USF students formed a non-USF-affiliated organization dedicated to spreading awareness for the St. Pete campus’s multicultural flags. SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE/NICOLE BENJAMIN

Some USF St. Pete students are still speaking out against the university’s removal of the multicultural, gender and sexuality flags from its student center two years after their removal. 

In 2024, USF St. Pete removed flags — including international, pride and Black Lives Matter flags — from its University Student Center due to visitor complaints.

Five months after their removal, Senate Bill 100 was introduced in the Florida Senate to prohibit the display of “political viewpoints” in public schools, but it failed to pass last April.

In August, USF spokesperson Althea Johnson said only two USF buildings are allowed to display flags — the International Student Service Office and the College of Engineering.

Still, both buildings are located on the Tampa campus, leaving no spaces on the USF St. Pete campus to display cultural or pride representation.

Nicole Benjamin, a junior digital communications and multimedia journalism major, said she and her friends are still disappointed the flags were taken down from the St. Pete campus. 

“I can confidently say that the sense of community and a sense of acceptance just do not feel as strong,” Benjamin said.

Benjamin said this feeling of disappointment inspired her and roughly 30 other St. Pete students to form a non-USF-affiliated organization, called USFSP Concerned Students, in 2024. 

The organization has been active on social media, engaging in online forums and distributing booklets and flags around campus to fight for students’ freedom of speech.

“What we really want to reinstate is that culture,” Benjamin said. “And for these underclassmen coming in, it’s really disappointing that they don’t get to experience that.” 

Related: OPINION: Reinstate Pride, BLM flags at USF

Nico Allen, a junior interdisciplinary social sciences and criminology major, is part of the USFSP Concerned Students organization and the director of community initiatives in USF’s Office of Multicultural Affairs. 

Allen said the multicultural flags were taken down from St. Pete’s University Student Center while he was working as an orientation leader in summer 2024.

Before their removal, he led tours past the flags and observed student and parent reactions to them — which he said were mostly positive.

“They were symbols that represented social and international solidarity,” Allen said, “It displayed that USF offered a safe space. There’s the LGBTQ+ flag, the [Black Lives Matter] and Pan African flags, and those were powerful symbols.”

Since joining USFSP Concerned Students, Allen has been spreading information about the flag removals to other St. Pete students through in-person and social media campaigns.

His goal, he said, is to raise awareness and gather more support for the flags’ reinstatement.

Benjamin said that requests to reinstate the flags at USF St. Pete have been forwarded to USF administrators and even to the university’s Board of Trustees.

Still, she said the organization is yet to receive a response from USF. 

“All roads kept being a dead end,” Benjamin said.

Related: OPINION: Florida wants to ban political flags on campuses – and it should

Gabriela Rodriguez, a sophomore criminology major, said she had seen the flags in the University Student Center before they were removed. 

Originally from Venezuela, Rodriguez said the multicultural flags spoke to her on a greater, more personal level.

“When I first saw [the flags], I felt inspired and seen as somebody from Venezuela, like I saw my flag there and I just felt like I belonged,” she said.

Therefore, Rodriguez said it felt unusual to see the flags gone, prompting her to join USFSP Concerned Students and advocate for their return. 

Rodriguez said she has been helping spread awareness about the flags’ reinstatement through in-person and social media campaigns. 

“It felt really strange and dystopian in a way,” Rodriguez said. “I just wondered, ‘What does the school stand for now? What is this supposed to mean?’ It can’t be good.”

Naomi Bond, a sophomore interdisciplinary social sciences major, said she toured USF St. Pete before enrolling.

Bond said the flags were still hanging in the University Student Center at the time, and she thought they looked “cool.”

“That was honestly one of the reasons that I wanted to come here,” Bond said. “It showed that the environment here was for the students, to support the student body and their identities.”

But after seeing the flags gone when she finally enrolled at USF St. Pete, Bond said the removals had a strong effect on her.

“When I learned that they got taken down right before I was going to come here, it was like a rude awakening to see how, like, things are changing,” Bond said. 

Bond, who is now a member of USFSP Concerned Students, said its members have spoken to “hundreds” of students about the flag removals to ensure this was a universitywide issue.

“If you ask pretty much any student on this campus who knows about the flags, they are not happy that they got taken down,” Bond said.

Benjamin said it is important to bring back the flags to the St. Pete campus, as multicultural spaces make all students feel welcome.

“It’s really important that there are spaces built for like non-white students or non-straight students and queer students,” Benjamin said.