Francesca Patanè illustrates the principle of Italian academic family trees with two Sicilian examples from Palermo and Catania

I hate to admit it, but Sister Franca (my mathematics Kerberos of high school memory) was right. “Young lady, numbers are no joke!” she used to say, pointing her threatening finger at me every time I couldn’t say a word when questioned in front of the entire class. If today she could see me, dealing with the extended families of the Sicilian Universities, she would be pleased.

In fact, recently I played a mathematical game with a couple of competent editorial assistants. We produced two tables (that is, I asked for and they assembled them… ah Sister Franca, Sister Franca!…) --- one for the Agricultural College of the University of Palermo and the other one for the same College of the University of Catania --- to be envied even by that undiscovered genius of my math professor.

Speaking of geniuses: I have a few questions.

Question one: Are the sons of geniuses themselves geniuses?

Question two: Are wives, sisters, brothers-in-law, nephews (etc.) of geniuses also geniuses?

Question three: Will the (alleged) geniality of sons manifest itself in the same scientific areas of fathers? (For example, Agricultural Sciences if we talk of Universities)?

Question four: Do geniuses exist, as an example, in the two Agricultural Colleges of Palermo and Catania?

Question five: And if they do not exist, how should we interpret the numbers of our two tables?

That said, I come and I explain, as Sister Franca would have said.

Let us examine the first table, the one describing the Agricultural College of Palermo.

All professors (full, associate, and assistant) are listed in alphabetical order and classified according to the six Departments of the Agricultural College.

In the first column we wrote the names, in the second column the rank, in the third column (ouch!) the possible family relations, in the fourth column the Departments to which the profs belong, and in the remaining columns … we sum up.

Therefore:

- In the Department of ESAF (Economia dei Sistemi Agro-Forestali, or Economics of the Agricultural and Forest Systems) 10 professors out of 19 have family relations with other members of the same Department, for a percent --- hear! hear! --- of 53%.

- In the Department of CA (Colture Arboree, or Pomology) 3 professors out of 13 belong to the same genealogy tree (to speak their language). Percent: 23%.

- In the Department of AAT (Agronomia Ambientale e Territoriale, or Environmental and Territorial Agronomy) 4 professors out of 24 have family relations among themselves. Percent: 17%.

- In the Department of SB (Scienze Botaniche, or Botanical Sciences) only one professor out of 8 has family relations with a member of the Agricultural College, for one of the lowest percentages: only 12%.

- In the Department of ITAF (Ingegneria e Tecnologie Agro-Forestali, or Engineering and Agro-Forest Technologies) 3 professors out of 31 exchange Christmas presents (as in every proper family). Percent: 10%.

- In the Department of SEnFiMiZo (Scienze Entomologiche, Fitopatologiche, Microbiologico-Agrarie e Zootecniche, or Entomology, Plant-Pathology, Agricultural Microbiology and Animal Production) 2 professors out of 35 have family relations with members of the same Department for the smallest percent: 6%.

The “Transparency” award, therefore, goes to the Department of ESAF with more than half of its members having family relations with other members. Classified in the last place is the Department of SEnFiMiZo, but it is never too late…

In conclusion, in the Agricultural College of the University of Palermo, 23 professors out of 130 have strict family relations with members of the College: that is, 18%.  Every Department is affected.  This means that no Department in the College has a zero index in matters of family relations: Speaking of family value! 

The fact of encountering such family concentrations, however, may not mean anything (sometime) --- it must be emphasized. It is the constancy of the phenomenon that surprises: all families of geniuses?  With all their members being geniuses in the same scientific area?  (Power of DNA!).

Having written about the Agricultural College of Palermo, I must add that those numbers are incorrect. That is, they would be correct only by ignoring the combinations between academic and administrative personnel. Hence, the family affections that are reunited around the academic fireplace are more numerous. One example:  Rosalia Bacarella. Some time ago she won a derby (concorso) for a librarian job in the Agricultural College.  She is the sister of the former Dean of the Agricultural College, Antonino Bacarella, professor of Agricultural Economics in the Department of ESAF. Professor Bacarella is known --- together with professor Salvatore Tudisca, current Dean of the Agricultural College --- for an ongoing judicial investigation that has placed him (and still keeps him) at the attention of the national and international media.

Let us examine now the second table that refers to the Agricultural College of the University of Catania.

This time, only the names of full professors are listed alphabetically and by Department. The column headings are similar to those of the first table. Thus, summarizing:

- In DISTEF (Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Fito-Sanitarie, or Department of Plant-Pathology Technologies and Sciences), 4 full professors out of 10 have strict family relations with other professors (full, associate, assistant) of either the same Department or of the Agricultural College.  That is, 40%.

- In DISEAE (Dipartimento di Scienze Economico-Agrarie ed Estimative, or Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Appraisal), 3 family relatives out of 9 members: 33%.

- In DOFATA (Dipartimento di Orto-Floro-Arboricoltura e Tecnologie Agro-Alimentari, or Department of Horticulture, Pomology and Agro-Food Technologies), 3 family relatives out of 10 members: 30%.

- In DAPCA (Dipartimento di Scienze Agronomiche, Agrochimiche e delle Produzioni Animali, or Department of Agronomy, Agrochemical Sciences and Animal Production), again 3 family relatives out of 15 full professors: 20%.

- In DIA (Dipartimento di Ingegneria Agraria, or Department of Agricultural Engineering), only 1 professor out of 7 is a strict relative of some other professor in the department or in the Agricultural College: 14%.

Overall, in the Departments of the Agricultural College of the University of Catania, 14 full professors (out of 51) are strict family relatives with other professors (full, associate, assistant) of either the same department or of the Agricultural College: 27 %.  Also here, no department is immune from contagion (will a judge discover the antidote, sooner or later?).

In summary: I do not know whether you were able to answer the questions formulated above.  Probably not, given that even that branch of statistics that deals with population genetics --- and without diminishing your IQ --- has yet to answer them in a convincing manner.

For the moment, therefore, I start from more modest postulates:

1) University professors, except for some rare individuals, are not geniuses but simply State employees.

2) That said, all other questions are irrelevant. Except the last one.

Assuming that the numerical information of the two tables is correct (they were compiled by selected and not casual collaborators…), the interpretation of the two Sicilian examples (extendible to other scientific areas and Universities) can only be one and concentrated in a single word: nepotism. For the Italian law, nepotism is a crime: for the Italian professors who are tied by family relations, it is not.

Note: This article first appeared in JUST Response on February 2 2007. The original Italian version was published by Ateneo Palermitano in December 2006. Francesca Patanè was born in Catania, Sicily, and currently resides in  Palermo. She runs Ateneo Palermitano, a monthly periodical of university information which she founded in September 2001.

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