USF Oracle (2025)

12/12/2025

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06/12/2025

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03/12/2025

Only one offensive unit in football moves the ball without ever touching it after the play starts, carrying an attack on every snap, yet seldom earning more than a footnote in the box score.

At South Florida, that group has become something more than an anonymous muscle.

It has formed the spine of one of the nation’s most productive offenses — and the value-driven and tightly bound identity that its players take most pride in.

In the middle of the group is graduate center Cole Best, whose motivation traces back to a sting he still hasn’t quite shaken.

Best said he can still picture the moment his seventh-grade coach looked at him and said he wasn’t good enough to make the basketball team.

The words hung in the air long after he walked out of the gym, and they burned in a way he still feels today.

“It really pi**ed me off,” Best said. “From that day forward, I told myself I was never gonna let another coach or another person tell me I wasn’t good enough to go do what I wanted to do.”

Soon after, he turned to football — carrying that promise with him.
Over a decade later, that same edge drives him to anchor the second-rated offense in the country.

✍️ by Mithil Vyas
📸 by Zahir Nelson
🎨 by Nathan Poulette

📲 Click the link to read more.

https://www.usforacle.com/2025/12/02/usf-offensive-line-identity-golesh-uf/

02/12/2025

USF’s College of Design, Art and Performance is joining a three-year partnership with The Florida Orchestra to bring Michael Francis and Chelsea Gallo to campus as artists-in-residence.

The Florida Orchestra is the largest professional orchestra in Florida and is based in Tampa.

Francis is the music director of The Florida Orchestra and has directed symphonies across several continents and ensembles.

Gallo is the resident conductor of The Florida Orchestra and has worked with other major orchestras and opera companies across the U.S.

USF announced the partnership in early November and placed the two professional conductors in direct instructional roles with the 70-member USF Symphony Orchestra.

Chris Garvin, the dean of the College of Design, Art & Performance, said the conductors will lead rehearsals, shape repertoire and work with students throughout the academic year.

“This is a really important moment for our university,” Garvin said. “The arts and our cultural fabric bind us together as humans.”

As students prepare for upcoming performances under the new artists-in-residence, USF leadership said the partnership strengthens USF’s commitment to accessible arts education.

✍️ by Anamaria Gomez-Arrigo
📸 by Emily Cruz-Arriaza

📲 Click the link to read more.

https://www.usforacle.com/2025/12/01/usf-music-florida-orchestra-partnership/

01/12/2025

Editor’s Note: This story is satirical.

Martin Luther King Jr. — who was made famous by the MLK Plaza at USF — once possibly remarked, “If USF adds any more parking, it will become a bad school like the University of Florida.”

After the football team’s 41-38 loss to Navy, this truth seems all the more real to students.

Wayde Klyczek, a freshman business advertising major, said he is decidedly against the amount of parking at USF.

“Every time USF adds more parking, the dining hall food gets worse,” Klyczek said. “I can’t take it anymore. I’ve been here for 25 years, and it has never been worse. Ever. Never ever.”

It isn’t a secret that fewer parking spaces make for a better university. Harvard has only three parking spaces.

USF has over 20,000 parking spots, so it is no surprise that Harvard beats South Florida in the rankings every year.

If USF wants to compete with Ivy League giants, it needs to start by limiting student convenience.

While it is undeniable that USF has too many parking spaces, university leaders have made efforts to preserve student inconvenience.

By making several different parking passes, USF has confused everyone.

There are “S”, “R”, “E”, “GZ”, and “Y” permits. Each one of these permits comes with three parking spaces and only costs $149,000 a semester.

Luckily, nobody knows what any of the permits mean, so nobody can use them.

✍️ & 📸 by Thomas Marrs

📲 Click the link to read more.

https://www.usforacle.com/2025/11/27/satire-why-usf-should-have-less-parking/

01/12/2025

Kyle Bell, the executive director of the Catholic Student Center at USF, was ordained a Catholic priest in 2018 and has been at USF since 2021.

Bell said he had always experienced a strong spirit of collaboration among people of all faith traditions and backgrounds during his time at USF.

Still, Bell said he was “saddened” when he found out his Muslim brothers and sisters were interrupted by Christians during an on-campus prayer.

“These men who accosted the Muslim students, if they were in my flock, I would tell them that they should repent and apologize,” Bell said. “They were probably thinking that they were ‘preaching truth,’ but they were doing it in a way that is very unchristlike.”

Eleven members of the Muslim Student Association at USF were holding a Fajr and Breakfast event on the top floor of the Collins Boulevard Parking Facility on Nov. 18 when three men approached them.

The men disrupted the students’ prayers by yelling obscenities and offering them bacon — all while filming the encounter for a YouTube livestream for the online Christian ministry “Warriors for Christ.”

USF’s University Police announced on Nov. 22 that the three men had been identified and were directly filed for prosecution with the Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office.

Some members of the Christian community at USF said they were disheartened by the incident and urged others not to take the three men as examples of their faith.

“On behalf of Christians everywhere, I’m sorry,” Bell said. “What happened should not have happened, and you are most welcome to pray on our campus.”

✍️ & 📸 by Clara Rokita Garcia
🎨 by Rachell Ross

📲 Click the link to read more.

https://www.usforacle.com/2025/12/01/usf-christians-reject-fajr-disruption/

26/11/2025

USF student groups and departments are preparing Activity & Service fee funding requests for the 2026–27 fiscal year as the Dec. 19 budget deadline approaches.

For over 250 student organizations and 12 Student Success departments, this annual process determines how much financial support they will receive for events, operations and programming, according to USF Student Government.

Ethan Walsh is the vice chair of the Campus Allocation Funding Committee, which reviews and recommends the annual A&S budget.

Walsh said the CAFC simplified the budget application process this year to address common issues seen in previous cycles.

Issues included confusion around the application form, requests for items that A&S funds can’t cover and organizations asking for more money than they used in previous fiscal years, he said.

CAFC leaders said the budget application process was restructured to make it easier for student organizations and departments — and shared tips on securing sufficient financial support.

✍️ by Anamaria Gomez-Arrigo
📸 by Violet Vasquez Pimentel

📲 Click the link to read more.

https://www.usforacle.com/2025/11/26/usf-funding-committee-budget-tips/

25/11/2025

Abu Tahir had only been praying for a few minutes when he heard footsteps behind him.

“I just assumed it was another student joining the congregation,” Tahir said. “Then I started to see movement in front of me, and very quickly I realized the reality of the situation.”

Tahir was leading USF’s Muslim Student Association’s “Fajr and Breakfast” event on Tuesday morning on the top floor of the Collins Boulevard Parking Facility.

But three unfamiliar men placed a black cardboard box in front of the 11 students, reading “Kaaba 2.0 Jesus Is Lord,” a reference to the stone building at the center of Islam’s holiest city.

The men began to film themselves disrupting the prayer — yelling obscenities at the students, telling them they’d be “going to hell” and dangling bacon in front of their faces.

The livestream was posted on the YouTube account “Warriors for Christ,” a christian ministry that was designated as an anti-LBGTQ+ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center in 2024.

“We had no idea whether we were going to leave there safe,” Tahir said.

Tahir was one of the people who gathered on Friday at the Islamic Society of Tampa Bay to condemn the incident, while calling on USF to provide a safe space for Muslim students.

Despite the announcements and updates from USF following the incident, Muslim students and community leaders said they were disappointed with the university’s initial response.

✍️ & 📸 by Noah Vinsky

📲 Click the link to read more.

https://www.usforacle.com/2025/11/23/usf-student-association-rhea-law/

25/11/2025

USF’s Tampa campus could see Alumni Drive renamed Charlie James Kirk Drive if House Bill 113 passes.

Kevin Steele and Susan Plasencia, members of the Florida House of Representatives, filed HB 113 on Oct. 7. It was received by the Florida House of Representatives on Oct. 14, which referred it to the Education Administration Subcommittee.

If passed, HB 113 would redesignate roads, or parts of roads, at public universities in Florida to names honoring Charlie James Kirk. It would also withhold state funding to universities that fail to comply within a specified time period.

Charlie Kirk was a 31-year-old conservative political activist who served as the executive director of Turning Point USA. Kirk often toured college campuses to debate students as part of his “Prove Me Wrong” tour, including USF in February.

Kirk was shot and killed at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10, according to the Associated Press.

While HB 113 is awaiting further action from the Education Administration Subcommittee, it wouldn’t affect the USF St. Pete and Sarasota-Manatee campuses, according to the bill text.

USF spokesperson Althea Johnson said it is the university’s practice not to comment on proposed legislation.

Still, some students from College Democrats and College Republicans at USF agreed that the bill is a poor use of government power and university resources.

✍️ by Isabella Oefelein
🎨 by Thomas Marrs

📲 Click the link to read more.

https://www.usforacle.com/2025/11/23/usf-students-criticize-house-bill-113/

22/11/2025

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20/11/2025

USF’s University Police is working to identify a group of individuals who disrupted members of the Muslim Student Association during an on-campus prayer session on Tuesday.

A YouTube livestream — posted by the online Christian ministry “Warriors for Christ” — showed a group of three men interrupting the students’ prayer session at the Collins Boulevard Parking Facility, yelling obscenities and offering them bacon.

UP said once the men are identified, it will issue trespass orders to prevent them from returning to USF Tampa. UP also anticipates referring them to the State Attorney’s Office to face criminal charges, according to a USF statement released on Wednesday.

The statement said the university does not tolerate “harassment, discrimination or other hateful expression” based on religion, ancestry or heritage.

“We urge everyone to do their part to ensure that USF is a place where we treat each other with respect, and we provide a safe environment for individuals of all backgrounds,” it said.

MSA students who attended the event said the incident was a planned anti-Muslim attack.

✍️ by Noah Vinsky & Liv Baker
📸 by USF Muslim Student Association

📲 Click the link to read more

https://www.usforacle.com/2025/11/19/usf-police-group-msa-prayer/

18/11/2025

USF has converted almost 70 gold zone parking spots to non-resident student spots in the Collins Boulevard Parking Facility.

Scott Fox, the director of USF’s Parking and Transportation Services, said the expansion was finalized on Nov. 3 and took over the parking spaces on one ramp from the first to the second floor.

Gold zone permits are applicable to faculty and staff, while non-resident student permits are available to students who live off campus, according to PATS.

Fox said PATS did “occupancy counts” in the Collins Boulevard Parking Facility to measure the amount of space being used and by whom.

This count showed that more non-resident student permits were sold than gold zone permits this fall as compared to previous years, Fox said.

With gold zone permit sales down, spaces in the garage reserved for those holders were being “underutilized,” he said.

“Giving [commuters] an option in the Collins garage in that part of campus was something that we thought would be really desirable and well-received, and the purpose is to put our limited parking resources to the best use possible,” Fox said.

Still, while the Collins Boulevard Parking Facility now has more parking for students, Fox said the department is not currently exploring the conversion of space in other lots.

“This was one thing that stood out to us,” Fox said. “We said, ‘Well, we’d like to do this right away because we’d like to make this available for students right away.’”

Some USF students said adding more student parking in the Collins Boulevard Parking Facility was a necessary step toward solving parking issues on campus — but more space is still needed.

✍️ by Isabella Oefelein
📸 by Delaney Torres
🎨 by Rachell Ross

📲 Click the link to read more.

https://www.usforacle.com/2025/11/17/usf-student-parking-garage/

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