Source: The Kansas City Star

On October 25, 2000, The Kansas City Star reported on "Rupanuga Vedic College, the first and only degree-granting seminary of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness...Rupanuga, which takes its name from a Hindu spiritual leader, opened in January at 52nd Street and the Paseo in an old brick and stone church formerly used by Presbyterians and Nazarenes. The college has no sports teams - the Hare Krishnas consider sports a frivolous diversion from worship - and no women, another bothersome distraction from spiritual pursuits. Rupanuga's 15 students have come here from around the world for rigorous monastic training. It begins with chanting at 4:30 every morning and doesn't end until after a final evening class at 7:30. Their study focuses on the Hindu sacred texts called the Vedas, designed to prepare them to become spiritual teachers and administrators of the Hare Krishna movement. A sedate Midwestern town like Kansas City with relatively few believers outside the Judeo-Christian mainstream may seem an unlikely place for a Hindu sect to open a college. But the Hare Krishnas see Kansas City as a congenial and convenient location for their students. 'We wanted a place centrally located in the United States, a reasonable size city that didn't already have one of our centers, a city with a not too extreme climate, where people are open-minded,' said Danavir Swami, president of the college and the International Society's global director of ministerial education."