Ellerbrock.
Gian Luca, an international student from Italy, is starting his sophomore year at New College of Florida. The marine biology major said he's looking forward to dorm life.
For his freshman year, he lived in the nearby Hilton Garden Inn after the college's campus housing closed due to air quality concerns.
Luca said it was difficult to foster a sense of community in that environment. He's hoping Atala Hall will be different.
"You can feel more of the campus life, and student life, there's a lot of different areas you can hang out in, so I think it's a great choice," said Luca.
