SUNY New Paltz Professor Emeritus Creates Endowment for Italian Studies

NEW PALTZ — Professor Emeritus Giancarlo Traverso not only devoted himself to SUNY New Paltz for 30 years as a professor, but now part of his income to benefit the students and the community.

In keeping with his love of the university, Traverso recently made a donation to the SUNY New Paltz Foundation sufficient to endow an Italian Studies Lecture Series and scholarships for students of the Italian Studies Program. Named for his parents, it is called the Anita and Luigi Traverso Endowment.

“This is a marvelous donation to the university and the Italian Studies Program,” said Giorgio Melloni, the coordinator of the Italian Studies Program. “It not only promotes the field of the humanities but also provides an additional opportunity for the Italian American community to find a stronger sense of identity at SUNY New Paltz.”

Traverso taught in the Department of Foreign Languages from 1968 to 1998. He taught French language and literature, and Italian language, literature and cinema courses.

“From SUNY New Paltz, I received a 30-year teaching opportunity and from the students enrichment and enjoyment,” Traverso said. “I think I know the needs of the students of the Italian Studies Program. One must also begin to give back what one has throughout life received,” he said.

The primary purpose of the Luigi and Anita Traverso Endowment is to honor the lifetime of dedication, love, honesty and excellence experienced by Giancarlo and his brother Giuseppe from their parents. In the early 1930s, the elder Traversos met, fell in love and married in Torino, Italy. After World War II, Mrs. Traverso brought her two sons to the United States in hopes of finding a better life. She devoted her whole life to her sons. Sadly, she passed away last April.

“I created the endowment — inspired also by my brother Giuseppe who died in 1957– to honor our mother and our father,” said Traverso.

It is Traverso s intent to help increase Italian Studies enrollment, expand the Italian Studies Program s service to the community, and establish a major in Italian Studies.

The interest generated by the endowment capital will be used to fund the Luigi and Anita Traverso Italian Studies Lecture series, annually involving four speakers; two $1000 Italian Contract Major Scholarships each year, and two $500 Italian Minor Scholarships each year.

The Luigi and Anita Traverso Italian Studies Contract Major Scholarship will be given to the best-qualified seniors of the Italian Studies Program with an overall grade point average of 3.0 and a grade point average of 3.2 in the Italian major.

The Luigi and Anita Traverso Italian Studies Minor Scholarship will be given to the best-qualified seniors of the Italian Studies Program. Eligible seniors will have an overall grade point average of 3.0 and a grade point average of 3.2 in the Italian minor.

The SUNY New Paltz Foundation oversees more than 65 endowments. The Luigi and Anita Traverso Endowment will be in the scholarship handbook, which will be published in January 2002. Students who would like to apply for the scholarship may pick up the book at the Haggerty Administration Building, Room 501.

Like Traverso’s, increasing support from individuals and businesses is broadening SUNY New Paltz’ ability to provide greater and more diverse opportunities for students.

• On October 20, the university community and the Hudson Valley community gathered for the dedication of the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, the premier showcase for historic and contemporary Hudson Valley art.
• On October 24, the university held a reception to welcome its second James H. Ottaway Sr. Professor, Bernard Stein. The James H. Ottaway Sr. Professorship, named by his son Jim Ottaway Jr. for the founder of Ottaway Newspapers, Inc., is for the second time filled by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. Stein, co-publisher and editor of the Northwest Bronx’s Riverdale Press, won the Pulitzer Prize in journalism in 1998 for his elegant editorials. As James H. Ottaway Sr. Professor at SUNY New Paltz, he succeeds Sydney Schanberg, internationally-known journalist who won the Pulitzer Prize for international journalism in 1976 and several other awards for his reporting career at The New York Times and Newsday.
• On October 25, the university honored philanthropists Louis and Mildred Resnick for their longtime and generous support of the campus. An essential part of the special luncheon was the recognition of the 49 students now attending New Paltz as Resnick scholars. With a recent $90,000 gift to the university for the creation of the Resnick Scholarship for Nursing, the Resnicks hope to stem the nursing shortage that threatens health care in the Hudson Valley, and across the country.
• On October 26, the world’s leading computer innovator — IBM — was on campus to share the news of a new collaboration that will create a virtual e-business lab in the university’s School of Business.