UC Irvine rejects $6 m gift |
The University of California, Irvine, has rejected over a $6 million gift from donors affiliated with the Dharma Civilization Foundation, which would endow four chairs in Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Buddhist studies.UC Irvine has rejected the donation, after faculty members objected to the establishment of the chairs, saying proper procedural practices had not been followed, and alleging that DCF is affiliated with Hindu fundamentalist organizations.Nephrologist Ushakant Thakkar, who gave $1 million to fund the Thakkar Family-Dharma Civilization Foundation Presidential Chair in Vedic and Indic Civilization Studies, told India-West, the university pursued them for two years. They never wanted to be in a place that was not receptive.The Thakkar Family chair was established at UCI in May 2015 in the university’s School of Humanities. Donations have also been secured to endow a chair in Jain Studies, one in Sikh Studies, as well as the Swami Vivekananda-DCF Chair in Modern India Studies. Plans are also there to endow a chair in Buddhist Studies and one in Parsi Studies; DCF has connected with the Godrej family to possibly fund the latter. DCF was established in 2012 with the goal of establishing Indian religious and cultural studies at several U.S. universities.
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