Nova Southeastern University

Farber West Hall 1960s Main entrance of NSU The university, originally named Nova University of Advanced Technology, was chartered by the state of Florida on December 4, 1964. The name comes from the site where the Nova Education Experiment was conducted, a project funded in part by the Ford Foundation and the federal government with the goal of creating a series of schools spanning elementary to university-level education. [ 23 ] [ 24 ] [ 25 ] With an inaugural class of 17 students, [ 24 ] the university opened as a graduate school for the social and physical sciences. [ 18 ] [ 26 ] The university was originally located on a campus in downtown Fort Lauderdale but later moved to its current campus in Davie, Florida . [ 19 ] A portion of the site of this campus was once a naval training airfield during World War II , called the "Naval Outlying Landing Field Forman". [ 17 ] The remnants of the taxiway surrounding the airfield are still present in the form of roads used on the campus. [ 27 ] After World War II, the federal government made a commitment to the Forman family, from whom the land was purchased, that the land would only be used for educational purposes. [ 27 ] This led the land to be used for the creation of the South Florida Education Center, which includes Nova Southeastern University, [ 27 ] as well as Broward College , McFatter Technical College , and satellite campuses of Florida Atlantic University and the University of Florida . [ 28 ] [ 29 ] [ 30 ] [ 31 ] [ 32 ]

Front of Horvitz building On June 23, 1970, the board of trustees voted to enter into a federation with the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT). The president of NYIT, Alexander Schure , PhD, became chancellor of Nova University, [ 33 ] and Abraham S. Fischler became the president of the university. [ 34 ] The university charter was amended and "of Advanced Technology" was dropped from its corporate name. In 1971, Nova University received accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). [ 20 ] In 1972, the university introduced its first off-campus course of study in education. In 1974, NSU opened a law school , [ 35 ] with an inaugural class of 175 students. [ 26 ] The law school was named after one of the university's founders, Shepard Broad . The same year, the university began offering evening courses on campus for undergraduates, and changed its name to Nova University. The following year, in 1975, the law school received approval from the American Bar Association . [ 36 ]

South entrance of NSU In the early 1980s, the university received a $16 million gift from the Leo Goodwin Sr. Trust. [ 37 ] In 1985, NSU ended its collaboration with NYIT and began offering its first online classes. [ 26 ] [ 38 ] In 1989, enrollment reached 8,000 students, with nearly 25,000 alumni. In 1981, outside of Nova University, a group of osteopathic physicians, wanting to enhance medical education in the region, established the Southeastern College of Osteopathic Medicine in North Miami Beach . This was the first osteopathic medical school established in the southeastern United States . [ 39 ] Rapid expansion over the course of the decade also resulted in the addition of several new programs at Southeastern College. Pharmacy and optometry, amongst other programs, were added to the school. The school then renamed itself into the Southeastern University of the Health Sciences. [ 1 ]

Morton & Geraldine Terry Atrium During the 1990s, both Nova University and Southeastern University expanded, adding a dentistry program and increasing distance education programs. In 1994, Nova University merged with Southeastern University of the Health Sciences to form Nova Southeastern University (NSU), adding the colleges of osteopathic medicine , [ 40 ] pharmacy , optometry and allied health to the university. [ 41 ] Following the merger, many of the health programs relocated to their current location on the Davie campus. In 1993, the Miami Dolphins opened a training center on campus. [ 42 ]