Hillsborough College in Tampa, Florida on November 2025. Credit: Screengrab / Google Maps
Spring brings the same optimism to newly minted Hillsborough College as it does for the Tampa Bay Rays and its fans. And while no hot topic could topple AI generated student content, everyone who attended Faculty In-Service Day on the Dale Mabry Campus awaited the latest update from President, Dr. Ken Atwater.
Everyone wanted to know – Are the Rays going to take over 100 of the 125 acres of the Dale Mabry Campus to build a stadium and mixed-use residential and commercial district that Dr. Atwater compared to the recently developed Water Street project?
The Hillsborough College president began his address with his familiar optimism and genuine appreciation for the faculty. He described how disruption would be minimal. The Rays ownership group assured him that they had the HC students’ priorities in mind. Dr. Atwater estimated that the project could take about five to six years.
If we’re being conservative, that’s three cohorts of full-time HC students. They won’t know the new buildings or facilities that have been proposed on that remaining 15-20 acres. The new residences, cafes and restaurants won’t be any more affordable to the average HC student as in the Water Street District. Nearly all of those students will be in trailers while they attend classes on campus.
There will be considerably more traffic, widening of all surrounding streets, and if the traffic studies have been done, the Dale Mabry site is likely at the top of a pretty short list. When Dr. Atwater was asked if he had been given any information on the flood mitigation strategy or if sustainability would be taken into consideration at a time when many new condos and housing developments in Tampa are besieged by flooding, he said he did not know about the environmental impact but would ask.
It’s not hard at this point to see that the priority for Dr. Atwater and the Hillsborough College Board of Trustees is revenue and the profit potential this has for the Tampa business community, though it’s not clear how that will benefit the average Hillsborough College student. There is some estimation that as many as twelve thousand new jobs would be created by this project, but there was no distinction between which would be permanent or temporary, or if there would be cooperation between HC and the Rays for those jobs.
This can be a difficult time for anyone concerned about the state of education in Florida, let alone higher education. This can be an equally difficult time for anyone still dealing with insurance adjusters and home renovations, only to await the next catastrophic flooding that is almost certainly to occur on this sandbar we call home.
Is it in the best interest of Hillsborough College students and the surrounding community to confine academic growth while continuing a trend that prioritizes lucrative sports industries, unaffordable housing, more concrete and cars?
As a native New Yorker, I grew up with baseball in my blood, but a Hillsborough College Dale Mabry campus that can grow and facilitate both the educational needs of our community and one that can be sustainable for the future is the walk off home run Tampa needs at this time.
Jeffrey Rubinstein has been teaching college English since 1998 for Hillsborough College, University of Tampa, Arizona State University and other colleges and universities.
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This article appears in Jan. 22 – 28, 2026.
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