Marty Zelnik interview, 1995 April 4, 1995 April 4

Professor of Interior Design and Chair of the Faculty Association at the time of this interview, Martin Zelnik was hired as a full-time professor in 1969. Zelnik received his BFA from Brandeis University and an MFA of Architecture from Columbia University. He discusses changes in student demographics, noting that students are less traditional and often older than when he started. He talks about how most faculty remain practitioners in their fields, and discusses the linkages between his department and the industry at large. Zelnik notes that professionals can be technophobic, so his students are ahead of the industry’s curve. He mentions that job placement largely falls on faculty and the students themselves, and that most of his students are working long hours during their studies. He touches on the relationship of the faculty association with the union and administration of FIT. He then talks about his hopes to expand the Interior Design Department and his feeling that FIT needs to invest in its graduate programs; he also hopes that FIT will focus on research. Finally, Zelnik says that industry interests can negatively impact FIT’s course development.