Unpaid Interns, Complicit Colleges (NYT)

[Bostonian]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/opinion/03perlin.html

 

Unpaid Interns, Complicit Colleges

By ROSS PERLIN

New York Times

April 2, 2011

 

ON college campuses, the annual race for summer internships, many of them unpaid, is well under way. But instead of steering students toward the best opportunities and encouraging them to value their work, many institutions of higher learning are complicit in helping companies skirt a nebulous area of labor law.

 

Colleges and universities have become cheerleaders and enablers of the unpaid internship boom, failing to inform young people of their rights or protect them from the miserly calculus of employers. In hundreds of interviews with interns over the past three years, I found dejected students resigned to working unpaid for summers, semesters and even entire academic years — and, increasingly, to paying for the privilege.

 

For the students, the problems are less philosophical and legal than practical. In 2007, for instance, Will Batson, a Colgate University student from Augusta, Ga., and a son of two public-interest lawyers, worked as an unpaid, full-time summer intern for WNBC and had to scramble for shelter in New York City.

 

“It definitely hurt my confidence,†Mr. Batson told me. He recalled crashing on more than 20 floors and couches, being constantly short on cash and fearing he would have to quit and go home. His father, he said, felt like a failure for not being able to help him rent an apartment.

 

What makes WNBC — whose parent company, General Electric, is valued at more than $200 billion — think it can get away with this? In Mr. Batson’s case, a letter from Colgate, certifying that he was receiving credit for doing the internship. (Now 24, he gave up on journalism and is at a technology start-up. NBC calls its internship program “an important recruiting tool.â€)

 

<rest of article at link>

 

Needless to say, I would like to have my children get paid when they work, both during and after their college years.

[Gwen in VA]

In at least some fields, if it weren't for unpaid internships, students would not be able to get any "real" experience at all.

 

My daughter is interested in art conservation. This is a field where the folks with Master's degrees often earn only $20K - $30K. Few museums have much money.

 

Dd, with the help of an amazing prof, was able to spend one summer in Amsterdam working at a art conservation institute doing research. Amazing opportunity. The following summer she spent at the Smithsonian Institute conservation facility, doing some research but mostly learning the ropes of how to handle objects. Again, an amazing opportunity.

 

Dd was truly blessed -- for both summers her university was able to provide grant money that covered her living expenses.

 

Unpaid internships are similar to volunteer work in high school -- it allows the student to get experience in the field at a point where the student's work isn't worth a lot due to lack of experience. And experience, whether "volunteer" or through an "internship", is in some fields how a student prepares for a future career.

 

BTW, dd realized that she couldn't afford to do yet another unpaid internship, and she needed another 400 hours before she could apply to the program of her dreams. She had to adjust her career plans slightly and approach art conservation from a slightly different tack.

 

Obviously sometimes internships can be bad situations, just as some volunteer work is a bad situation. But I am thankful that internships exist, just as I am thankful that my kids had lots of amazing opportunities through volunteering.

 

Just a different point of view.

[FaithManor]

I am grateful they exist as well. Internships and Practicums about the only way these kids can have some experience and a reference upon graduating. This is vital in this job crisis because the entry level positions that new grads once filled, are being vied for by unemployed individuals with experience. They need something to help them look a little competitive.

 

I do think that colleges should be looking out for their students. The instance of the boy working without any stipend whatsoever in NYC is ridiculous. Some situations require a small stipend so the student is not starving or homeless. My sister's uni assigned her an internship in D.C. for her last semester of college. They never bothered to do their research at all. The company provided "housing" and a $50.00 per week stipend. Guess what the housing was...A HOMELESS SHELTER!

 

My parents called the uni and threatened to sue them an OWN the university when it was over with if anything happened to her. They made some phone calls and she ended up in a dorm room at American University. I don't know who paid for the dorm, but I'm pretty certain sis's school did and decided to just eat it and not complain. I think the internship director was afraid of my dad!

 

Faith

[Jane in NC]

There is something that strikes me as peculiar, though, about the current internship fad. Internships at non-profits have always been voluntary or with a minimal stipend. Future teachers always clock unpaid hours in the field. But internships at corporations being non-paid? That is a new concept--at least to me.

 

The corporation for which my husband works has an ethics policy that does not permit non-paid internships. Summer interns earn an hourly wage. How dare corporations that pay dividends to share holders or bonuses to top management not even pay interns a nominal wage!

[FaithManor]

During Dh's senior year, he an internship for Tri-Star - DOD/NASA contractor. He was paid nothing. As a matter of fact, the college policy was that they could not give him anything of any value whatsoever. So, at the end of the year, when the manager wanted to do something nice for DH, he and the department went out for a steak dinner and they gave DH a nice gift. But, he was told to keep it a secret from the college or he'd have to surrender the gift and would probably get in trouble for being taken out to dinner. It was the college who held the noose, not the company. Though I am certain that these companies were perfectly happy to have unpaid interns. Free labor!

 

Faith

[Nan in Mass]

Internships at my sons' college are mixed. Some pay a pittance (my son will be making quite a lot less than minimum wage) and some pay so well that the student can pay off their school loan to date. The students with the highest grade point average get first pick. They all have to work a certain number of hours of internships. We told our sons that they were lucky to be getting experience and to make the most of it and not complain. The training tends to be good whether the student gets paid well or not.

 

In my husband's field, internships are considered advantageous to both parties - the student gains experience and the employer gains cheap help. I don't think it ever has occurred to anybody that the intern needs to make enough money to support him or herself. It is assumed that the intern is living at home. These aren't internships that are meant to lead to give one an edge in a very competative field like Washington politics or ones that can only take place someplace special, like one for Egyptian archaeology. : ) These are common.

-Nan

[distancia]

When my step-dd was at Emory (Atlanta) she was offered a full summer internship in a Washington, DC news bureau. The catch? She would have to pay for housing as well as a "placement fee". Total cost? $7,800-, and that was over ten years ago!

 

OTOH, there are universities which do offer decent internships, either on the campus, near the campus, or in a low-cost/affordable program.

 

I think it all depends on the university and how creative the student is. In many instances the students have the opportunity to design an internship, provided there is a local "source".

Edited April 4, 2011 by distancia

[In The Great White North]

As a matter of fact, the college policy was that they could not give him anything of any value whatsoever.

 

Yet another question for the college admissions department that would never have occurred to me. :glare:

[choirfarm]

I guess I don't get the big deal. I had to pay to do my internship ( student teaching). Believe me, I worked my tail off every day. It was the regular semester tuition rate. That said, it was a wonderful experience. My supervising teacher was wonderful. I was teaching in her class full time when another teacher in the same grade was hospitalized. She went to teach that class, while I stayed in hers. I ended up teaching until the end of the semester ( Christmas break) so I got paid for the last 3 weeks or so because school was over. I guess I look at internships as part of schooling. However, I wasn't a business major either.

 

Christine

[Beth in OH]

There is something that strikes me as peculiar, though, about the current internship fad. Internships at non-profits have always been voluntary or with a minimal stipend. Future teachers always clock unpaid hours in the field. But internships at corporations being non-paid? That is a new concept--at least to me.

 

:iagree: