NSU is preparing for its 50th anniversary in 2014, which will celebrate the university’s founding in 1964.
Barbara Packer-Muti, executive director of the Office of Institutional and Community Engagement, said the celebration will last throughout the entire year with ongoing events.
“We’re a young university and celebrating our first big milestone is a big deal,” Packer Muti said. “We went from a very small school and have now grown to almost 29,000 students and 18 different colleges and schools, so we really want to celebrate our first 50 years and beginning planning and looking to the future.”
The kickoff event will be the Team 2020 Celebration on Jan. 23 in the Arena at the Don Taft University Center. Alejandrina Matias, administrative coordinator in the Office of Institutional and Community Engagement, said the event is for NSU’s employees, some of whom will be recognized for their years of service, including those who have worked at NSU for 15, 20, 25 and 30 years.
Packer-Muti said oatmeal will be served at the event because “NSU began with a breakfast club of people discussing the potential for a university, and they always ate oatmeal.”
Following the Team 2020 Celebration will be a Celebration of Excellence on Feb. 1 at 6:30 p.m. in the UC. Packer-Muti said this is a formal dinner recognizing Winifred and Joseph C. Amaturo, who will receive the President’s Award for Excellence in Community Service, for supporting NSU and exemplifying the value of community, one of NSU’s core values. Proceeds from the celebration will go to a scholarship fund for students.
Each of NSU’s 33 academic and administrative units will be celebrated throughout the year, with one week devoted to each. Packer-Muti said that emails, ads and fliers around campus will let people know which unit is being celebrated that week.
Planning committees in each unit will decide how to celebrate their week. However, each unit will have a common event: an hour of coffee and conversation in the fourth floor of the Alvin Sherman Library on the Thursday of their week.
Packer-Muti said, “It’s a time for us to kind of look at our history and think back to what each of those units looked like when they began and what they’re currently doing and what the future will hold.”
Some of the 33 units include the regional campuses, the Office of Facilities Management, the Office of Human Resources, the Office of Innovation and Information Technology, the Alvin Sherman Library, the Division of Student Affairs, the Athletics Department, the University School, the Mailman Segal Center, the Office of Institutional Effectiveness and the Office of University Relations.
Other celebrations will include the Ball Fantastique, a dinner for the Heath Professions Division, in the Hyatt Regency Pier Sixty-Six on March 29 and The Big Thank You Scholarship Luncheon on March 24 at the UC.
Sharon Sullivan, director of community partnership and special events in the Office of Advancement and Community Relations, said the luncheon will bring together donors and students who received scholarships supported by those donors.
“The student has an opportunity to meet and thank the person who supported that scholarship,” Sullivan said.
Also coinciding with the celebrations are the 40th Anniversary Celebration of the Shepard Broad Law Center, the 25th Anniversary of the College of Optometry and the 25th Anniversary Celebration of the Graduate School of Computer and Information Sciences.
In addition, annual NSU events, such as CommunityFest in February and the Student Life Achievement Awards in April, will recognize the 50th anniversary in special ways, still to be planned.
Packer-Muti said 50th anniversary merchandise will be available at the NSU Bookstore, including shirts and backpacks, with the anniversary logo. The bookstore will also sell two books on NSU in January, one focused on its history and one filled with pictures. In addition, a video wall will be installed in the UC, showcasing the university’s history.
The main planning committee has been planning for the anniversary celebrations since last June. The committee is comprised of 15 faculty, staff and administrators, including Sullivan and Packer-Muti, and is chaired by Jacqueline Travisano, executive vice president and chief operating officer. Matias said a subcommittee is in charge of relaying information to the 33 units and each person on the subcommittee is in charge of communicating with about four or five administrative and academic units.
This subcommittee is chaired by Packer-Muti and includes Matias, Bart Whitehead, assistant dean of continuing education in the College of Dental Medicine; Maria Lemme, assistant director of administration in the Office of Facilities Management,; and Felicia Henderson, associate director of public affairs in the Office of University Relations.
In addition, each of the units has its own committee planning the events that they will host during their celebration week. For example, Whitehead said some of the ideas from the HPD committees have included lectures, poster presentations and open houses, though no plans have been finalized.
Whitehead said, “We’re all excited and we want to make sure that we prepare and engage people at an early stage.
Sharon Sullivan said that NSU’s growth is a remarkable achievement.
“I think it’s remarkable to note how the university started as a small building on what was a landing strip of an old airfield, and now it’s now grown to the size that it is,” Sullivan said. “It’s an international university with 78,000 alumni.”
Sullivan also said these celebrations will be important for students.
“I think there’s going to be a lot of opportunity for NSU to share its story in the community,” Sullivan said. “As its reputation for excellence grows, so will opportunities for students.”
