Milestone for University of Houston Tamil Studies Chair

Houston: Thursday, November 11, 2021 is another historic day for the Tamilians living in Texas and specifically in the Houston Metropolitan area. On this day, the Houston Tamil Studies Chair Inc. (HTSC), a Texas non-profit corporation with a primary purpose of setting up a Tamil Studies Chair at the University of Houston (UH), made the first payment of $500,000 to the university of Houston as part of a series of payments to set up a Tamil Studies Chair.

The event was attended by Dr. Renu Khator, Chancellor and President of UH, Dr. Eloise Dunn Brice, Vice Chancellor and Vice president of UH, Dr. Daniel P. O’Connor, Interim Dean of College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, and Ms. Kim Howard, Senior Director of Advancement, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. HTSC was represented by its board consisting of President Sockalingam (Sam) Kannappan, Tupil Narasiman, Thiruvengadam Arumugam, Perumal Annamalai, N. Ganesan, Sockalingam Narayanan, Caldwell Velnambi. Consul General, Hon Aseem Mahajan, also attended the event. The event was live streamed by UH for viewing by HTSC donors and supporters.

Chancellor Khator made a few remarks about the achievements of UH in terms of raising significant amount of funding for the university in the recent years and mentioned that UH is one of the top fifty universities in the USA. She was very happy to note that HTSC setting up a Tamil Chair was the first Indian language chair that is being set up in Texas and particularly at UH. The Consul General mentioned about the achievements of the Indian Government in the field of education HTSC President,

Sam Kannappan, made a few remarks thanking the Chancellor Dr. Renu Khator, Vice-President Elice Brice, Dean O’Connor and Consul General of India at Houston Hon Aseem Mahajan for their continuous support. He thanked the Tamil Nadu State Government for contributing one crore rupees ($140,000). Mr. Caldwell Velnambi, president of Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America (FeTNA) and a member of HTSC board spoke about FetNA and invited the UH executives to the annual FeTNA convention.

HTSC is committed to raising Two Million Dollars ($2M) by the end of 2026 to set up a permanent Tamil Studies Chair at the UH. The plan calls for funding the first million dollars by July 31, 2022 and the rest by 2026. The first $500K has been paid and HTSC hopes to raise the remaining $500K by July 31, 2022.