Home- College of Education Faculty Oral Histories
- Dr. Les Tuttle
College of Education Faculty Oral Histories
Dr. Les Tuttle
LT: I can appreciate both positions that Dean Battle and Dr. Allen had regarding the growth of the University. You know, historically the University of Florida and Florida State University were the premiere universities of the state. They had much more influence over the Florida Legislature and the Board of Regents than this emerging school in Tampa. However, the funding procedure for the University was a formula based on enrollment. Dr. Allen used to say that the University of Florida and Florida State University had the pine trees but we had the people. It was hard to argue with the numbers. You can say that we have the number of students and the formula says we are entitled to this kind of resource support for those students. That was not a political thing. The formula was kind of an objective measure and so there was from the president’s perspective, a great deal of pressure increase enrollment growth since this type of growth provided for additional resources. It was only with those additional resources that the University could expand the range and scope of its programs. We always played the game of catch up. You always had to get more students than you were funded for to get the additional funding for the next year. So, you never got ahead.
LB: Do you have any particular humorous, or not so humorous, stories during your tenure that you can share with us relative to things that happened in the College or University?
LT: I think looking back that things that stick out when I try to characterize the campus culture would be the informality on the campus. We didn’t have computers in the early days. Of course, there were no e-mails. It was truly a different time when we were small. I guess one incident that I think characterizes that in the early days is when we had the University Senate. We didn’t have a faculty senate. It was a university-wide senate that was composed of faculty members, career service employees, people in maintenance, secretaries, and administrators.
The University Senate was presided over by President Allen. I was elected as a senator in 1965 to represent the College in the University Senate. We were all very young. I recall one day a young professor at a Senate meeting asked the president why the University couldn’t do such and such. The president said, “We can’t do that because it is contrary to the University’s policies.” The young professor said, “Who establishes the University’s policies.” Dr. Allen didn’t even blink an eye. He said, “I do.” Can you imagine that in this day and age that this scene could be repeated? That, I think characterizes how things operated in those days.
USF was a fun and exciting place to be as well. The faculty was not segregated by college. We were very small. We had one coffee shop in the University Center and everyone went there. At one time, everyone at USF read the same book each semester. The secretaries, the professors, and students read it so that there was a common basis for discussion.
It was really an exciting time and fun place to be because we all wanted to be different. We were starting a brand new university from scratch. We didn’t want to repeat the mistakes of the past that other universities had experienced. Early on we started with a freshman class and they became sophomores, juniors, and then seniors and then we started a master’s program. In the early days, we all taught undergraduate students and the theme of the University was “accent on learning.” All these young professors who had just earned their doctoral degrees were coming here and teaching these undergraduates their dissertations. It was probably some of the best undergraduate instruction to be found in the country. You know, as we began to develop the master’s and doctoral programs, the prestige shifted from teaching undergraduates to teaching graduate students. After about 20 years, we began to look like every other university in America and the newness and excitement of the USF was gone and now we have become an industrial park.
LB: I appreciate you coming in and giving us your oral history. I thank you as well for all you have done for the College of Education, the university and your assistance with the history project.
LT: You’re the one who has done the history project. I am telling you, it has been a heavy load. I enjoy talking about the old times. It’s all ancient history for me and it is great to have the occasion to go back and think about it all.
LB: It is nice to talk to old friends like you. Thank you.
End of Interview