Facing almost 60 percent in 'draconian' state budget cuts, the University of South Florida rallied its alumni, fan base and community to put political pressure on state senators to reverse course for 'fair' cuts. 

On Thursday afternoon, the senate relented and slashed the proposed cuts by more than half from 79 million (58 percent) to 45 million. 

The $71 billion budget passed by the Florida Senate Thursday, 33-6, is $2 billion more than the budget passed by the Florida House. The two legislative bodies have until March 9 to send a final budget to Gov. Rick Scott. 

USF St. Petersburg was originally slated to lose 2.6 percent of its state funding or $600,000. 

According to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, that has now increased to a $2.2 million budget cut. The USF Sarasota-Manatee campus is now slated to have $1.2 million cut, which was originally set to actually have a 15 percent increase budget increase before Thursday's vote.

Following the vote, the cuts to the USF system are more in line with other major state universities. For example, the University of Florida would lose 25.8 percent funding. Florida State University is set lose 22.3 percent of its state funding. 

Following the Senate vote, University of South Florida President Judy Genshaft issued a statement:

“Today was a good day for the University of South Florida and for the Tampa Bay Region. I want to thank the community for their tremendous outpouring of support for USF and our efforts to achieve equitable treatment. I especially want to express my sincere thanks to Senators Jim Norman and Arthenia Joyner and the rest of the Tampa Bay Senators who fought so hard for USF and for our Region. 

It was an important meeting we had with Senators Alexander, Lynn and others to state our concerns about the proposed Senate cuts to USF.  We will continue to work constructively with these Senators and our whole Tampa Bay delegation towards a compromise solution that protects all of USF's students, faculty and staff and ensures financial security for USF and full funding for our new College of Pharmacy.

A lot of positive progress has been made in the last two weeks and we are sincerely grateful for everyone's continuing efforts as we move towards a solution."

Late last week, the St. Petersburg city council voted 7-1 to sign a resolution condeming the USF budget cuts. The city said, at the time, while USF St. Pete's cut was not initially significant, some programs at the St. Pete campus are funded through USF Tampa's budget. 

For example, one is the prestigious Marine Science program at USF St. Pete. The city said it knows how much the college brings to this community. 

"This city is aware of the economic impact of higher education on the entire Tampa Bay region," council member Leslie Curran said. "We need to support and continue the support of higher education."