University of Houston renames engineering building after Indian-American couple
Houston: A building at the University of Houston has been renamed after an Indian-American couple in recognition of their contribution to aid research projects, faculty and students at the varsity.
The university, a public research college founded in 1927, renamed its Engineering Research Building after Durga D Agrawal and Sushila, long-time Houstonians, on April 26, university officials said.
Indian-American chancellor and president of the university Renu Khator, Consul General of India Anupam Ray, members of the Indian community, students and faculty were present at the building dedication ceremony.
The USD 51-million building, which opened in 2017, had earlier named a floor after the couple.
The Durga D and Sushila Agrawal Engineering Research Building has been named to recognise a transformational gift that the Agrawals have made, an university release said.
Agrawal, 74, who is from a nondescript village in Madhya Pradesh's Lakhanpur, expressed his admiration and respect for his professors at the university, who "put their heart and soul" into teaching students including some like him who had trouble understanding the language and the American accent.
Having immigrated to Houston in 1968, after his Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering, Agrawal earned two advanced degrees in Industrial Engineering from the University of Houston's (UH) Cullen College of Engineering.
He is a member of the UH System Board of Regents and serves as chair on the UH's endowment management committee. He also served on the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board for four years.
Durga started his piping technology and products company in 1975. Today, the company is a leading player in its category and employs over a 1,000 people.
"My life's philosophy is to always be optimistic. One can achieve any goal with hard work, persistence and determination," he said. Family bonds are important to the Agrawals.
"My parents played a major role in teaching me the values of giving and being kind. The UH has a very special place in my heart. We must keep the torch of knowledge, excellence and innovation growing and glowing," he said.
At the dedication ceremony, president of the university Khatos said,"We named the new engineering building after Dr and Mrs Durga Agrawal, our alum and regent, to celebrate their generosity and their gift will inspire our students and alumni for many generations."
The building on campus bears no resemblance to the one Durga studied in but has been rebuilt on the same piece of land.
Agrawal was the first major donor and founding president of India House, a community centre that offers free services and community programs.
Being the founder and first president of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Houston, Agarwal has been part of many delegations to promote trade and exchange of educational and medical resources between Houston and India.
He was once introduced by former President George Bush as "my good friend from Texas" at a State Dinner for India's then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at Capitol Hill.
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Angry protesters from New York to Alaska assail Trump and Musk in 'Hands Off!' rallies
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Washington (AP): Crowds of people angry about the way President Donald Trump is running the country marched and rallied in scores of American cities Saturday in the biggest day of demonstrations yet by an opposition movement trying to regain its momentum after the shock of the Republican's first weeks in office.
So-called Hands Off! demonstrations were organised for more than 1,200 locations in all 50 states by more than 150 groups, including civil rights organisations, labour unions, LBGTQ+ advocates, veterans and elections activists. The rallies appeared peaceful, with no immediate reports of arrests.
Thousands of protesters in cities dotting the nation from Midtown Manhattan to Anchorage, Alaska, including at multiple state capitols, assailed Trump and billionaire Elon Musk's actions on government downsizing, the economy, immigration and human rights.
On the West Coast, in the shadow of Seattle's iconic Space Needle, protesters held signs with slogans like “Fight the oligarchy.” Protesters chanted as they took to the streets in Portland, Oregon, and Los Angeles, where they marched from Pershing Square to City Hall.
Demonstrators voiced anger over the administration's moves to fire thousands of federal workers, close Social Security Administration field offices, effectively shutter entire agencies, deport immigrants, scale back protections for transgender people and cut funding for health programs.
Musk, a Trump adviser who runs Tesla, SpaceX and the social media platform X, has played a key role in the downsizing as the head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency. He says he is saving taxpayers billions of dollars.
Asked about the protests, the White House said in a statement that “President Trump's position is clear: he will always protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid for eligible beneficiaries. Meanwhile, the Democrats' stance is giving Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare benefits to illegal aliens, which will bankrupt these programs and crush American seniors.”
Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign advocacy group, criticized the administration's treatment of the LBGTQ+ community at the rally at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., where Democratic members of Congress also took the stage.
“The attacks that we're seeing, they're not just political. They are personal, y'all,” Robinson said. “They're trying to ban our books, they're slashing HIV prevention funding, they're criminalizing our doctors, our teachers, our families and our lives.”
“We don't want this America, y'all,” Robinson added. “We want the America we deserve, where dignity, safety and freedom belong not to some of us, but to all of us.”
In Boston, demonstrators brandished signs such as “Hands off our democracy” and “Hands off our Social Security.”
Mayor Michelle Wu said she does not want her children and others' to live in a world in which threats and intimidation are government tactics and values like diversity and equality are under attack.
“I refuse to accept that they could grow up in a world where immigrants like their grandma and grandpa are automatically presumed to be criminals,” Wu said.
Roger Broom, 66, a retiree from Delaware County, Ohio, was one of hundreds who rallied at the Statehouse in Columbus. He said he used to be a Reagan Republican but has been turned off by Trump.
“He's tearing this country apart,” Broom said. “It's just an administration of grievances.”
Hundreds of people also demonstrated in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, a few miles from Trump's golf course in Jupiter, where he spent the morning at the club's Senior Club Championship. People lined both sides of PGA Drive, encouraging cars to honk and chanting slogans against Trump.
“They need to keep their hands off of our Social Security,” said Archer Moran of Port St. Lucie, Florida.
“The list of what they need to keep their hands off of is too long,” Moran said. “And it's amazing how soon these protests are happening since he's taken office.”
The president golfed in Florida Saturday and planned to do so again Sunday, the White House said.
Activists have staged nationwide demonstrations against Trump and Musk multiple times since Trump returned to office. But before Saturday the opposition movement had yet to produce a mass mobilization like the Women's March in 2017, which brought thousands of women to Washington after Trump's first inauguration, or the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that erupted in multiple cities after George Floyd's killing by police in Minneapolis in 2020.
In Charlotte, North Carolina, protesters said they were supporting a variety of causes, from Social Security and education to immigration and women's reproductive rights.
“Regardless of your party, regardless of who you voted for, what's going on today, what's happening today is abhorrent,” said Britt Castillo, 35, of Charlotte. "It's disgusting, and as broken as our current system might be, the way that the current administration is going about trying to fix things — it is not the way to do it. They're not listening to the people."
Among thousands marching through downtown San Jose, California, were Deborah and Douglas Doherty.
Deborah, a graphic designer, is a veteran of the 2017 Women's March and was nervous that fewer people have turned out against Trump this time. “All the cities need to show up,” she said. “Now people are kind of numb to it, which is itself frightening.”
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