All work, no pay makes intern class a dull choice

Harold Lee
Published: Monday, July 17, 2006

I’m not against the idea that young people have to give a lot of their work away for free. Even before college, volunteer work seems like a prerequisite to give off the impression of the well-rounded student for college admissions. But when does it start to get ridiculous? Enter the unpaid internship. California labor laws require students who work unpaid internships with companies (nonprofits and government internships are exempt) to receive college credit, ensuring that students get something out of their internships in addition to the valuable career experience. But requiring students to sign up for college credit is a system that exploits the eagerness of student interns by essentially making them pay for the opportunity to work. And it isn’t cheap. According to a May 5 Daily Bruin article, receiving course credit through UCLA can cost as much as $585 for four academic units (there are also options to take two-unit courses) which are administered through the UCLA Center for Community Learning. Interns must complete coursework relating to their internship experiences to get credit. The current system also puts students who are rich in enthusiasm – but aren’t, well, rich – at a disadvantage. The pool of paid internships is getting smaller as more companies are going the unpaid route, so their options are increasingly limited. As reported in a June Wall Street Journal article, the number of companies requiring college credit for unpaid intern work has risen between 30 and 40 percent in the past five years. But just because it costs a lot doesn’t mean it is valuable. In addition to being expensive, credit-for-internship programs may be an inefficient way to use your units. The internship courses at UCLA fulfill degree requirements by contributing to the 180-unit minimum for undergraduates in the UCLA College, which most of the internship courses fall under, but they do not necessarily fulfill requirements for one’s major.

For example, taking the four-unit political science course that corresponds to an internship covers an upper-division elective. But the course does not cover any specific requirements for the economics degree. Most students would rather take classes that cover as many bases as possible. According to the Wall Street Journal article, schools are reluctant to give academic credit for internships that may have little to do with a student’s major or are not academic in nature, so it’s right an internship course does not have the same weight as a course that covers major requirements. And considering that many students in the UCLA College take on a minor or another major, meeting that 180-unit minimum isn’t difficult. They probably have a hard time not going over the unit cap, so taking classes outside of their disciplines and having excess units may actually hurt them. UCLA isn’t to blame – it’s just complying with the laws. The rationale behind having students receive college credit for unpaid corporate internships, as explained to me by Kathy O’Byrne, the director of the Center for Community Learning which administers the internship courses, is to protect students from potential abuses. For example, employers may demand excessive hours from unpaid interns, and eager-to-please interns will usually oblige. Through the university, students are able to say that as a condition of receiving credit, the number of hours is limited. The internship courses also ensure that students are actually learning something from their internships. Reporting on what’s happening at the internship can show that interns aren’t spending their time honing their coffee-making or collating skills. California labor laws do not need to regulate internships the way they do now. Instead they should be changed to give students more of a choice. There needs to be a change in labor laws so that students can work at unpaid internships without having to receive college credit. Right now, the law is not clearly defined regarding hours, leaving universities to define the parameters of internship work. The law should be changed to clearly define and standardize the number of hours and the duration interns can work so it doesn’t displace paid workers. Students must also recognize that there should be a limit to their eagerness, especially if they’re asked to work more than paid employees or if the internship just doesn’t look like a chance to gain skills. After all, internships are becoming more of the norm. Shouldn’t college students expect training instead of just resume padding?

E-mail Lee at hlee@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.

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