FIT history
Subject
Subject Source: Unspecified ingested source
Found in 36 Collections and/or Records:
Eve Pollack interview, 1995 March 6, 1995 March 6
Item
Identifier: SC.FITA.3.20.4.9.4.21
Scope and Contents
Chair of the Marketing Department at the time of this interview, Eve Pollack explains the educational and professional trajectories that led her to a position at FIT in 1978. As her father was a textile converter, Eve found a career in buying haute couture to be a natural fit. She worked in the financial sector as well before being offered an adjunct position teaching a class called “Introduction to the Fashion Business,” at FIT. Pollack discusses the changes she has witnessed in both the...
Dates:
1995 March 6
George Wybenga interview, 1995 March 28, 1995 March 28
Item
Identifier: SC.FITA.3.20.4.9.4.30
Scope and Contents
Associate Professor of Fashion Packaging and Advertising Design George Wybenga started at FIT in 1979. Each year the department accepts 25 students and Wybenga says they have a placement rate of 100%. He discusses the department’s coursework, including bridge courses, and details different types of packaging design. He talks about how the German green laws inspired FIT to focus on environmentally-minded design; each year the New York Department of Sanitation puts on a competition and FIT...
Dates:
1995 March 28
Gibbs Murray interview, 1994 December 6, 1994 December 6
Item
Identifier: SC.FITA.3.20.4.9.4.18
Scope and Contents
Gibbs Murray, Chair of the Display and Exhibit Department at the time of this interview, talks about the origins of the program as a double degree in fashion display and photography in the 1960s. He discusses how the Display and Exhibit Department’s singular, comprehensive nature has led to exponential levels of enrollment in recent years, and mentions student exhibitions in conjunction with companies such as Chanel, Patrick Kelly, and Romeo Gigli. Murray details a close relationship with...
Dates:
1994 December 6
Helen Xenakis interview, 1995 February 22, 1995 February 22
Item
Identifier: SC.FITA.3.20.4.9.4.31
Scope and Contents
Helen Xenakis, the Internship Coordinator at FIT at the time of this interview, began as an adjunct professor in theFashion Buying and Merchandising Department (FBM) in 1988, following a 25-year career in buying. She talks about the inception of the internship program at FIT and its growth ten-fold. She sees the program as mutually beneficial for employers and students, which explains its exponential success. At the time of the interview, FIT had over 900 company sponsors including Donna...
Dates:
1995 February 22
Ingrid Johnson interview, circa 1994-1995, circa 1994-1995
Item
Identifier: SC.FITA.3.20.4.9.4.9
Scope and Contents
Chair of the Textile Development and Marketing Department Ingrid Johnson discusses developments in textile studies since her start at FIT in 1981. Johnson notes that course work has evolved from a more science-oriented approach to one that favors reverse-engineering textiles to fit end-use applications. She then illustrates the end-use applications of various fibers. Johnson describes her work as a home furnishing fabric developer before being recruited by Arthur Price to join FIT, and goes...
Dates:
circa 1994-1995
Interview of Christine Pupillo, Leonard Trattner, and Harry Greenberg of the Patternmaking Department, 1995 February 27, 1995 February 27
Item
Identifier: SC.FITA.3.20.4.9.4.22
Scope and Contents
This is an interview with three professors of the patternmaking department at FIT: Christine Pupillo, Leonard Trattner, and Harry Greenberg. At the time of the interview, Trattner was chair of the department. Greenberg started at FIT in 1947 and describes an incident that occurred during the Board of Education’s two-day exam, which was a prerequisite to patternmaking instruction. The three delve into FIT’s uniquely specialized program wherein students learn to make slopers. Trattner, a 9th...
Dates:
1995 February 27
Interview of Marc Rosenberg and Raoul Nacinovich of the Physical Education Department, circa 1994-1995, circa 1994-1995
Item
Identifier: SC.FITA.3.20.4.9.4.19
Scope and Contents
This is an interview with Marc Rosenberg and Raoul Nacinovich of the Department of Physical Education and Dance. Rosenberg and Nacinovich met while teaching at DeWitt Clinton High School. Nacinovich was the basketball coach at FIT and would later become the athletic director of the school. The two discuss the familial feel of FIT in the 1960s and how much of that intimacy has been lost, perhaps due to the fact that the school is moving toward more part-time employees. They fondly remember...
Dates:
circa 1994-1995
Interview of Philip Milio, Nancy Grossman, and Lynn Glazer, of the Student Activities Office, 1994 November 17, 1994 November 17
Item
Identifier: SC.FITA.3.20.4.9.4.11
Scope and Contents
Carol Poll interviews Nancy Grossman, Philip Milio, and Lynn Glazer about their work in the Student Life office at FIT. Glazer, the program coordinator, began at the office in 1969 in a clerical capacity. Grossman, the director of Student Life, began in 1973 when it was known as the Student Activities office. Grossman discusses their 1975 move to 242 W. 27th Street, a shared building with the counseling office. Grossman then discusses early programming such as a disco night at a student pub...
Dates:
1994 November 17
Interview with executive members of the Union of United College Employees (UCE) of FIT: Joe Garofalo, Judy Wood, Arthur Levinson, & Juliette Romano, 1994 November 14, 1994 November 14
Item
Identifier: SC.FITA.3.20.4.9.4.4
Scope and Contents
This is an interview with four executive members of the Union of United College Employees (UCE) at FIT: Joseph Garofalo, Judy Wood, Juliette Romano, and Arthur Levinson. The four begin by explaining their backgrounds and initial involvement with FIT in the 1960s and 1970s. They discuss how difficult it was to get promotions under the administration of Lawrence Bethel, and how the union had to fight for many rights such as faculty status for “non-classroom faculty.” They also discuss the...
Dates:
1994 November 14
Jack Rittenberg interview, circa 1994-1995, circa 1994-1995
Item
Identifier: SC.FITA.3.20.4.9.4.24
Scope and Contents
Dean Emeritus at the Department of Business and Technology at the time of this interview, Jack Rittenberg discusses his many roles while at FIT between the years of 1963 and 1992. He talks of the development of degrees within the baccalaureate program such as those in advertising and menswear, the latter being a degree that Rittenberg co-developed with Ted Roberts. He talks extensively about the school’s early existence in the C Building and the growth of the physical campus as FIT became...
Dates:
circa 1994-1995