27. May 2009
Dalai Lama offers donation to religion department at US university
(VOA) The Dalai Lama has offered to donate $100,000 to help save the religious studies programme at Florida International University, according to Voice of America (VOA). The religious studies department is due to be shut down as part of $27 million in budget cuts. In a letter to the university president Modesto Maidique, the Dalai Lama said "understanding and appreciation of diversity of religions is critical in fostering a culture of genuine tolerance and peaceful existence". He said if the department were to close down, it would "not be easy to rebuild it". The Dalai Lama received an honorary doctorate of divinity from the Florida school in 1999. He visited it again in 2004.