News from
In reversal, Fashion Institute of Technology offers
temporary housing to laid-off dormitory staffers
BY GABRIEL SANDOVAL
THE CITY
The public Fashion Institute of Technology
is offering housing until
the end of the academic year to 13
residential hall staffers facing layoffs — reversing
course after THE CITY highlighted
the workers’ plight.
FIT President Joyce Brown announced
in an email to the campus community
Tuesday that the State University of New
York design school will provide free accommodations
and utilities to the workers
through the end of May, even as their paid
positions end next month.
“I am hopeful that we are able to come to an
agreement that will allow us to provide housing
to those individuals who will no longer be
employees but who need this support,” Brown
wrote in the email, which was obtained by
THE CITY. Brown said in the missive that
a “catastrophic shortfall” in revenue caused
by the coronavirus pandemic necessitated
sharp cutbacks in the housing budget for the
Manhattan campus. She described the layoffs
as a “very diffi cult decision.”
THE CITY reported last week that FIT
notifi ed the 13 dorm staffers they were
being laid off as of Nov. 30 and needed to
move out of their Chelsea apartments by
the end of the year.
FIT’s Kaufman Hall on West 31st Street.
FIT Layoffs to Leave Dorm Staffers
Without Homes or Jobs as President Keeps
Penthouse
Their housing had been provided to
them free of charge by their employer, FIT
Student Housing Corporation, a nonprofi t
affi liate that manages the school’s four
residence halls. Brown noted that with the
on-campus population shriveled due to remote
learning, just 220 students currently
live in dorms with 2,300 capacity.
Under her contract, Brown lives in a
full-fl oor penthouse atop one of the campus
residence halls.
Petition Pressure
Brown’s decision to offer continued
housing came after a petition began
circulating on Sunday, asserting that 10 of
13 staff would face housing insecurity by
the year’s end. The petition, addressed to
Brown, demands FIT furlough rather than
lay off staff while supplying them with
housing and health insurance.
It also calls for the resignation of two
administrators, Sherry Brabham and
Catherine O’Rourke, blaming them for the
housing corporation’s fi nancial troubles.
“Several of the Residential Life full- and
part-time employees who will be laid off
will also lose crucial benefi ts including
health insurance, during a time in which
maintaining one’s health is vital as a global
pandemic continues to exist,” the petition
states.
On Tuesday, the affected employees
received housing offers from O’Rourke,
interim vice president of enrollment management
and student success at FIT.
O’Rourke noted to the workers in emails
that the school had received requests to
extend their housing arrangements.
“In consultation with President Brown,
we have considered these requests and
made the decision to provide you with comparable
on-campus accommodations until
no later than May 31, 2021,” O’Rourke
wrote.
O’Rourke added that an agreement
detailing the terms and conditions will be
sent to the workers on Wednesday, and that
they will have one week to review, sign and
submit it.
A FIT spokesperson did not respond to
questions from THE CITY on Tuesday.
One laid-off staffer, who requested
anonymity, said they were grateful for the
temporary reprieve, but eager to read the
agreement.
“It’s nice to feel like we have been heard,
and they’ve listened to at least the response
from the community members from the
petition,” the worker said.
This article was originally published
on Oct. 27, 2020 by, THE CITY, an independent,
nonprofi t news outlet dedicated
to hard-hitting reporting that serves the
people of New York.
BY EMILY DAVENPORT
MTV is working with
artists from the Fashion
Institute of Technology
(FIT) to help encourage New
Yorkers to vote.
The artists will be creating a
huge mural on a barge that fl oated
down the East River on Oct. 24,
the fi rst day of early voting in New
York. It was designed to coincide
with Vote Early Day, the new
national holiday to promote early
voting.
Dan Shefelman, a professor at
FIT who created the ChalkFIT
program, some of his former
students, Victor A. Saint Hilaire,
Angel Garcia, Charles Jones, Dakotah
West, and Demetrius Felder,
will design the barge this week.
“Our mural design seeks to
honor a reality where womxn,
trans womxn, and members
of the LGBTQ community are
celebrated and protected. A
MTV teams up with FIT to design
floating early voting message
Vote Early Day art created by former FIT student Victor Saint Hillaire.
future where we have the time to
collectively take in and contemplate
our world so that we may
vote mindfully without our lives
constantly being threatened,”
said Saint Hilaire. “It invites us
to be creative and engage in our
imagination, like brave adventurous
children, of what the future
can be by acknowledging and
making space for our current
reality and fi nding creative ways
to transform it in order to help
our communities thrive. Whether
small or large, your vote matters
so vote how you feel!”
Vote Early Day is a movement
made up of over 2,500 nonprofi ts,
businesses, election administrators
and creatives who are working
to help voters make sure they
know how to vote early and make
a plan to do so before Oct. 24. As
of Oct. 20, over 34 million Americans
have voted early. With early
voting rules for in-person and
by-mail options varying widely
all over the country, the Vote
Early Day movement is stepping
in to minimize the confusion that
prevents voters from casting their
ballots entirely.
“Voting isn’t only enacted
when it comes to electing government
offi cials, or at presidential
elections; it also happens during
our day to day engagements,” said
Saint Hilaire. “We Vote by choosing
who and what to support
with our money, how we interact
with one another, and where we
continue to put our time and effort.
When we say Vote How You
Feel, we are asking you to sit with
yourself and choose how you want
to take an active role in your life,
your relationships and your communities
to transform our world
into one we know can exist.”
In addition to NYC, MTV partnered
with artists from across the
country to bring life to Vote Early
Day with chalk art displays in
over 25 cities in one of the largest
ever coordinated displays of “art
as activism.” This effort aimed to
highlight the importance of civic
engagement, the opportunity to
vote early, and the core issues that
drive people to the polls.
4 October 29, 2020 Schneps Media