Valentino ’10: New Internship Rules Exclusionary

In a June 2 OpEd for The Hartford Courant, Lauren Valentino ’10 outlines how the new rules for student internships issued by the Federal Department of Labor have made internships cost-exclusive for students at liberal arts institutions.

Valentino says that one unintended consequence of requiring unpaid internships to be “for-credit” will require liberal arts students to work for free and pay steep fees to attain academic credit. The result is a double financial hit that only the most affluent students will be able to afford.

She writes: “A system that already disproportionately benefited those able to work without pay will add insult to injury by imposing mandatory charges for students least able to use the internship experience as a pathway to the most coveted careers.”