FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.–Nova Southeastern University’s (NSU) College of Optometry and National Vision, Inc. (NASDAQ:EYE), have mutually agreed to end their recently announced philanthropic agreement. On Sept. 25, NSU announced the College of Optometry had received a significant philanthropic commitment from National Vision, Inc., one of the country’s leaders in the eyecare industry, as VMAIL  reported. 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, according to a joint announcement issued today.

“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, Nova Southeastern University’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 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.”

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.