Horizons Fall 2013

they wanted it, and when they needed it. “What we promised themwas a class orientation, but we’d bring it to them. Their school would become their labo- ratory,” he added. Fischler’s idea of this learning module required “distance learning,” which was fairly unheard of at the time. As much of a savvy businessman as he was an educator, Fischler created an education model that also was low on overhead. He gathered colleagues he knew fromHarvard and Berkley to join in the endeavor. He would pay the pro- fessors’ expenses and fly them to meet with their new students, whether it was in a library or in a hotel meeting room. “We didn’t have to provide build- ings, most of the time, we were able to find places to meet,” he said. “For the educators, it gave them a chance to see what was going on throughout the country.” It also was a chance for them to interface with students in different situations than they had access to in their usual classrooms. The name Nova University was retained until 1994 when the medical sciences were introduced to the school by a merger with Southeastern Univer- sity of the Health Sciences, creating one of the most important milestones in the school’s history. This is when Nova Southeastern University was formally introduced. The new arrangement brought a medi- cal school, pharmacy school, optome- try school, a College of Allied Health, and a College of Medical Sciences to the Nova campus. One of the primary forces behind the merger was the late Morton Terry, a doctor of osteopathy, the founder of Southeastern College of Osteopathic Medicine, which later became South- eastern University of the Health Sci- ences. Terry was determined to have osteopathic medicine receive its due, and he knew the merger with Nova University would help to bring credibil- ity to the study of osteopathic medicine. Fred Lippman, R.Ph., Ed.D., the chancellor of Nova Southeastern Uni- versity’s Health Professions Division, remembers working on the merger of the two universities with Morton Terry. “To work with Dr. Terry was both an honor and an inspiration,” said Lippman. “Dr. Terry was one of the first physicians in Broward County to prac- tice in African American communities back in the 1960s, when that was un- heard of. He was the kind of doctor who went out into the streets. He knew what was going on in the neighborhood. He was, and still is, an inspiration for me.” NSU MAIN CAMPUS: NOW VISION 2020 STATEMENT By 2020, through excellence and innovations in teaching, research, service, and learning, Nova Southeastern University will be recog- nized by accrediting agencies, the academic community, and the general public as a premier, private, not-for-profit university of quality and distinction that engages all stu- dents and produces alumni who serve with integrity in their lives, fields of study, and resulting careers. MISSION STATEMENT The mission of Nova Southeastern University, a private, not-for-profit institution, is to offer a diverse array of innovative academic programs that complement on-campus educational opportunities and resources with accessible, distance-learning programs to foster academic excellence, intellectual inquiry, leadership, research, and commit- ment to community through engagement of students and faculty members in a dynamic, lifelong learning environment. CORE VALUES • Academic Excellence • Student Centered • Integrity • Innovation • Opportunity • Scholarship/Research • Diversity • Community For more information on NSU’s 50th anniversary, visit www.nova.edu/nsu50 .