University of Tampa

So pretty! It used to be a hotel after all. before they went broke. Love the history snippet across the river on the riverwalk. The Henry B Plant museum is right there too.

Beautiful campus and great location right in downtown Tampa. Love all the historical buildings.
I’m very excited about starting the MBA program and looking forward to spending time on this lovely campus.

I think many of us that live in Tampa take it for granted or have become complacent in our love for our community. Tampa is steeped full of history, yet thriving with new life and business everyday. Think back at what the Tampa skyline, used to look like & it’s changing face today. We have a gorgeous skyline today, 20 years ago, it was quite sparse.
UT is an iconic institution in Tampa. In 1891 Henry Plant opened his flamboyant, super upscale boutique hotel on this site & much of the original architecture is still standing.
UT has a relatively small student population, on a compact, yet sprawling 105 acres that borders the Hillsborough River on its East side. The campus is a bevy of student and city activities, with museums, the river and so many activities on its campus.
I love when they have their outdoor concerts along the riverfront. Participants come and really enjoy these events, bringing not just your average picnic fare, but candelabras & ornate extras to enhance their experience.
You can stop and wander around this beautiful and scenic campus. The architecture is undoubtedly uniqe, beautiful & certainally not to be taken for granted. The golden domes, cupolas, minarets and overall stylish Victorian look are an architectural delight. The well manicured campus and priceless river frontage just add to its spectacular & ornate exterior. Many of the main rooms interiors are equally ornate with embellishments and grand opulence.
Yes, I think that is a perfect way to describe this very picturesque, iconic campus brimming with grand opulence of days gone and present day.
Might I suggest we all re-​evaluate our City? Take a good look around and see what you can discover or rediscover. Then go visit an old favorite place or discover new ones & start building memories and pride in where you live.
What’s a girl to do? I love living in the Tampa Bay area & try to never take our resources for granted.

The University of Tampa is a small urban university, located just across the Hillsborough River from downtown Tampa, and along Kennedy Boulevard. UT ranks in the top tier of U.S. News & World Report’s «America’s Best Colleges,» with about 7500 students enrolled in over 200 academic programs of study.
The history of UT traces it’s roots back to the Tampa Bay Hotel (now known as Plant Hall) which was built between 1888 and 1891. The hotel was designed to surpass all other grand winter resorts, and was the brainchild of railroad and shipping magnate Henry B. Plant. He envisioned transforming Tampa from a sleepy fishing village to what would become a vibrant city of the 21^st century. The Tampa Bay Hotel was a 511-​room giant that rose to a flamboyant height of five stories, surrounded by ornate Victorian gingerbread and topped by Moorish minarets, domes and cupolas. Much of that spectacular architecture remains today, and is the centerpiece of the UT campus.
From the pages of history, we know that Teddy Roosevelt assembled his famous «Rough Riders» on the hotel’s grounds before leaving for Cuba, and that Babe Ruth signed his very first baseball contract in the hotel’s grand dining room. A centerpiece of America’s great Gilded Age, the hotel was a lively place with magnificent balls, tea parties, and organized hunts during the winter social season in Florida.
Within Plant Hall you’ll find the Henry B. Plant Museum, located in the south wing of the original Tampa Bay Hotel. The museum features the original opulent furnishings and artifacts from the hotel collected by Mr. and Mrs. Plant on several buying trips to Europe and the Orient. The museum transports you through educational exhibits and events to the late Victorian period, the beginning of Florida’s tourist industry, and the early years of the City of Tampa. I highly recommend a visit to the Plant Museum during the month of December to enjoy their Victorian Christmas Stroll.
The campus sits on 105 acres of very valuable real estate with the Hillsborough River as it’s eastern-​most boundary and Kennedy Boulevard to the south. The campus has 58 buildings, including 11 residential halls. In addition to Plant Hall, my favorite places to visit include the Sykes College of Business and the Vaughn Center, which includes Student Center, the Allen N. Reeves Theater, Conference /​Seminar Center and Barnes & Noble University Bookstore.
The history and the architecture of the University of Tampa are legendary, and the academic excellence of this small urban university are world renowned. It’s a perfect place to visit and enjoy the scenic beauty while on a trip to Tampa. And if you get hungry, the Oxford Exchange is right across Kennedy Boulevard!

Literally an iconic image for Tampa since the unique minarets and moorish-​look architecture are used in Tampa’s seal and marketing. The moorish vogue is so dated as to have become classic. The main building is similarly majestic inside, including the lobby, the hand-​carved office doors and the stately lounge room used for formal gatherings. Some very fine gardens on the bank of the river are used for flower/​plant shows several times a year. The more modern building additions do not clash too much with the original brick edifice that started out as the luxury hotel at the terminus of Henry Plant’s first rail lines to West Tampa.
Oh…and they offer classes and award academic degrees also.

If you are at the campus during mealtime, check out the student dining hall located in the Vaughn Center. What a deal, $ 9.95 guest/​visitor fee for all-​you-​can-​eat. They have a large dining hall similar in size to the food court at the mall with food stations galore. They are Soup & Salad, Ultimate Deli, International, Pasta, Deluxe Grill, Pizza, Classic, Ultimate Health and Sweet Shop. Like a mall food court but 10x better. It should be the Freshman 25 here rather than 15.
Parking is scarce, the only place is the Thomas Garage at SEC of N. Boulevard and B Steet (1^st floor only for visitors) then walk two blocks east (towards downtown).

The UT campus is just gorgeous. I love the architecture here with the Moorish influences. They are very prevalent at UTs main building, Plant Hall. I have come here a couple times late at night for a nice little after dinner walk and Betty and I walk through Plant Hall and around the campus listening to the fountains.

Excellent business school, professors who really focus on teaching, great campus, LOVE IT HERE!

This is quite a beautiful compact campus. Some of the most beautiful areas are the Plant Hall/​Henry Plant Museum, Plant park, John Sykes Business Building and the Chapel. They make sure that it is kept up with all of many tropical foliage. This campus is also right next to the river so people are always looking for a nice place to sit with nice scenery and maybe catch a glimpse of a manatee or dolphin, or whatever is in the water. It is a great place to visit when in Tampa, just to see the historical beauty of the city.

Very neat campus, as a vendor and event coordinator that comes to this school each year. The buildings are beautiful and there are many opportunities here.
I can’t stand the Vaughn Center– there are always 3 – 10 student groups tabling for events or promotions but blaring their own music out for everyone to hear. It can be a headache for anyone who sits in there for more than 15 minutes. They have a decent cafeteria, plenty of food options, and the nicest athletic facilities I’ve seen in all of Florida.
The students are diverse, with a wide array of sutdents from all over. Campus activities are prosperous, but students can tend to be a bit apathetic since they have so much given to them.

Loved the campus! It really made me miss my college years!
Just walking on the campus was so beautiful, the weather was perfect, the students were so nice and the dorm rooms were updated and very spacious. It just seemed like a great place to study.
For anyone thinking of choosing this campus it would be an awesome choice!

Go Spartans! Absolutely loved my college experience at the University of Tampa. I was a Marketing and Advertising major so I got to take the majority of my classes in the gorgeous and very modern John Sykes Business Building. Since I graduated in 2004 the campus has rapidly grown. New dorm buildings, a church, and multiple food locations have been added to the campus.
If you are looking to major in business The University of Tampa offers one of the top business programs in the country. The private campus is smaller than a lot of the public universities so the classes are more intimate. Most of my classes were between 30 – 45 students so I was able to get a lot of one-​on-​one time with my professors and really got to know my classmates.
We may not have a football team, but we do have a gorgeous campus and with some of the coolest architecture. If you live in the Tampa Bay area and have never checked out the campus you should really schedule a tour and check out Plant Hall and the Henry B. Plant museum!

Fabulous university. And one of the most beautiful places to visit near downtown Tampa.

Just started going here for the spring semester after transfering from California. The campus is gorgeous, and has tons of history all around you. Along with the history, many of the buildings on campus are very new, like the Sykes School of Business, the Vaughn Center, and the newly constructed Sykes Chapel. The school is located right in downtown Tampa, so you have easy access to all the restaurants, bars, etc…
The UT staff is very friendly and helpful. They will literally do whatever they can to help you succeed academically. I would recommend UT to any student looking to get a great education and have a great college experience!

I’m a photographer and this campus has great spots for shooting portraits, especially the administrations building!
It’s a beautiful campus to walk around and seems like a great community.
I know that’s not much of a review, but I just had to express that the Administration building is BEAUTIFUL!

Love love love this school. Business program is excellent. You will meet lots of cool people that are not from Tampa and make friends easy because know one is local there (rarely) and they need tour guides lol. Chose this school over USF because it is smaller and more personal. The library is always open. Staff and admin is more than helpful.

I had been to University of Tampa before, but never got off and really explored the campus. I really liked it. The architecture is very unique. The library was open late on a Sunday and we were able to get in and look around to read books and use the computer. All of the classes are very close together which is a nice break from the public college campuses we’re used to. I loved it alot more than USF, which is big, impersonal, and spritually empty.