FORT LAUDERDALE/DAVIE, Fla., Oct. 01, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nova Southeastern University’s (NSU) College of Optometry and National Vision, Inc., have mutually agreed to end their recently announced philanthropic agreement.
On September 25, 2018, NSU announced the College of Optometry had received a significant philanthropic commitment from National Vision, Inc., one of the country’s leaders in the eye care industry. The endowment would have provided the college with student scholarships, faculty research, and equipment for the college’s simulation lab. Also, as a result of National Vision’s support, the College of Optometry agreed to rename the NSU National Vision College of Optometry for an initial term of 10 years. All terms under this agreement have been terminated.
“Although our organizations share many core values – particularly for serving our larger communities – we have come to realize that the issues associated with corporate philanthropy in the health sciences are still too nascent,” said Dr. George Hanbury, NSU’s president and CEO. “This topic deserves further thought and consideration over time from the broader academic, professional, philanthropic, and alumni communities. To that end, the CEO of National Vision and I have mutually agreed to end this philanthropic partnership. We greatly appreciate National Vision’s well-intended philanthropic gift and partnership, and look forward to continuing to explore meaningful collaborations between our two organizations in the future.”
National Vision has been a long-time supporter of NSU and its quality optometry education program, including having donated a major piece of equipment - a Binocular Indirect Ophthalmoscope (BIO) simulator - to the College of Optometry's training lab in 2015. The company has also sponsored numerous student events over the past few years.
“National Vision is and will always be an ‘optometrist-centric’ organization,” said Reade Fahs, CEO of National Vision. “We will continue to assess the most productive and impactful approaches for investing in optometric education to do our part in advancing the profession of optometry.”
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About Nova Southeastern University (NSU): Located in beautiful Fort Lauderdale, Florida, NSU is ranked among U.S. News & World Report’s Top 200 National Research Universities and is a dynamic, private research university providing high-quality educational and research programs at the undergraduate, graduate, and first-professional degree levels. Established in 1964, NSU now includes 16 colleges, the 215,000-square-foot Center for Collaborative Research, a private JK-12 grade school, the Mailman Segal Center for Human Development with specialists in Autism, the world-class NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, and the Alvin Sherman Library, Research and Information Technology Center, which is Florida’s largest public library. NSU has campuses in Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Jacksonville, Miami, Miramar, Orlando, Palm Beach, and Tampa, Florida, as well as San Juan, Puerto Rico, while maintaining a presence online globally. Classified as a research university with “high research activity” by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, NSU is one of only 50 universities nationwide to also be awarded Carnegie’s Community Engagement Classification, and is also the largest private institution in the United States that meets the U.S. Department of Education’s criteria as a Hispanic-serving Institution. For more information, please visit www.nova.edu.
About National Vision Holdings, Inc.: National Vision Holdings, Inc. is one of the largest optical retail companies in the United States with over 1,000 retail stores in 44 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. With a mission of helping people by making quality eye care and eyewear more affordable and accessible, the Company operates five retail brands: America’s Best Contacts & Eyeglasses, Eyeglass World, Vision Centers inside select Walmart stores, and Vista Opticals inside Fred Meyer stores and on select military bases, and several e-commerce websites, offering a variety of products and services for customers’ eye care needs.