As we welcome our students, faculty, staff and community back to campus this Monday, I want to share something that fills me with profound hope and urgency about our collective future.
In the coming days, the definitive documents for the Forever Home ballpark project will go before the Tampa City Council and Hillsborough County Commission for approval. This vote will determine whether we seize an unprecedented opportunity, or let it pass.
Let me be direct, this has to happen: for our students and future leaders, for the College and for Tampa Bay.
Since our founding, this College has been about opening doors. We meet students where they are and help move them forward. We create pathways to opportunity, career and purpose. But to continue that mission at the highest level, we must think creatively about how we invest in ourselves and in the next generation.
The partnership between Hillsborough College and the Tampa Bay Rays represents exactly that kind of forward-thinking investment.
This is not simply a ballpark project, and it has never been just about baseball. This is a generational opportunity with Hillsborough College to share center stage with the Rays to create something unprecedented: a destination where education, community and professional sports converge to create learning opportunities and career pathways that simply would not be possible otherwise.
Imagine our students gaining internships and real-world experience connected to a world-class organization. Imagine a modernized Dale Mabry Campus that reflects our aspirations and attracts talent from across the region. Imagine HC graduates prepared not just with degrees, but with networks, experience, and opportunities that set them up for meaningful careers right here in Tampa Bay.
The new Rays ownership has approached this partnership with a community-first commitment. They understand that maximizing opportunity for all – our students, workers and region at large – is what builds a lasting legacy and reinforces Tampa Bay as the place to be for the rest of our lives. That's the kind of partnership that we want HC to be a part of.
Our students deserve a College that doesn't just teach them, but connects them to the future. Our community deserves an institution that leads with vision. And our region deserves the economic growth, jobs and pride that come from being a destination for excellence in education, sports, entertainment and hospitality.
None of this is possible without the approval of our elected leaders in the days ahead.
I am asking everyone in our HC community – students, faculty, staff, alumni, supporters and more – to reach out to all the key decision makers and respectfully urge them to support this project which will be coming before them this month.
Let's show our community, our students and ourselves what HC is capable of when we collaborate with civic institutions like the Tampa Bay Rays and think boldly about the future. Let's champion this opportunity. We will never have another one like it.
With pride and determination,
Ken Atwater
President, Hillsborough College