INFORMATION
Accomplishments of JAINA Academic Liaison Committee (ALC) Complied by Dr. Sulekh Jain
[ In November JAINA published a 140-page special edition of Jain Digest magazine entirely devoted to Jain Academic Education and Pathshala activities and their growth. It is a very comprehensive issue and will be a useful resource for a long time. You can download it at: https://www.jaina.org/mpage/Jain_Education_in_North_America ALC is one of the most active committees of JAINA and is working diligently to establish Centers for study, teaching and research in Jain Dharma at universities and colleges in USA and Canada. Due to time limitations, a few of the recent activities were not covered in the special edition. In this article, we provide you the latest developments. ]
JAINA ALC Membership
To make ALC more representative, active and dynamic, we added 14 new members (this includes 4 female members too) thus growing the membership from just 8 to 22. ALC meets regularly and quite frequently on zoom. The new members are: Drs. Mukesh Doshi (Chicago), Narendra Parson (LA), Faquir Jain (Connecticut), Shailendra Palvia (Long Island), Mamata Shaha (NY), Kirti Jain (KY), Sushama Parekh (LA), Parveen Jain (San Jose), Atul Shah (London, U.K), Shugan Jain (Delhi, India), Priti Kothari (FL), Mr. Hans Jain (Toronto, Canada), Mr. Pankaj Shah (Boston) Mrs. Mohini Jain (Sacramento)
New Gnan Mandirs Established Working with many donors, we have established the following new academic positions: 1. Endowed Jain Scholar Programs: With a donation of $ One Million, a handful of donors established the first of its kind multi-disciplinary program at Cerritos Community College in LA.
2. Endowed Chairs Established • Shri Anantnath Endowed Chair in Jain Studies at the University of Wisconsin Madison, WI • Shri Shantinath Endowed Chair in Jain Studies at the Ahimsa Center at Cal Poly Pomona, CA • Endowed Joint Chair in Jain and Hindu Dharma at Cal State University, Fresno, CA
3. Lectureships in Jain Studies • With an annual donation of $50K, established a new Lectureship positions at UCLA and University of Connecticut at Storrs, CT. • Adjunct Lectureship Jain Studies program at University of Dayton, OH 4. Jain Studies Program at University of Chicago: Several Jain donors in Chicago with pledges of $50K each year, came forward to augment the Jain Studies program
New Positions Advertised
To fill some open positions, 4 job Ads (for Univ of Toronto, Willamette, UCLA and UNT) are already out and we expect that all the vacant positions will be filled and become fully operational within 1-3 years
New Initiatives To support many of the growing activities, following new programs were established.
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