4
COM Outlook . Spring 2014
HPD
Chancellor’s
Communiqué
...Frederick Lippman, R.Ph., Ed.D.
As I was read-
ing the book
entitled
The
Making of
Nova South-
eastern Uni-
versity
by Ju-
lian Pleasants,
which was
composed to
commemorate
NSU’s 50
th
anniversary, it brought back
many fond memories of what occurred
approximately two decades ago when
Nova University and Southeastern Uni-
versity of the Health Sciences decided to
structure a dynamic merger of the two
educational institutions.
Because of my involvement in public
service over the years, I had the pleasure
of knowing many of the original found-
ers of Nova University such as Hamilton
Forman, William Horvitz, Tinsley Ellis,
longtime president Abraham Fischler, and
others who have served the South Florida
community in many ways. Because of
these relationships, I was well aware of
the struggles the university was encoun-
tering as well as the exciting advance-
ments that were taking place.
From its infancy, Nova University was
consistently challenging the construct
of traditional education systems. It was
exactly this type of progressive attitude
that brought Dr. Morton Terry, the founder
of Southeastern University of the Health
Sciences and NSU’s Health Professions
Division, to view Nova University as a
potential partner that shared his vision—a
foresight for not following the staid and
feudal standards of some of our nation’s
academic infrastructure. As a result, Dr.
Terry made contact with key members of
the Nova University Board of Trustees in
1993. Instinctively, he felt that Southeast-
ern University of the Health Sciences and
Nova University had similar chutzpah.
Although the Nova/Southeastern
merger proved to be a powerhouse part-
nership, Dr. Terry had also engaged in pre-
liminary talks with the University of Miami
about being a potential merge partner.
Interestingly, as wonderful as the Univer-
sity of Miami was and is—particularly its
outstanding school of medicine—Dr. Terry
didn’t feel comfortable in that environ-
ment. Once he met with the leaders from
Nova University, however, Dr. Terry was
certain he’d found the perfect fit.
Ultimately, the innovative education
atmosphere that was inherent within
the Nova University system proved to be
symbiotic with what Dr. Terry felt the pre-
sentation of health education would be
in the future. He saw in Nova University
that rare spark that would enable all of
us to work together. I remember listening
to former NSU President Ray Ferrero, Jr.,
many years ago when he stated that the
merger was not a 1 + 1 = 2 merger; it was
more like 1 + 1 = 10.
As I reflect upon that period in our
history, the truly amazing feature of Dr.
Terry’s leadership was that he had a
remarkably instinctive quality in terms of
what he felt the future would look like. As
a non-educator who was a very significant
and qualified medical professional, he felt
he needed dedicated and talented people
to get us where he thought we needed to
be. To that end, he and the action leaders
of what became Nova Southeastern Uni-
versity worked together hand in glove.
I had the privilege of joining forces
with Southeastern University of the Health
Sciences in 1986, and I watched all that
we are today occur before my eyes. In
all honesty, I was amazed by the way Dr.
Terry always strived to make prudent
decisions, especially from a financial
perspective, but was also willing to take
risks in the academic realm at any cost. A
true forward-thinker, Dr. Terry, who passed
away in 2004, always believed that invest-
ing in new programs would bring not only
academic success, but financial reward.
When we officially came to the Davie
campus as a merged entity in 1996, one of
the construction elements of the Health
Professions Division centered on the
creation of the lab/library building, with
nearly 20 percent of the edifice being
dedicated to research. At that time, the
university’s primary focus was on simply
providing quality education—not conduct-
ing research.
Once the NSU Health Professions Divi-
sion was founded, we made a concerted
effort to establish a research infrastruc-
ture by forming a research committee
and an institutional review board. I also
worked closely with Dr. Terry during this
time to budget sums of money that were
made available to faculty members for
what we call seed research, which created
an environment for them to seek grants
and pursue various funding opportunities
from either private foundations or govern-
ment agencies.
The success of these efforts is evi-
denced by the following statistic: When
we initially came to NSU’s main campus,
the former Southeastern University of the
Health Sciences had less than $100,000 in
research funding; as of February 2014, we
had an active total of about $25.3 million
in external funding. I truly feel that, along
with NSU’s Center of Excellence for Coral
Reef Ecosystems Research, the interpro-
fessional components and synergistic
relationships we have here at the Health
Professions Division helped lead to the
conceptualization of the Center for Col-
laborative Research (CCR), which officially
broke ground on February 13.
By 2016, which is when the CCR is
slated to open, NSU will be home to two
major research centers that will play a
major role in helping the university reach
its goal of having $300 million in externally
funded research by the year 2020.
