The announcement appears on a regular basis (annually at the very least) in the NY Times and is to include Italian Americans, a group designated a “protected class” back in 1976. It appeared this Sunday (February 27, 2022) in the section, “Sunday Review,” page 6: “In 1976, CUNY’s Chancellor expanded these classes to include Italian Americans.”

The ad indeed begins with the statement “It is the policy of the University … to admit and provide services for students without regard to race, color, creed, national origin, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, age, sex…” While the University continues to provide services for Italian-American students (some financed by the Calandra Institute over the past four decades), the one service it does not provide with any consistency or structure is curricular, especially at the graduate level.