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LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, June 21, 2012 (USC Press Release): The USC School
of Religion will establish the first chair of Hindu studies in the United
States funded by the Indian-American community. The Dharma Civilization
Foundation's $3.24 million gift to the USC School of Religion, housed
within the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, will establish
the Swami Vivekananda Visiting Faculty in Hindu Studies and the Dharma
Civilization Foundation Chair in Hindu Studies.
"USC has a long history of welcoming and embracing people from a wide
variety of cultures and creeds, backgrounds and beliefs," USC President
C. L. Max Nikias said. "We're home to more student religious groups
than any university in the nation. Now we are very proud to house the first
chair of Hindu Studies in the United States endowed by the Indian-American
community."
Just last year, President Nikias led a delegation of university faculty,
administrators and trustees, including USC Dean of Religious Life Varun
Soni, to India. There they met with key Indian partners in higher
education, business and government, and with USC alumni, to build
sustainable alliances in the areas of medicine and health care,
neurosciences, the arts, communication and journalism, business, and
technology and engineering.
Based in Los Angeles, the Dharma Civilization Foundation's mission is to
fund studies of the Indic civilization, focusing on the Dharmic religions
of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. The objective is to promote
Dharma education through research scholarship, degree courses and endowed
chairs.
"This historic gift to the USC School of Religion highlights the
department's commitment to study the enduring questions of human life and
values from a global perspective," said Duncan Williams, the chair of
the USC School of Religion.
The celebration and signing ceremony for the gift was at 11 a.m. June 23 on
the USC University Park Campus.
"There is a profound wisdom tradition embedded in Hinduism and we
humbly believe Hinduism can make a valuable contribution to global problems
and challenges. An accurate portrayal and study of Hinduism will be
important not only for Hindus but for the world," the Dharma
Civilization Foundation stated.
USC was selected for this historic gift because of its tradition of
reflecting the values of its community, locally and globally.
Williams is one of few ordained Buddhist priests to chair a religious
studies department in the United States. He previously served as the
Buddhist chaplain at Harvard University and held the Shinjo Ito
Distinguished Chair of Japanese Buddhism at the University of California,
Berkeley.
Dean of Religious Life Varun Soni is the first university chaplain with a
Hindu background. A member of the State Bar of California, Soni spent time
living in a Buddhist monastery in India.
"As one of the preeminent research universities of the Pacific Rim, it
is a natural for USC to be a leader in the study of Asian religions,"
Soni said. "This gift makes that goal immediately more attainable. I
also believe that this is a watershed moment for the Indian-American
community, which has built many Hindu temples in the United States, but has
never before endowed an academic program in Hindu Studies."
USC, which boasts more than 100 student religious organizations and 50
religious directors on campus, sits in the middle of what is considered the
most religiously diverse city on the planet - Los Angeles. There are more
than 70 houses of worship within a mile of the USC University Park Campus
and more than 600 different faiths in the L.A. area.
USC also is a destination for top Asian students. For the tenth year in a
row, USC has enrolled the highest percentage of international students of
any American university, with most coming from India, China, and South
Korea. More than 1,800 Indian students enrolled at USC, the largest group
of Indian students on any higher education American campus.
"The USC School of Religion is creating a distinctive program
embodying a new Asia Pacific/West Coast style of religious studies,"
Williams said. "We aim for a multi-faith and global religious studies
program that takes advantage of our place and moment as we position
ourselves to be the intellectual hub for the Asia Pacific century."
"This gift will help distinguish the USC School of Religion by
emphasizing strengths in areas that don't have a history in divinity schools,"
Williams said. "We are looking at things in a global way by creating a
religious studies program that isn't biased toward one part of the
world."
A brochure for the Dharma Civilization Foundation lists the following
goals:
To promote the study and interpretation of Indic Civilization and Dharma
traditions.
To foster a new generation of outstanding scholars in the areas of
theological, philosophical and spiritual dimensions of the Dharmic
Religions.
To support the creation of Visiting Professorships, Endowed Chairs, and
Centers for advanced learning of the four Dharma Traditions.
To establish graduate programs culminating into a full-fledged Hindu
University of Dharma Studies.
To fund innovative projects aiming to uplift humanity.
And these initiatives:
Creation of Dharma Centers and setting up Endowed Chairs at renowned
Universities in North America.
Publishing relevant Journals containing works of eminent Scholars.
Online Masters' level Courses in Vedic Chaplaincy, Dharma and
Civilizational Studies
Establishing a "School of Divinity"
Providing Scholarships to students wanting to pursue Dharma Studies
Establishing Think -tanks for optimum representation of the Dharma paradigm
Offering seed money for strategic social innovations.
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