Donors’ Heirs Sue Columbia U. for Misuse of 1927 Gift

A group of Italian-American families whose ancestors funded a center for Italian studies at Columbia University 85 years ago have sued the school, claiming it is not operating the program as the donors intended, reports Bloomberg.

In documents filed Wednesday in New York State Supreme Court, the Italic Institute, a nonprofit group representing the donors’ ancestors, says the New York school has veered from the “simple and unambiguous” mission of La Casa Italiana to study and promote Italian language, culture, and history.

La Casa was founded in 1927 with collective donations of $400,000, equivalent to about $5-million today. The institute contends the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America, which now occupies the center, engages in work that is “elitist and detached, European and international (not uniquely Italian), and failing to encompass any serious scholarship in Italian-American history, consciousness, or concerns.”

A Columbia spokesman said the university would not comment on pending litigation.