Companies forcing interns to get credit

The season of applying for summer internships has officially begun, and it might be helpful… The season of applying for summer internships has officially begun, and it might be helpful for students to know one thing: You might end up paying for it.

More and more companies are requiring students to schedule anywhere from a one credit class up to a full-time course load over the summer to make the internship legal.

One reason for this deals with issues of liability, according to Vanessa Sterling, project coordinator for academic internships at the School of Arts and Sciences’ Office of Experiential Learning.

Companies want students to be signed up for class – this way, if he or she gets hurt while on the job, the University can be viewed as partially liable for the incident, and the company will not be fully responsible.

Sterling said that it is usually media outlets and financial companies who require this of students.

On a few rare occasions, the University’s Office of Risk Management has had students contact the office saying that companies they are planning to intern with want to see proof of a general liability plan, William Ruth, risk analyst and claims manager at the office, said.

Ruth said that there isn’t a liability plan covering students, though the University has one that protects the University from any claims that are brought against it.

He and Yvonne Keafer, director of the Office of Risk Management, speculated that companies might require this as a way to shift negligence. The only way they foresee the University being pulled into a lawsuit is if the company argues that the intern also has the title of “student.”

Ruth does not think that the University would be found liable in such a situation, though.

“Liability rests where the risks rest,” Ruth said. He explained that if the student gets hurt at his place of internship, then it is that company that is liable.

Keafer suggested that before beginning an internship, students work out an agreement with companies that defines their title and the issue of liability.

Many companies are also just trying to be compliant with the Fair Labor Standards Act when requiring a student to be enrolled in classes while interning.

The act states that a student cannot work for a company without receiving something of value in return, according to Kate McConnell, the director of the Career and Leadership Development Center in the College of Business Administration.

Even though it could be argued that internships provide excellent learning experiences, McConnell said that many corporations are concerned about how to prove the exchange of something of value if they ever need to, so they have just decided to implement a blanket policy requiring that students be registered for credit.

“The problem here is that a student, in the summer, must pay for that credit, making it a double burden,” McConnell said.

“Not only does the student not get paid, but they now have to pay for academic credit for a class that they may not need to graduate.”

McConnell said that there have been some instances where a student can use something else of value in order to complete the summer internship.

For example, some students have signed documents with companies that state that the internship itself is of value. Other students have had employers cover their gas costs for transportation in order to pass the value requirement.

McConnell said that these situations don’t always work, though.

Both McConnell and Sterling said that trying to do the credit at a cheaper community college is also counter-intuitive because the credit does not transfer correctly for internships.

Also, to her knowledge, McConnell said that a student can only receive credit in the term for which they are doing the internship for credit. A student then would not be allowed to register the credit for the fall term to avoid the summer costs.

Representatives from financial service companies Merrill Lynch and UBS – which both force students to take internships for college credit – could not be reached for comment.

Sterling said that in her experience students have not been dissuaded from taking summer internships even if they do have to pay for summer credit.