This coming Monday is Columbus Day. The majority of universities in the nation get this day off, but like many other holidays George Washington does not. Columbus Day stands for something much more then a simple day off from school. Christopher Columbus is an Italian hero, an American hero and an Italian-American hero. My grandfather Joseph Marino came over from Italy as a young child, fought in World War II and became a successful New York attorney. Angered that there was not one Italian-related holiday, he spearheaded the cause to make Columbus Day a national holiday. He came down to Washington, D.C., and with President Johnson, he signed the Columbus Day bill into law.

Since then, Italian-Americans all over the country look forward to the only day the country gives us to celebrate our heritage and our hero. Yet here in our nation’s capital, where this bill originated, I cannot even enjoy the gift my late grandfather gave me and all the citizens of Italian descent in America. I write this letter to bring attention to just this. I know that there is a large Italian-American population here at GW and I know that I am not the only one who feels this way. I ask that our President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg stop trying to please the trustees and start caring about what this University is about, the students.

-Michael Marino
junior