Hindu University Earns Degree Of Pride With First Graduates

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ORLANDO, FLORIDA, June 19, 2004: There won’t be a commencement procession today at the Hindu University of America, and for good reason: Faculty members would far outnumber the students. Well, make that “student,” begins this article. Just two degrees will be awarded at the Orlando campus–masters in Hinduism and Vedic astrology–and only one of the graduates, Jessica Sayles, plans to attend. Still, there will be an invocation. A ceremonial Hindu lamp will be lighted, and university officials and invited guests will speak. In a verse from Hinduism’s sacred writings, university officials will ask Sarasvati, the Goddess of learning and wisdom, to bless the university. Today’s ceremonies include not just the 2-year-old school’s first graduation but a dedication of its first new, permanent structures. The new structures, part of the university’s first phase of development, add 5,000 square feet of modular classrooms and offices. A two-story administrative building is next on the schedule. The faculty has grown to four full-time and 18 adjunct professors, and an administrative staff of four. Soon after moving to its 10-acre site in 2002, a neighbor donated an adjoining 2.5 acres.



“This is an item of pride for the local Hindu community and all over the country,” says K.C. Gupta, the university president and former professor of electrical engineering at the University of Colorado. Leaders of Central Florida’s Hindu community of 7,000 agree. “Our community is growing, and it will help us create an awareness of the Hindu religion and philosophy and teachings,” says Dr. Aravind Pillai, chairman of the Hindu Society of Central Florida. “It will help us tell the world exactly what we stand for.” Courses–both credit and non-credit–range from yoga classes to Sanskrit language study. They are taught on the campus and online; some yoga classes are taught at Valencia Community College’s east campus. The full-and part-time student body consists of 15 Orlando students and more than 45 others throughout the United States and India.