All of FIDM’s fashion-focused programs will move completely under ASU, but the two educational entities will remain separate.
“You would have thought when [FIDM leaders] negotiated whatever with ASU, they would have thought about their students — they didn’t,” said Dan Feldman, Rebecca Feldman’s father. “It’s really a shame that she’s being treated this way. My heart goes out to her and the other students.” She got into a fashion course this summer at Orange Coast College and is on the waitlist for others this fall after missing the school’s application and registration deadlines, but she worries the school doesn’t have the same connections or name recognition that she was promised at FIDM.
“We remain committed to helping every FIDM student find a pathway to complete a degree,” said Katie Paquet, an ASU spokesperson. “We are actively meeting with students, listening to concerns and making adjustments as we progress.” Her advisor told her she could complete her associate degree over the next year from a still-independent FIDM, but that would require a full-time courseload for the next three quarters, Gervase said, including the summer — when she had planned, and needed, to work.