Italic Institute Files Complaint Against Columbus Citizens Foundation

We have recently filed a formal complaint with the NYS Attorney General against the Columbus Citizens Foundation. We contend that the Foundation has not complied with its own mission statement.

For some years, the Italic Institute has attempted to communicate with the leadership of the Columbus Citizens Foundation regarding the urgent need to support heritage programs in the Metro area. We endorse the original purposes of the Columbus Club and its Foundation. However, we have respectfully questioned the Foundation's spending of $3 million each year on student scholarships to the exclusion of protecting our cultural legacy.

We have been consistently ignored.

The Foundation's own charter requires it to preserve and promote the Italian heritage and culture. However, too many of our cultural programs, heritage schools, museums, musical traditions and language centers barely survive while millions of donated dollars are funneled to parochial schools offering no Italian language classes or to universities that have eliminated the Columbus Day holiday or promote an anti-Columbus agenda.

In one egregious case, the Foundation donated $1 million to Millennium High School in lower Manhattan. But there are few, if any, Italian American students attending the school, and the only languages offered are Spanish and Mandarin.

As the sole sponsor of the Columbus Day Parade the Columbus Citizens Foundation is privileged to earn much of its income from this heritage event by charging for floats and selling television ads. Its annual gala receipts are enhanced by the parade and the delegations from Italy. Yet this parade -- like most others in the city -- is taxpayer subsidized. Our community also helps make it a success. Have the profits been reinvested the very heritage that it celebrates?

The Italic Institute calls on all responsible members of the community to reflect on the sorry state of our heritage in America. How can we blame outsiders when our own resources are channeled to unrelated priorities? Are the millions of dollars collected in our community being spent wisely? Are we doing enough to acculturate our children and grandchildren in our millennial heritage?

Scholarships are an assimilation tool. We are beyond that. It is our heritage that must now survive.

Council of Governors (John Mancini, Chairman) Italic Institute of America