Buddhists Donate Proceeds from Sale of House to University's Environmental Studies Program

June 14, 2004

Source: Toronto Star

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1087165505533&call_pageid=968350130169&col=969483202845

On June 14, 2004 the Toronto Star reported, "A spiritual connection between the Faculty of Environmental Studies and a local Buddhist temple has resulted in what York University officials are calling 'a particularly gracious and meaningful gift.' The Han Shan Sih Buddhist Society took the rather unusual step this spring of donating the proceeds from the sale of the house that had served as its temple for about 15 years. The North York home's value of about $340,000 will be used to offer annual bursaries of about $2,000 each for 15 to 20 environmental studies students starting in 2005-06. All but one of the awards will go to undergraduate students. With matching funds from the Ontario Student Opportunities Trust Fund, the gift will actually be worth about $615,000...University representatives, including Environmental Studies Dean David Morley and Professor Peter Timmerman, who is a Buddhist, met with temple master Rev. Chan Ting last September. Ting, who has left Canada for at least a year, wanted to re-gift the house — which was a donation from one of the temple's supporters — to the community in which she had resided."