campus was damaged by an F4 tornado during the tornado outbreak of April 4–5, 1966, with the cooling towers at the university's power plant partially collapsing and the roof being ripped off of one of the dormitories.
=== 1970s ===
In 1970, M. Cecil Mackey became the university's second president. During his time at USF, Mackey opened the university's medical school, School of Nursing, and first-ever Ph.D. program. Additionally, Mackey worked to strengthen the St. Petersburg campus, while opening new satellite campuses in Sarasota and Fort Myers. While serving as university president, Mackey continued to teach economics courses in a conference room across from his office. Mackey first coined a new descriptor for USF: a "metropolitan university". The term is still used to describe USF and other colleges in large cities today.
USF Sarasota–Manatee was founded in 1975 and shared a campus with New College of Florida, which later became part of the USF system as well before becoming an independent university again.
=== …
