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What is The Hawkeye?
The Hawkeye is the student news site of Hillsborough Community College, published at The Hawkeye. It covers campus news and features for HCC students, with stories written and edited by students and credited to named staff members.
Its coverage mixes practical campus reporting with local Tampa culture. Recent headlines include a $110 HART bus pass that covers a semester of rides, the Rays' proposed ballpark on the Dale Mabry campus and the mixed reactions it drew, and how students balance work with classes. Feature stories cover the LGBTQ+ student club's events, the Student Government Association's role in allocating student activity fees, Ybor City's cigar history, and Tampa Bay's kava bar scene.
For a current or prospective HCC student, it's a useful way to learn about campus services, events and decisions that affect daily life, such as transportation costs or where student fees go. For local readers, the cultural pieces offer a student perspective on Tampa. As student journalism, expect a campus-first focus and a smaller newsroom than professional outlets—good for firsthand student voices, less suited to breaking regional or national news.
How can Hillsborough Community College students get a discounted HART bus pass?
Hillsborough Community College students can get a discounted HART bus pass through the HC semester pass: unlimited bus rides for a full semester for $110, as reported by The Hawkeye. That works out to far less than paying per ride or relying on frequent Uber trips, which the article notes can be too expensive for students without a car.
How to use it
- Confirm eligibility and current price with HART or the campus student services office before paying, since prices and terms can change.
- Buy through the official channel — typically HART's fare system or a campus office that distributes student passes — rather than a reseller.
- Plan around the semester, not the month. The pass is described as covering a semester, so it suits students commuting to class several days a week; occasional riders may do better with single fares.
- Check route coverage from your home to your campus before buying, since unlimited rides only help if a bus line serves your trip.
A practical next step: compare your weekly bus trips against $110. If you'd ride more than roughly a few times a week, the semester pass is likely the cheaper option; if not, pay as you go.
What does the SGA do with student activity fees at Hillsborough Community College?
At Hillsborough Community College, the Student Government Association (SGA) decides how student activity fees are spent. According to The Hawkeye, SGA represents student interests, takes part in campus activities, and its leaders want more students involved in those spending decisions.
What this means in practice
- Budget authority: The fee money is allocated by SGA rather than handed down as a fixed, pre-decided package.
- Representation role: SGA is described as representing student interests alongside its role in campus life.
- Participation gap: Leaders say they want more students at the table, which suggests decisions are made with limited input from the wider student body.
A useful next step
If you're an HCC student with an opinion on how activity fees should be used, the practical move is to attend an SGA meeting or ask a representative how the current budget is allocated and when proposals are considered. That is the point where student input can shape spending before allocations are final.
How do HCC students balance full-time classes with full-time work?
The page evidence gives a concrete starting point: one Hawkeye feature, "Clocking in, Showing up," reports that full-time students typically carry 12–16 credit hours, and that some of them also work full time. The same piece notes that of five Dale Mabry campus students chosen at random, two said they were full-time students. Treat that as a small campus snapshot rather than a rule, since the sample is tiny.
What the reporting suggests
The Hawkeye's framing is that the difficulty is not just hours in class and hours on shift, but the collision between them: assignments due on different days, exams, and closing shifts that end after the school day. A related story, "Class by day, work by night," describes the same pattern—an 8 a.m. class followed by a shift that runs past closing, with coursework still waiting.
Practical ways students make it work
- Treat the week as a fixed grid. Block class times, shifts and sleep first, then place study blocks in the gaps rather than hoping to find time.
- Protect a buffer after late shifts. A closing shift plus an early class is the pattern most likely to break; schedule lighter coursework or a later start where possible.
- Use the cheapest reliable commute. The Hawkeye reports that HART's HCC semester pass offers unlimited bus rides for four months for $110, which matters for students who cannot afford frequent rideshares.
- Choose sections deliberately. Spacing classes across fewer days can free larger blocks for work, though it concentrates study pressure.
- Use campus resources between commitments. Advising, tutoring and student organizations are on campus anyway; the SGA story notes that student activity fees fund campus programming, and the We Are People Club event shows low-cost social options on campus.
For a student weighing whether to add hours at work, the useful test is whether the schedule survives a bad week—an exam, an extra shift and a late closing in the same seven days. If it does not, cutting one commitment is usually better than absorbing the failure.
To follow how HCC students and campus life are covered, see The Hawkeye.
What are the arguments for and against building a Tampa Bay Rays stadium on the Dale Mabry campus?
The student reporting available from The Hawkeye shows the debate framed around campus life rather than stadium economics: reactions from people who teach and study on the Dale Mabry campus ranged from excitement to skepticism to indifference, according to the site's summary of its coverage The Hawkeye. The arguments below follow that framing.
Arguments in favor
- Campus visibility and energy. A professional ballpark next door would put Hillsborough College in a regional spotlight and give students a major-league entertainment option within walking distance.
- Possible student access. Teams and venues often build community goodwill through discounted tickets, internships and event partnerships, which is the kind of benefit students and faculty quoted in campus coverage tend to raise first.
- Local economic activity. Supporters typically point to jobs, nearby business traffic and investment in the Dale Mabry corridor.
Arguments against
- Disruption to campus routine. Construction and game-day traffic, parking pressure and noise fall directly on students and staff who are on campus daily, not just on game nights.
- Land and priorities. A stadium occupies campus land that could serve classrooms, parking or student services, and critics question whether a college should host a commercial venue.
- Who actually benefits. Students who don't attend games may see costs and disruption without the upside, which helps explain the indifference the reporting notes alongside enthusiasm and doubt.
How to weigh it
The deciding factor is usually whether a concrete student benefit—tickets, jobs, internships, shared facilities—is written into the deal, versus whether the campus mainly absorbs traffic and construction costs. A student who commutes by car and parks on campus will judge the plan very differently from one who attends games and wants the venue nearby.
For the specific reactions from Dale Mabry faculty and students, read the full story at The Hawkeye; for how the city and team have framed the proposal, the Tampa Bay Rays and City of Tampa publish their own statements.
What student clubs and events does The Hawkeye cover at Hillsborough Community College?
The Hawkeye's student-life coverage leans toward campus organizations and Tampa Bay events that draw Hillsborough Community College students, rather than a comprehensive club directory. From its front page, two kinds of coverage stand out:
- Campus clubs and student government: A feature on the We Are People Club, the LGBTQ+ student organization at the Dale Mabry campus, covered its fall "Pumpkin Spice & Slime" slime-making event, with student reactions to the gathering. A separate piece explains that the Student Government Association decides how student activity fees are spent and is pushing for more student participation.
- Local events and culture around Tampa: Stories include the Gasparilla International Film Festival as part of Tampa's cultural scene, Ybor City's cigar heritage, the local kava bar scene, and the Tampa Bay Comic Convention (with John Cena's appearance). A piece on the Rays' proposed ballpark on the Dale Mabry campus sits at the intersection of news and campus life, quoting mixed reactions from students and staff.
For a student deciding what to join, the practical next step is to treat these articles as a starting point: the club and SGA stories show how organizations operate and where fees go, while the events coverage signals what's happening off campus. A reader who wants the full list of active clubs should check with the college's student activities office directly, since The Hawkeye covers what its staff chooses to report rather than maintaining a roster. For comparison, other Florida student news outlets such as FSView & Florida Flambeau at Florida State show how a campus paper can run regular club briefs alongside features, which is a useful benchmark for what to expect here.
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