Throughout the year at USF, there have been many trials and tribulations in communication when it comes to emergencies on campus and other important events. 

Reaching out to its community should be USF’s top priority, especially when USF students and faculty will be directly impacted by whatever discussions are happening behind the scenes. 

I’m talking specifically about the recent drafts that emerged detailing the plans for New College to take over the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus.

Related: USF students, faculty want clarity on potential New College merger

The initial plan was not communicated to students and faculty until an article by WUSF came out, revealing drafts of the proposal obtained through a public records request.

The draft stated that current USF Sarasota-Manatee students would be able to finish their degrees, but newly admitted students would not be allowed to choose it as their home campus. 

The main issue with how the news came out is how the university blindsided students who had plans to attend USF Sarasota-Manatee. It becomes a transparency issue, when the community directly impacted by ongoing talks are not immediately notified. 

“In all discussions, USF prioritized our people, including by working to ensure that in any scenario that may be proposed all employees would be retained, and all students would be able to continue to pursue and complete their degrees on their home campus in Sarasota-Manatee,” USF spokesperson Althea Johson said. 

Although the merger proposal won’t be discussed this legislative session, it still left the community stressed.

“We have said that we would provide the university community with updates regarding our partnership with New College, if there are any to share,” Johnson said. 

Related: OPINION: USF Sarasota-Manatee should not merge with New College of Florida. Here’s why.

Another issue that exemplifies the university’s lack of communication with students was when we had Hurricanes Helen and Milton, which were only two weeks apart.

The notice of the school’s closure came only three days before Hurricane Milton was to hit Tampa. It felt like USF informed students of the school’s closure only at the last minute. 

USF then notified students with minimal time before classes were to be resumed, only five days after Hurricane Milton had torn through Tampa. 

Although five days might seem like enough time, many people were still dealing with the consequences of the storms, like having no power or gas.

This short notice was irritating, especially for USF’s out-of-state and international students who had to find somewhere to evacuate.

Another instance where students and faculty should have been notified sooner was in April, when an empty gun case was found on USF’s Tampa campus.

Related: USF students want gun reform, not prayers

University Police found an empty gun case in the Fine Arts Building at USF on April 19.

Communication at the time of the event was lacking, as students were not directly notified after UP found the items. In fact, the USF community was not notified by a media release from UP until April 21.

And even then, the media release lacked a lot of information regarding the incident. UP sent an update on April 23, but it wasn’t until May 15 that it announced there wasn’t a threat to the community and the investigation was closed.

Although the investigation was ongoing, students and faculty should have been a part of the communication process as well.

USF shouldn’t be leaving its community out of the loop.

To improve communication, USF must be more transparent with its students, faculty and staff on all bases. This is important not only to our safety, but can also relieve stress and whatever worries the community may have.