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- Dr. Les Tuttle
College of Education Faculty Oral Histories
Dr. Les Tuttle
The Board of Regents agreed that provided that the Board of Trustees would come up with private funds from their foundation that would supplement the additional costs that would be associated with that program. In other words, we had a formula-based budget at that time that was based on full-time equivalent students. If we tried to employ that formula based budget to the New College program, they couldn’t survive. As I recall in that first year, the Board of Trustees became a foundation that had to contribute $750,000 per year in order to make New College viable.
We had another interest in that area. We wanted to use the property that New College had to initiate an upper level and beginning graduate branch campus, similar to what we had started in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. At that point, since I had administrative responsibility for St. Petersburg, Sarasota, and Ft. Myers, my title was changed to Dean and Director of Regional Campus Affairs. I was moved back to the Tampa campus and I became a member of Dr. Mackey’s central administration. We then appointed administrators on each of the other campuses.
I remained in that position until 1978. By that time, USF had a new president and he wanted his own central administrative staff. As the euphemism goes, I returned to my first love, teaching. I didn’t come right back to the College. I was provided with a sinecure. I did a post-doctoral program at Stanford University for a year in order to get back to speed for teaching. I had been pushing paper for over ten years, and I needed to get refreshed and prepared. I went to Stanford at the University’s expense and it was a wonderful experience. Then I returned to the College in the Department of Social and Psychological Foundations. Professor Cal Craig was a member of the Educational Leadership Department and taught school law and he had retired, Dean Katzenmeyer asked me if I wanted to learn how to teach the graduate class in School Law. I thought that could be a challenging thing, so I switched from Foundations to Educational Leadership and started to teach School Law. I remember during the first year of teaching the course I told the students, “You’re on page one. I’m on page ten. Catch me if you can.”
I approached the Stetson College of Law and talked to the dean over there about auditing some courses. I was particularly interested in legal bibliography and legal research so I could conduct some work on my own.
I remained in the Department of Educational Leadership until I retired in 1996 teaching School Law and School Finance. There was a great deal of overlap in teaching School Law and School Finance. The fellow who taught School Finance retired and I assumed that responsibility. I retired in 1996 and went into a phased retirement program, which at that time was a five-year program. I stayed in that program for four years. My wife retired in 2000 as a school psychologist for Hillsborough County and I decided at that time that it was in my best interest for me to retire completely. So, that is my story.
LB: I audited your school law course when my wife took it form her Ed. S. degree, by then, I think you were quite a few pages ahead of the class. I have some other questions regarding the relationships between the College of Education and local school districts. How was USF received by the school systems in the early stages?
LT: We were well received. The College’s first dean, Dean Jean Battle, was very instrumental in making sure that the faculty became involved with the local school systems to provide services both on and off campus. Over time, USF offered more off-campus instruction to members of the local systems than any other College of Education in the state of Florida. I recall in 1996, I taught a school law course in Ocala to a group of teachers who were working on their master’s degrees. I drove 110 miles to meet the class. When I got up there I said, “The University of Florida is only 35 miles away. Why don’t you have one of those guys teach the class?” They said, “They are not interested in driving that far.”
We even offered a master’s program in educational leadership in Key West because Florida International University, which was located in Miami, wasn’t interested in going that far. We got on an airplane and flew down there. When I first got here in 1965 or 1966, there was no university in central Florida. We provided off-campus continuing education leading to a master’s degree in Coco Beach on the east coast. In those days, Cape Canaveral was a go-to place. It was rapidly growing and there was a need for teachers. The teachers they had wanted to work towards their master’s degrees. I used to drive along with everybody else who drove down to Ft. Myers and covered the 15 county area of the state and we did an awful lot of off-campus instruction. We were well received by the schools. The professors were appreciated. The teachers appreciated the service. It was easier for the professor to travel 100 miles than for 30 teachers to travel 100 miles. I always enjoyed teaching off-campus. You were always really appreciated.
LB: Of your many achievements at USF, what are the ones that you are most proud of? LT: The striking one to me, in terms of my career, is having the luxury of coming to a university at its very beginning as it was breaking ground. That is a rare opportunity to start a university from scratch. When I reflect on my career, the thing that I am most excited about is to come in on the bottom floor and to watch the tremendous growth that took place during my 36 years at USF. The growth was truly more than anyone expected. I suspect in the next 30 years the University will grow as much or more than it did in the last 40 years.
LB: Dean Battle related in his oral history that he felt that we were growing too fast. He recommended to President Allen that we slow down, but President Allen was eager to surpass the University of Florida and Florida State University.