Editorial: Overly protective laws harm interns

Internships are proving less and less optional these days.

With the swelling unemployment rate and the job market’s intensifying competition, internships are becoming evermore crucial stepping stones into a wide variety of industries.

To add to this already challenging situation, both federal and state legislation contain stipulations that impede students from gaining internship experience. Especially in this turbulent economic climate, these requirements must be loosened to streamline the process of placing students in internships that will, ideally, propel them into careers.

The current legislation outlines six criteria that must be met for a program to be considered an internship. Employers are thus placed in a precarious position of needing to provide proof of internship legality, at the risk of breaking the law.

These government requirements become the basis of numerous complications such as the need to apply for college credit. These seemingly minute hassles often balloon into greater difficulty down the road.

For students who wish to take unpaid internships through the summer months, employers typically require interns to work for college credit in an effort to comply with the law. The unforeseen consequence of this is that students must then pay student fees to partake in an internship program. Something is brazenly and fundamentally wrong with this system.

The college credit requirement takes up valuable unit space that students need to complete their coursework. This is particularly harmful to students taking up multiple degrees and minors.

Tying internships to units imposes a limit on the number of hours a student can work at a program, stifling the potential for an expansive learning experience.

To add to this, when universities issue credit for internship programs, they typically require students to fill out unnecessary progress reports that add to the burden of working at an internship. Students are forced to do additional work, on top of being involved in already demanding professional environments.

While universities could waive certain requirements in providing reasonable evidence to employers, this alone will not eliminate the numerous other hassles caused by current legislation.

Of course, numerous employers offer unpaid internships without the need for college credit and other requirements. However, as it stands, such programs are in violation of the law, and large corporations make it a point to adhere to the legislative requirements for internships.

This board recognizes that such legislation exists to protect individuals from unfair labor practices. However, when it comes to internships, students are willing to put in the effort and are desperate to prove themselves. We implore legislators to respect this conviction and to let the market decide what is best for interns and their prospective employers.