One of Poly's First 'Coed' Students

Janett Rosenberg was one of the first ever female students to enroll at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute in the year 1959. Being the student to change the population statistic from 100% male to 99%, her time at Poly was definitely a significant portion in her life. Janett Rosenberg enrolled in Poly as a declared Physics major however when she chose Poly over Pratt and City College, she had no idea that the school was an all male school. In fact her male friends who encouraged her to choose Poly did not mention this fact so the first day on campus was quite a shock to her. She related to the Polytechnic Newspaper that she was not expecting to be the only female student, she at least expected to be among one or two other females, however this was not the case. 

As expected, as the only female in an almost all male institute in the time where sexism and misogynism were very prevalent, Janett endured many trials. Firstly on her registration at Poly as a freshman, she was not allowed by her advisor to take the usual amount of credits that freshman usually enroll in. The restrictions placed on her by her advisor left Janett feeling frustrated since her academic qualifications and merit made her confident that she could handle the workload. As quoted in the Polytechnic Newspaper, "This restriction has caused me much uneasiness and unhappiness at Poly." These are quite strong words to refer to her experience at Poly as a freshman. Due to these restrictions coupled with the fact that she was the only female, Janett often experienced feelings as if she did not belong at the institute. During her freshman year she actively sought out other schools to transfer to where she hoped that these conditions were improved. 

However Janett went on to explain to the newspaper that her experience at the institute eventually improved to the point where she felt accepted. Nevertheless she explained that she was constantly under observation and the topic of conversations on campus  due to her outlying gender. In fact the Polytechnic Newspaper articles are reminiscent of this in their tone of writing which is expected since the newspaper's audience was in fact the population of poly men. One introduction to an article about Janett begins by relaying that there was "bad news for Poly men- Janett Rosenberg does not like going on many dates." Reading an article like this from the perspective of Janett herself most likely was not completely pleasant as it seems to refer to her more like an object or spectacle rather than a normal student at the institute just trying to complete her education like everyone else.

A fellow male student was even quoted in the Polytechnic Newspaper complaining that he waited 45 minutes in line to talk to her as if it were an add/drop line for classes. The newspaper also referred to the long lines of Poly men trying to talk to Janett as " a line for bakery where you have to take a number and wait your turn." Janett later went on vocalise that she had was able to combat this unwanted attention by adjusting her  personality to be "more demure" even though she was not originally that way.

In the following years when more females were enrolledat Poly, Janett stated that adjusting to the life at Poly should not be difficult for them since due to her, the students at the Institutue were accustomed to seeing a female strolling the campus halls.

Post Grad

On her graduation from the Polytechnic Institute, Janett went on to use her expertise as a physicist to research and publish work on gravitational theory. Throughout this time she married a fellow Poly alumnus and changed her last name to Trubatch. Janett spent most of her career in academia and served as the Vice Provost for Graduate Studies at the University of Rhode Island from 2000 to 2005 and the Graduate Dean and Vice Provost for Research at Roosevelt University in Chicago from 2005 till 2010. At the University of Rhode Island, Janett increased research funding from $47 million to over $60 million. She also initiated and served as the Principal Investigator to a National Science Foundation. Her responsibilty invovled the hiring, retaining, and advancing of  women in the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines. She was able to influence 10 major hires and she also formed numerous programs such as Family Leave and Dual Career Guidelines which improved recruitment and retention of all faculty. 

Janett Rosenberg-Trubatch truly was an iconic character in the history books of the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. She unfortunately passed away on October 26, 2010 at her home in Chicago a month after being diagnosed with metastatic colon cancer.