He is in a position to know of what he speaks, and gives us an update.

Frank would undoubtedly love it if I took a moment to invite all members 
of the Italian American community to contact UNICO, and/or  their frequent
collaborator OSIA to lend their efforts to extend I-A Studies into more 
Schools. 
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From: Frank Cannata 
RE: New? Italian American Studies at Holy Cross and Niagara University

In response to the comments regarding Italian-American Studies, I am
pleased to inform you that the pursuit of studies in this area are alive
and well.  

The Noether Chair in Modern Italian History is Professor John Davis.  
One of the first objectives he announced was to create a Fellowship in
Italian-American History.  The Aldo DeDominicis Fellowship is a fully
endowed scholarship valued at $15,000 per year in Italian-American History.

The first recipient of this award is Annette Pontilo.  She is currently
doing the research for her Doctoral thesis.  That means courses dealing
exclusively with Italian-American studies are in the curriculum.  This is
the penultimate of education.  Those conferred with graduate degrees and
especially doctorates become our teachers, writers, journalists and true
communicators about the Italian-American experience.  Once Ms. Pontilo
completes her thesis it will be published.  The body of her research will
become a part of our I-A historical record.  No longer will we have to rely
on oral history as the major source when researching our history.

The LaMotta Chair in Italian Studies at Seton Hall is Professor William
Connell.  In a brief three years he has created a major in Italian and
introduced Italian-American studies as a subject within his teaching
curriculum.  As Chair he also supervises the Valente Book Collection which
encompasses works on Italy by Italians and Italian-Americans and books that
are exclusively Italian-American.  This is one of the most richly endowed
book collections in the country. 

The Graziedio Chair in Italian Language is Professor Carlo Chiarenza.  He
solidified the teaching of the Italian language at UCLB and has broaden the
curriculum to include Italian-American studies.  Like Seton Hall this is
only in the early stages.  The point is these are well endowed programs
that will not go away because a new Provost is hired.  That is the reason
we spent 15 years raising money to endow these Chairs.

The Alphonse D'Amato Chair is in Italian-American Studies.  The $1.5
million campaign has been completed.  A Chair will be appointed in 2002. 
Currently there is an Italian-American institute on the campus, headed by
Professor Fred Gardaphe.  There is already a reasonably full  I-A study
program on this campus.  The endowment will only broaden it.  It may also
interest you to know that Fred Gardaphe is the foremost expert on
Italian-American writers.  He has guest lectured all over this country.

At the University of Minnesota a campaign is underway to endow a curators
position for the Immigration Archives.  Under the direction of Professor
Rudy Vecoli the collection of materials dealing with the Italian migration
represents one of the most complete records of the I-A experience.  The
University intends to provide a major in Italian-American Studies.  Thanks
to Rudy the Italian-American scholars have am archive that they can access
and build their research.  In the not too distant future they will also be
able to earn a degree in the Italian-American experience.

The John D. Calandra Italian-American Institute at City University of New
York offers lectures, seminars exclusively dealing with Italian-American
history, culture and art.  Under the direction of Joseph V. Scelsa this
Institute is one of the best sources of information on our Italian-American
experience.  Space nor words can ever convey the great debt of gratitude
every I-A owes to Professor Scelsa.  He made many personal sacrifices to
combat prejudice at his own University and lead the fight to insure that
Italian-American teachers and students would be treated no less nor no
worse then the other members of the CUNY family.  Thanks to him we have
this valuable resource.

While providing courses dealing on the Italian-American experience is
important we must understand that the ultimate goal is to create endowed
programs that will provide teachers, writers and historians, all dealing
with the I-A experience.  We commend individual teachers who care enough to
institute classes in Italian-American subject matter.  Without the support
of the local community and the commitment of the University to support and
expand these classes to full degree programs there is no guarantee that
they will continue.  

The creation of Chair and Fellowship campaigns was and is intended to
insure that the teaching of Italian and Italian-American subject matter
would be incorporated into the curriculums of major Universities  all of
this country.  Bear in mind when we started we were told, at several
Universities and Colleges, "there is no demand for such courses."  We have
proven all of those unenlightened educators the demand exists.  This is
supported by the fact that all the classes offered by these respective
programs are full.  The demand is growing for graduate degrees as well. 
That is where we want this all to end.  We want to produce a stream of
bright, intelligent, informed and articulate academic Italian-American
Champions.  One day these young people will carry the fight that was so
nobly begun by a very small group of dedicated Italian-Americans.