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COM Outlook . Spring 2014
he Nova Southeastern University that exists today,
which includes a 314-acre main campus and com-
prises nearly 27,000 students as well as more than
162,000 alumni, is something its founders never could
have conceived when it was initially chartered on Decem-
ber 4, 1964, and known by the moniker Nova University of
Advanced Technology.
Initially located in offices on East Las Olas Boulevard in
downtown Fort Lauderdale, the university would eventual-
ly relocate to a nearby western suburb called Davie thanks
to the generosity of a $300,000 gift from Edwin Rosenthal
and a $1-million donation from Louis Parker, which made
possible the construction of NSU’s first buildings on an
abandoned naval airfield.
On a memorable day in September 1967, 17 Ph.D.
students officially enrolled in the fledgling university,
launching what has now become an esteemed and ever-
growing educational enterprise comprising 18 colleges,
schools, and centers. The academic diversity NSU offers
- CELEBRATING AN EDUCATIONAL MILESTONE -
Nova Southeastern University Turns 50
current and future students can be summed up in one
simple statistic: Associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s special-
ist, doctoral, and first-professional degree programs are
offered in 150 programs.
Currently, the university offers degree, nondegree, and
certificate programs at more than 52 national and inter-
national locations. It also has regional campuses in Fort
Myers, Jacksonville, Miami, Miramar, Orlando, Palm Beach,
and Tampa, Florida; Nassau, Bahamas; and San Juan,
Puerto Rico, where students can receive in-person instruc-
tion without leaving their home city.
Although there have been many significant milestones
along the way that have led NSU to the cusp of preemi-
nence, perhaps none was more important than the historic
merger that occurred in 1994 between Nova University and
a rapidly burgeoning institution known as Southeastern
University of the Health Sciences in North Miami Beach.
Through this historic merger, which included a fusion of
names to create a rechristened Nova Southeastern Uni-
By Scott Colton, B.A., APR, COM/HPD Director of Medical Communications and Public Relations
PREVIEWING THE FUTURE:
NSU’s Academical Village
T
