
Arun Gandhi To Speak At Una Commencement
Apr. 08, 2010
Michelle Eubanks, UNA, at media@una.edu, 256.765.4392 or 256.606.2033
FLORENCE, Ala. - Gandhi. Few names in world history evoke such powerful images of integrity, courage, social harmony and - perhaps most of all - hope. The University of North Alabama will host Arun Gandhi, grandson of the legendary peacemaker and spiritual leader Mohandas K. Gandhi, also known as Mahatma Gandhi, as speaker for its spring commencement ceremony next month. The ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. May 15 in Flowers Hall.For Arun Gandhi, growing up in apartheid South Africa as a person of Indian heritage meant racial confrontations with both blacks and whites. As a young boy, he was beaten up by black youths for not being black and by white youths because he was not white. Filled with rage and plotting to avenge his beatings, he subscribed to Charles Atlas body building magazines so he would have the strength to fight back. When his parents discovered the reason for their 12-year-old son's sudden fascination with exercise, they decided that a visit to his grandfather in India was in order.
About The University of North Alabama
The University of North Alabama is an accredited, comprehensive regional state university offering credential, certificate, baccalaureate, master’s, and doctoral programs in the colleges of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering; Business and Technology; Education and Human Sciences; and the Anderson College of Nursing and Health Professions. The first-choice University for more than 10,000 on-campus and online students, UNA is on a bucolic campus in Florence, Alabama, part of the historic and vibrant Shoals region. Lions Athletics, a renowned collegiate athletics program with seven (7) Division II National Championships, is now a proud member of the NCAA Division I’s ASUN Conference. The University of North Alabama is an equal opportunity institution and does not discriminate in the admission policy on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, disability, age, or national origin. For more: www.una.edu and www.una.edu/unaworks/