The University of California at Irvine is walking away from two gifts to establish endowed chairs in Hindu and India studies after faculty members and students raised concerns about the ideology of the donors and the influence they sought to exert in the search process. The gifts in question came from the Dharma Civilization Foundation, a California entity that seeks to fund the academic study and teaching of Indian religions as a corrective to what it describes as widespread misrepresentations of Hinduism by scholars who do not practice the religion. The report by an ad hoc faculty committee charged with reviewing the DCF gifts to Irvine raised serious concerns about the implications of the university associating with the foundation in light of its various public statements on “what constitutes good or acceptable scholars.” The committee -- which also documented flaws in the procedures for approving the chairs and problems in the language of the gift agreements -- found association with the DCF to be “inconsistent with UCI’s core values as a public university that fosters diversity, inclusion, toleration and respect” and recommended rejecting the gifts, a recommendation endorsed by the university’s Humanities Executive Committee (HEC).

February 22, 2016 ・ From Inside Higher Ed