Risky Business

2013 was a controversial year for student internships. The death of a Bank of America intern after many sleepless nights spent working sparked questions on the way internships are conducted. In October, media giant Conde Nast ended its internship programs. In May, a New York University junior, Christina Isnardi, started a petition that called for NYU’s online portal CareerNet to better clarify their internship postings, after she had worked two internships that she felt were “exploitative.” CareerNet, which is part of NYU’s Wasserman Center for Career Development, has since adjusted their postings, and Columbia University no longer offers registration credits for their unpaid internships.

At The New School, Parsons student and former University Student Senate co-chair Jens Astrup introduced an initiative to filter the internships posted on the university’s website in order to provide more details on each position.

“It’s not about filtering out unpaid internships,” Astrup told the Free Press in 2013. “But ones from for-profit companies that have a certain amount of employees, which takes research.”

Kyle Younger, The New School’s assistant director of employer relations, encourages students to go online and find a link to the Fair Labor Standards Act Advisor. The Advisor explains requirements and regulations for employers under federal employment laws.

“It’s very similar to what NYU is doing,” said Younger, who used to work at Columbia University’s Center for Career Education. “We did that in August. So they clarify language, but we’ve always done that with our internships, Parsons in particular.”

The Center for Student Success, which serves as a careers website for New School students, also includes a section addressed to companies seeking unpaid interns and titled: “Important Considerations before You Hire a New School Student,” which asks companies to follow the guidelines from the Department of Labor.

NYU’s deputy director of media relations James Devitt said that there has been an “implementation of language to clarify compensation arrangements.” Now, instead of only clarifying if internships are paid or unpaid, they are further categorized to reflect if they are in compliance with NYU and Department of Labor guidelines, as well as whether or not they are for academic credit and/or stipends.

According to The New School’s Terms of Use web page, the Center for Student Success isn’t involved in the transaction between employers and candidates and calls itself an “intermediary” between employer postings and candidates, so it has “no control over the quality, safety or legality of the jobs or resumes posted, the truth or accuracy of the listings, the ability of employers to offer job opportunities to candidates or the ability of candidates to fill job openings.”

“We have to work with the student to complete an internship contract, which lays out for the employer that internships are educational and all fall in line with the Fair Labor Standards Act,” Younger said.

“An internship is not supposed to be a thing where they do entry level work for free, which is unfortunately what I’m seeing a lot of,” said Maurice Pianko, a lawyer who specializes in unpaid internship lawsuits. “It’s really supposed to be an extension of the classroom. The point of an internship isn’t for the person to really like you and hire you, that isn’t the point of an internship. The point of internships is to get an actual experience, a complementing education.”

Christina Isnardi is one of many former interns who have had sour experiences. She said she would often work 15 hours a day and was doing the same work as employees while not receiving pay.

“I am very happy [regarding Wasserman’s response]. I didn’t know if they would respond in the first place, and they not only responded but I ended up having more oversight than I thought would happen,” said Isnardi, who was involved in the new posting adjustments.  “My main initiative is to push for-profit internships to pay. What I’m hoping for in the near future, at least, is to get all for-profit companies to pay their interns.”

Another strong motivation for her NYU petition was the fact that a friend of hers was not in a financial position that allowed her to even be able to apply for unpaid internships, thus further limiting application options.

“[NYU] recognizes that while unpaid internships are important in pursuing jobs in certain sectors, these opportunities nonetheless place a financial strain on many students,” Devitt said.

NYU instituted a scholarship that provides financial assistance to students who seek unpaid internships. Currently, Wasserman Center now annually offers about 300 grants of $1,000.

It’s not certain if similar programs will come to fruition at The New School.

“Given all that’s happened, it’s something that we are discussing. Those schools have endowments and Columbia does as well. It also charges for job postings, which we don’t do,” Younger said. “This is how they fund a lot of those school-based grants.”

One of the things that some companies executives have told Younger is that unpaid internships do hinder the diversity of the talent pool if many students can’t afford to intern without pay.

“Some companies actually sponsor those types of internships,” he said. “So we may see something like that develop.”