Dear Friends ! Namaskar !
I am just forwording the message to all. Because somebody is really trying hard for this.
Please have a look....
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[My advance apologies for this mail. Please let me know if you would not like to receive such mails. I will immediately honor your request.]
Dear all:
Last week I had promised to most of you that I will make a document and come up with an action plan.
The document I made is at http://bit.ly/vedantau1 . It is 1.5 MB pdf file. The Notes section of http://www.facebook.com/vedantau also has the document but split into 9 seprate notes. (I earlier announced it in facebook, so some of you may have already seen it.) It is a detailed document on why Vedanta University is significant and important for Odisha. It elaborates with citations the following points:
India currently does not have a single world class university; i.e., none of India’s universities or institutions are ranked in the top 100 or even top 200 of world rankings.
Vedanta University has a chance of becoming India’s first world class university.
Private funding will play an important role in making world-class universities in India and Vedanta University has a viable financial plan.
A world class university in Puri will make the Bhubaneswar-Puri area one of the top knowledge hub of India and would have a huge impact on rest of Odisha and rest of India.
In addition it address several frequently asked questions (FAQs):
Why does Vedanta University need so much land?
Why should we believe that Mr. Anil Agarwal will indeed keep his promise and donate $1 Billion for this university?
What progress has been made towards making Vedanta University?
Why is there opposition to Vedanta University in Odisha? What about the high court case verdict on land acquisition?
Please, please have a look at this document at http://bit.ly/vedantau1 and circulate it widely.
Now, What is the action plan?
After thinking and discussing with some of you we have come up with an action plan that just might work, provided all of you help.
The idea is as follows:
Each of us writes a 1-2 page (or more if you please) personalized statement on why each of us thinks that Vedanta University is important for Odisha and India. In this document each of us gives his/her background (to the extent each of us is comfortable with) and makes the case based on the background. My document at http://bit.ly/vedantau1 may be used (and you may write that you agree with it) but each statement should have a lot of content unique to each of you. For example, a friend of mine living in North Carolina will write about how Duke, Univ of North Carolina and North Carolina State have made that area a huge knowledge hub. Someone in Singapore could write about their experience of the impact of National U of Singapore. This mailing list has students at various levels. They can write from their perspective. Having letters from various perspectives is good and important.
With these letters ready, we can and will do many things.
For example:
(i) We can post 2-3 such letters each day in Facebook. That will keep the buzz going and will convince and attract more Odias to support Vedanta University.
(ii) A group of us will try to meet the CM in late December and give him a bunch of such letters and urge him to approach the supreme court. I hope that we will have at least 500 letters by then. (The facebook friends+fans is now more than 1030. Plus there are couple of hundred of you who are not in facebook.)
(iii) At an opportune moment we will send these letters to the PM, HRD Minister, top leaders of Congresss and BJP with a cover letter urging them not to play politics with Odisha and India's development.
(iv) We can even send the collection of letters to the Supreme court urging them to consider these letters as evidence of importance of Vedanta University.
(v) At appropriate times we can send them to journalists and news media editors in Odisha and India.
(vi) We may collate the letters and create a book and circulate it in Odisha.
(vii) If there is any further rumor of the university moving out of Odisha, we may send the letter collection to Anil Agarwal to demonstrate that a significant number of intellectual do support Vedanta University. We may send the collection to him any way and request him to make a start with a couple of research institutes (in rented accommodation in Bhubaneswar) and some feeder colleges near Vedanta Company operations in Kalahandi and Jharsuguda. (They have just started a Science College operated by DAV in Lanjigarh.)
I think this approach has a very high chance of working at all levels.
All this requires in the beginning is: Each of us writing a 1-2 page statement. That is all.
I have talked to some people and we will have some letters by early next week. Others please start thinking and writing. To get more number of letters we may ask our spouse (for married people) to write one too.
After writing our own statements and getting statements from our spouse (if any), we can go further and try to get statements from our like minded friends and relatives. (Some letters could be in Odia.) Especially, people who have relatives in Puri (who care about this) could ask them to write from the Puri perspective.
I really think that this has a very high chance of working. This will be much more effective than signing petitions (written by a few) or many people forwarding the same mail. 500 or 1000 people, mostly highly qualified people, some students and some locals writing why they want this university will be listened to and have an impact.
So please, help in this. All that is needed is writing a 1-2 page statement. I know all of us are passionate about this cause and we may never study or use this university ourselves. We need to write this statement for the generations of Odias that will come after us. Please plan on having your statement in a week or at most 10 days. I will contact some people individually for statements before that as we would like to start posting 2-3 statements daily in the facebook page starting from next week.
Note: The facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/vedantau and it has information that may come in handy when you write your statement. Click on the "Notes" section where the document http://bit.ly/vedantau1 is split to 9 parts.
Finally, If some of you would like to help more, please write back. We are assembling a working group that can devote a bit more time to this.
sincerely and with best regards
Chitta Baral
Professor, Arizona State University
http://www.public.asu.edu/~cbaral