September 13, 2023
SHEIN Scholarship at FIDM
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FIDM, a school I was actually interested in, has been under some fire recently for partnering with SHEIN for scholarships. FIDM markets itself as one of the most sustainable fashion colleges, so partnering with SHEIN is highly hypocritical. Now if I was actually a student there and had gotten the scholarship, I'd be ecstatic because it's $40,000. But the whole part of this project is greenwashing.
Ms. Silverstein, a student at FIDM, actually started a petition to end the scholarship and got more than double the undergraduate enrollment, which is about 1,764 people.
Unfortunately, FIDM isn't the first school to work with SHEIN. Indiana University and SHEIN had a partnership to help create jobs for international students. Forbes apparently claimed IU quietly cut ties with SHEIN after a few months. The purpose of these university partnerships is to clean up their image due to the unethical practices they do. The vice president of education at FIDM, Barbara Bundy, claimed that the administrators "carefully considered" SHEIN's offer and decided to accept because it would be an opportunity for some to complete their education. This is not wrong because like I said earlier in this post, the scholarship is $40,000. That's a lot of money, even when paying for school.
With the program ending next month, Bundy claimed that it was always intended to be a one-time thing. Silverstein has met with Bundy and other administrators about better brands to partner with the school. “I reached out to Patagonia using just their ‘contact us’ email, not expecting a response, and they got back to me,” Silverstein said. “They said it was something they’d be interested in in the future. If me, a measly fashion student, can have that sort of effect, I can’t imagine what FIDM emailing the company would do.” -Silverstein.
The good thing about this scholarship, other than the $40,000, is that the whole point of this was to get future LA designers out there. SHEIN has a "test and repeat" type of thing where they produce clothes in small batches and see what sells. If it sells well, some people may have their own spot in a permanent collection.
Whether you like the idea of SHEIN working with colleges or not, you can't deny the fact that this scholarship has helped a few students financially. But, this is better for SHEIN's image way more than any college's. Personally, I hope no other upper education institutions decide to work with them because then it'll show that these places don't care about the Earth. Like they only care about the money.
If SHEIN ever decides to do the same at another institution, I'm pretty sure we'll hear about it.
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