Quote(https://photos.moderncities.com/Cities/Jacksonville/Development/UNF-Campus-Master-Plan-July-2025/i-7Trxj4R/0/LfcqCgCLHwgb5kLPrLLQXT83rRzXkT3kTNVzsms2f/L/unf-campus-master-plan-bot-draft-plan-presentation_Page_20-L.jpg)
A look at the University of North Florida's draft 10-year master plan. Let us know what you think!
Read More: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/unfs-campus-master-plan/
Football is a wildly expensive loss-leader for a lot of schools, but if you want to hit these projections and catch up with other Florida Universities in terms of growth, I'd love to see it. Wouldn't be cheap, or easy with some Title 9 requirements, but I think it'd be worth it for the school, as long as deep cuts weren't required elsewhere. Would love to see the city give some of the financial love that they're giving to UF to UNF as well. It's a beautiful campus full of awesome folks that we should continue to actively invest in.
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Quote from: Ken_FSU on July 31, 2025, 12:08:52 PM
Football is a wildly expensive loss-leader for a lot of schools, but if you want to hit these projections and catch up with other Florida Universities in terms of growth, I'd love to see it. Wouldn't be cheap, or easy with some Title 9 requirements, but I think it'd be worth it for the school, as long as deep cuts weren't required elsewhere. Would love to see the city give some of the financial love that they're giving to UF to UNF as well. It's a beautiful campus full of awesome folks that we should continue to actively invest in.
(https://photos.moderncities.com/Cities/Jacksonville/Development/UNF-Campus-Master-Plan-July-2025/i-R6CJZ9V/0/MXLjQc48v2g2vT7bdNNcTmXZQZLLGXQHJzW4GZjcB/L/unf-campus-master-plan-bot-draft-plan-presentation_Page_07-L.jpg)
If UNF went to downtown with their expansion like UCF or USF have, and UF is doing, maybe they would get some money. Sad that they don't sell off some suburban land and go towards downtown with some program expansions.
Likewise, UF isn't getting money from the City because they play football (well other than the money from playing the Cocktail Party here). They are the flagship research institution of the State of Florida with $1.3B in research expenditures. USF is next at $460M. UNF does $68M. UF is an overall top 25 research university in the country. Ultimately, UF's expansion of research and development in our downtown area, and increased expansion of research initiatives here rather than Gainesville, is why the City is supporting and why it is a big deal. UNF is becoming a great undergraduate school, and that is its lane, but it is not going to be a research university and part of that was by choice for years when they kept undergraduate enrollment low (rather than the UCF type route to taking money from undergraduate education to pay for their research ambitions). UF coming to Jacksonville with research is likely the best thing that has happened to UNF because it can glean some of this research in partnership with UF if happening in Jacksonville.
There is precious little detail in this slide deck, and the linked Strategic Plan is a high-level plan, not a detailed campus plan.
What academic areas will the new academic building serve?
How are Research and Academic buildings different?
What is a Community Building?
The campus maps and aerial renderings show two things. 1. They will pretty much fill up the area inside the ring road, UNF Drive and, 2. The buildings appear to be holding to the 4 to 6 story maximum of existing buildings.
The original gift (or cheap purchase) of the land from the Skinners called for some significant percentage of the campus to be a nature preserve, which could (should) limit development to inside the ring road, and along the edges, where it already occurs. Are they considering taller buildings to overcome this limitation? Or, are the natural areas goners?
I notice the linked Strategic Plan does not mention the words "University of Florida." With a UF Graduate Campus coming to downtown, shouldn't UNF talk about coordinating with them to avoid duplication and to foster synergy?
PS - When I started at UNF, there were four buildings, plus the Boathouse bar/cafe.
(https://photos.moderncities.com/Cities/Jacksonville/Development/UNF-Campus-Master-Plan-July-2025/i-R6CJZ9V/0/MXLjQc48v2g2vT7bdNNcTmXZQZLLGXQHJzW4GZjcB/L/unf-campus-master-plan-bot-draft-plan-presentation_Page_07-L.jpg)
The premise for this master plan and its timetable appears to be the graph above. The internet is flooded with articles about big drops already in college enrollments and more to come through at least early 2040's following a demographic cliff that started with the great recession of 2008 and continued through COVID.
I note the graph already shows some decline from 2019 to now. UNF's hopes really will ride on the growth of the area. Do we think Jax will grow about 70% in 10 years to match the indicated projection on this graph? I don't see that happening (it would be unprecedented and I certainly would hate to experience that as it would likely overwhelm our infrastructure).
I see more housing on the First Coast Tech Parkway in these plans (I think the State just funded that phase). Unless that is graduate housing, I think that is a big mistake for undergrads to be separated by Kernan from the main campus. Undergrads provide the vitality/energy to a campus in my experience so putting them astray like that takes away from what makes a college life special in my book. Maybe UNF will be running U2C back and forth every few minutes ;D but that is no substitute for the proximity of the actual living spaces to the center of the campus and its gathering places, student union, student activities, bookstore, library, theaters, recreational and athletic facilities, dining commons (do they still have those?), etc.
To my point, the link at the beginning takes you to this comment:
QuoteUNF 10-year master plan draft includes possible football stadium, Greek Village; 'will add energy' students say
I may not be typical, but I really liked living on my college campus and soaking up all that was going on. It was a town unto itself (cocoon?) and I rarely felt the need to escape it, other than to shop for food (I did my own meals in my upperclassman years) if I couldn't find eats on campus and supplies (if I couldn't find them in the bookstore). Then again, everything on my campus was walkable, almost no one had a car and the few that did, kept them parked most of the time.
I'd love to know who they think the expansion is going to serve.
Quote from: Jax_Developer on August 01, 2025, 09:38:41 AM
I'd love to know who they think the expansion is going to serve.
Quote from: Charles Hunter on July 31, 2025, 04:39:11 PM
There is precious little detail in this slide deck, and the linked Strategic Plan is a high-level plan, not a detailed campus plan.
I'd guess this is less a fleshed-out expansion plan, and more a sales slide intended for the board of trustees and state legislators accompanying a budget request. Which people will throw shade at, but it's essentially the exact same thing that UF did when selling Jacksonville on the graduate campus.
I'm out of the game now but good to see the Alma Mater making such wise moves. Enrollment is already closing back in on the pre-COVID peak so they're going to need more class space, and housing has been tight for years.
Not sure where the idea that the preserve land will be threatened comes from. We've bought considerable land to make way for expansion and as these renderings show, there's still available space in the main loop.