Woodstock resident assists Tibetan refugees through SUNY New Paltz scholarship

NEW PALTZ — Woodstock resident Julie Case, seeking to help Tibetan refugees, has chosen the State University of New York at New Paltz as the vehicle for her mission.

Through her gift of $5,000 to the SUNY New Paltz Foundation, the Tibetan Refugees Scholarship Fund became a reality. And, this semester, Shady resident Dolma Lama, a junior business major and native of Nepal, became the first Tibetan Refugee Scholar. Her parents were born in Tibet and she still has relatives living there.

The scholarship is specifically for fully matriculated refugees from Tibet, India, Nepal or Bhutan who have demonstrated academic achievement and the promise of future success.

“To help Tibetan people, I felt I could do so by helping their children through this scholarship,” said Case. “Since SUNY New Paltz has demonstrated to be such a diverse institution, I chose SUNY New Paltz to establish the scholarship,” she said.

New Paltz has been an active participant in international education for more than 100 years and has achieved national recognition for special approaches to international education. Today, New Paltz is a leader in attracting international students, with more than 400 students from more than 40 foreign countries enrolled.

Case said she became passionate about the plight of Tibetan refugees and their specific struggles around the time she became a Buddhist 14 years ago.

“It is through the affection and respect of the Lamas that I became a Buddhist. The Lamas are a paradigm of the Tibetan people,” she said. “The Tibetans have contributed so much to our community and I feel they are worthy of so much more from our community.”

Case’s decision to channel her support for Tibetan refugees through New Paltz is the latest in a growing line of support and gifts to the university to enhance programming and to provide greater and more diverse opportunities for students.

• On October 20, the university community and the Hudson Valley community gathered for the dedication of the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, the premier showcase for historic and contemporary Hudson Valley art.
• On October 24, the university held a reception to welcome its second James H. Ottaway Sr. Professor, Bernard Stein. The James H. Ottaway Sr. Professorship, named by his son Jim Ottaway Jr. for the founder of Ottaway Newspapers, Inc., is for the second time filled by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. Stein, co-publisher and editor of the Northwest Bronx’s Riverdale Press, won the Pulitzer Prize in journalism in 1998 for his elegant editorials. As James H. Ottaway Sr. Professor at SUNY New Paltz, he succeeds Sydney Schanberg, internationally-known journalist who won the Pulitzer Prize for international journalism in 1976 and several other awards for his reporting career at The New York Times and Newsday.
• On October 25, the university honored philanthropists Louis and Mildred Resnick for their longtime and generous support of the campus. An essential part of the special luncheon was the recognition of the 49 students now attending New Paltz as Resnick scholars. With a recent $90,000 gift to the university for the creation of the Resnick Scholarship for Nursing, the Resnicks hope to stem the nursing shortage that threatens health care in the Hudson Valley, and across the country.
• On October 26, the world’s leading computer innovator — IBM — was on campus to share the news of a new collaboration that will create a virtual e-business lab in the university’s School of Business.
• In early November, the university announced a gift from Professor Emeritus Giancarlo Traverso to endow an Italian Studies Lecture Series and scholarships for students of the Italian Studies Program.

Additional information regarding the plight of Tibetan people: According to a Web site maintained by The Office of Tibet, the official agency of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama in London: “In 1949 the People’s Republic of China imposed its will over Tibet through military force, as documented by the United States Congress… Since 1949, China has continued to exercise dominion over the people in Tibet through the presence of a large occupation force. Moreover, approximately 1.2 million Tibetans, about one-sixth of the total population, have died in Tibet since 1949 due to political persecution, imprisonment, torture and famine. Over six thousand of Tibet’s rich religious and other cultural centers have been destroyed. Confirmed reports of Tibetans being incarcerated and killed for the nonviolent expression of their political and religious beliefs persist, as observed during and after the spontaneous demonstrations in Tibet in September and October of 1987 onwards until today.” Find more information at http://tibet.com/Govt/into-tib.html.