That means free access to music by such current hitmakers as Timbaland, Fergie, Fall Out Boy and Kanye West, all on the service’s recent “most played” list, as well as catalog artists including the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Al Green, Bob Marley and jazz artist John Coltrane.

Ruckus, a college-only music and media service, offers a huge, always expanding library of downloads, along with social networking features. The service already is in use at more than 170 colleges and universities across the country, including Duke, Princeton, Georgia Tech, UC-Berkeley and Penn State.

USF officials recently inked the agreement with Ruckus to provide the service, which officially launches Sept. 17. The initial contract will last for two years.

“Ruckus is one of the premiere services of its kind in the country,” said Michael Pearce, USF’s new Chief Technology Officer. “This gives our students the ability to download legal, licensed and free digital music content, while sharing and discovering new music through the USF community.”

Any student with a USF email address can use Ruckus to build a personal music collection, create playlists, share personal media recommendations, browse classmates’ profiles and media libraries and meet friends. Faculty and staff can also take advantage of the service for a fee of $8.99 per month. The service also includes music videos and some feature films, along with social networking site My Ruckus and Ruckus-related features on Facebook.

Ruckus songs cannot be played on iPods, although the music can be downloaded to other portable media players for a fee of about $20 per semester, via the Ruckus-To-Go service. Songs can be purchased and burned to a CD for a fee ranging between $.79 and $.99 per song.  

USF was selected to participate in the Ruckus service because of student demand, the university’s robust networking infrastructure and a commitment to supporting legal digital media services through on-campus marketing.

USF students can begin using the Ruckus service immediately by visiting www.ruckus.com, clicking on “Join Ruckus” and entering their USF email address. 

For more information on Ruckus, visit the company’s corporate site at www.ruckusnetwork.com or the service at www.ruckus.com.

The University of South Florida is among the nation's top 63 public research universities and one of 76 community engaged universities as designated by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. It is one of Florida’s top three research universities. USF was awarded more than $310 million in research contracts and grants last year. The University offers 217 degree programs at the undergraduate, graduate, specialty and doctoral levels, including the doctor of medicine. The University has a $1.6 billion annual budget, an annual economic impact of $3.2 billion, and serves 44,038 students on campuses in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota-Manatee and Lakeland. USF is a member of the Big East Athletic Conference.

- USF

USF’s enrollment for fall 2007 approaches a new milestone of 45,000 based on first class day numbers of 44,891 students or an increase of 3.4 percent compared to the first class day in fall 2006.

A nine percent jump in the number of new graduate students represents the largest enrollment growth.  They join more than 8,700 students enrolled in graduate and professional programs at USF for the first day of the fall semester.  The largest group of new students enrolling is made up of transfers who number 5,026 students.  Florida Community Colleges contributed 2,794 students accounting for an 11.3 percent increase over last year. 

The USF Class of 2011 has the strongest academic profile in the university’s history.   Despite reports of declines in average national scores, the average SAT score among USF freshmen approaches 1150, which reflects a 30 point increase in the median and a 17 point increase in mean SAT scores.  One out of every two students scored between 1060 and 1220 on the SAT.  The average ACT is 25 with the mid range between 23 and 27.  Nearly 30% of the class ranked in the top ten percent of their high school graduation class with an average GPA of 3.71.  An average SAT of 1328 was posted by the 471 new students in the USF Honors College this fall. 

“USF’s commitment to quality undergraduate programs is reflected in the increasing academic profile of our new freshmen,” said USF Provost Renu Khator.  “They are well-prepared for the challenges ahead to excel and succeed in a nationally ranked research university.” 

In addition, diversity remains a noteworthy hallmark of USF’s student body.  Earning a ranking of 17^th in diversity in the nation overall among the Princeton Reviews “Best 366 Colleges,” almost one in every three students in USF’s Class of 2011 is ethnically diverse. 

In the graduate school, the number of Asian Americans has increased 25 percent and African Americans have increased 12.4 percent.  Among transfer students, Hispanic and African American students continue to lead in the diversity growth at 12.6 percent and 12.3 percent respectively.  

The majority of new graduate students received their last degree from USF or another State University including the University of Florida (133), Florida State University (76) and the University of Central Florida (66).  Almost 40 percent of new graduate students received their last degree from an institution outside the State of Florida.

 By campus:

· USF Tampa has enrolled 38,417 students, an increase of 2.9 percent;

· USF St. Petersburg has enrolled 3,534 students, a 4.5 percent increase;

· USF Sarasota-Manatee has enrolled 1,824 students, an 8.4 percent increase

· USF Lakeland has enrolled 1,116 students, an increase of 9.3 percent.

More than one in three transfer students last attended an institution outside the state of Florida and within Florida most students last attended one of the state community colleges located in Tampa Bay.

“These are exciting times at USF,” said USF President Judy Genshaft.  “Something the founders of this university dreamed of and worked so hard for is more real than ever.  Our campuses are attracting more and more terrific students and we are building beautiful new buildings on each campus to accommodate them.  In accordance with our forthcoming new strategic plan, in the next five to ten years we expect to realize still more remarkable growth and development.” 

USF’s new freshmen come from 56 counties in Florida with the largest numbers from Hillsborough (960), Pinellas (523) and Pasco (260).  The USF Class of 2011 is nationally and globally diverse.  They originate from 35 states including New York (28), New Jersey (25) and Pennsylvania (16) and from 51 countries including Colombia (19), Canada (15), United Kingdom (10) and India (9). 

USF received 21,600 applications from prospective new freshmen, a 40 percent increase in applications since the fall of 2003 and more than 10,000 applications from prospective new transfer students.

Enrollment Highlights from the fifth day of classes will be presented to the Board of Trustees at its Sept. 6 meeting.  For additional enrollment data, visit: http://usfweb2.usf.edu/infomart/eprofiles/profile20078F/eProfilesUSFSystem.htm.

The University of South Florida is among the nation's top 63 public research universities and one of 76 community engaged universities as designated by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. It is one of Florida’s top three research universities. USF was awarded more than $310 million in research contracts and grants last year. The University offers 217 degree programs at the undergraduate, graduate, specialty and doctoral levels, including the doctor of medicine. The University has a $1.6 billion annual budget, an annual economic impact of $3.2 billion, and serves 44,038 students on campuses in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota-Manatee and Lakeland. USF is a member of the Big East Athletic Conference.

- USF -