[RAA Comment: Perhaps those OSIA, NIAF, UNICO Scholarship programs 
currently in place be modified to support ONLY those students pursuing 
Italian Anerican Studies!!!!!!]

From Frank Cannata

Richard,

Thanks for the continuing dialog on education.  We wholeheartedly agree
with Larry(Di Stasi) regarding Italian-American Studies.  At each University, we 
have partnered with the Chairs have integrated Italian-American Studies into the
curriculum.  At UCONN, John Davis (Noether Chair in Modern Italian History)
structured a program so that a student can earn a Doctorate in
Italian-American History.  That was the rationale for the creation of the
Aldo DeDominicis Fellowship in Italian-American History at UCONN.  To the
best of our knowledge, there is only one other University in the United
States that offers a similar program.  

At Seton Hall, William Connell (LaMotta) has integrated Italian-American
Studies into the Italian core curriculum.  Ultimately that will be
expanded.  The same is true at the University of California Long Beach
where Carlo Chiarenza (Graziedio Chair) has made Italian a major area of
study.  Bear in mind that seven years ago the Italian language program (at
UCLB) was threatened with extinction and was the driving force behind the
creation of this Chair.

The D'Amato Chair at SUNY Stony Brook is in Italian-American Studies. 
Professor Fred Gardaphe (Director of the Italian-American Institute) has
considerably broadened the scope of Italian-American Studies on that
campus.  For those of our friends who do not know, Fred is the foremost
authority on the subject of Italian-American writers and has published
several books of his own.

The next step is creating endowed scholarships in Italian and
Italian-American Studies.  This will insure that our best and brightest
will pursue graduate degrees in those areas.  They in turn will become the
teachers, writers, journalists, historians that will create a permanent
historical record of the Italian migration to the United States.  This was
always the motivating force behind all of our efforts.

Endowed scholarships not only fuel the interest in Italian and
Italian-American Studies but enhance the viability of the Chair at each one
of these Universities.  Consider the Chair as providing the bread and the
scholarship adding the water (or wine).

New Chair and Fellowship campaigns will be announced in the early part of
the New Year.  Stay tuned!

Frank Cannata