Italian-Americans to meet on campus

Discussion of admission of ethnic groups to major universities has generally focused on blacks, hispanics and Asians. But the National Italian American Foundation hopes to make its ethnic group part of that discussion. Next Friday, the foundation will hold a conference at the University Museum about the small percentage of Italian-Americans, normally considered part of the large white majority of students on college campuses, attending Ivy League schools. According to foundation staff coordinator John Salamone, only three percent of the entire Ivy League population is Italian-American, while Italian-Americans make up eight percent of the total population in the U.S. The keynote speaker at the conference will be Kenneth Ciongolia, a neurology professor at the University of Vermont College of Medicine, a University alumnus and a board member of NiAF. Ciongolia said he will speak about the reasons for the small Italian-American population at Ivy League schools. "There are two reasons for the small percentage," Ciongolia said. "One is the influence of the families of the students, and the other is the small percentage of spaces available for Italian-Americans." According to Ciongolia, the parents of Italian-American students realize the importance of sending their children to college in order to better themselves. But he said they do not realize they must encourage their children to attend top-rated schools, like the University, in order to become leaders in today's society. In addition, Ciongolia said Ivy League schools set aside 35 percent of their acceptances for affirmative action students, 12 percent for legacies, and eight percent for athletes. Italian-Americans and all decendants of European immigrants are left to compete for only 45 percent of admissions. "Every school has informal quota systems for different groups," Salamone said. "But that means only the very creme de la creme are accepted, unlike in other ethnic groups." Still, Salamone said the NiAF does not want affirmative action for Italian-Americans. Instead, they want students to be judged on a merit basis only. "We represent the middle class of America who is being squeezed out of the Ivy League by the affirmative action set-asides and the upper-class set-asides," Ciongolia said. "It is the grandchildren of European immigrants who are being squeezed out of the Ivy League." According to Ann Greene, an assistant to Admissions Dean Willis Stetson, the University keeps no records of Italian-American admissions or of other similar ethnic groups. The conference, called "NiAF Visits the Ivies," was presented at Harvard University and the University of Virginia last year. According to Salamone, NiAF will visit Princeton University in the fall. President Sheldon Hackney and Stetson will also speak at the conference, which will be held from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Egyptian Room of the museum. In addition, New York Stock Exchange President Richard Grasso and Philadelphia Stock Exchange President Nick Jordano will be at a reception preceding the conference at 6 p.m.

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