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On college campuses, the annual race for summer internships, many of them unpaid,
3)is well under way. But instead of steering students toward the best opportunities and encouraging them to value their work, many institutions of higher learning are complicit in helping companies 4)skirt a 5)nebulous area of labor law.
Colleges and universities have become 6)cheerleaders and enablers of the unpaid internship boom, failing to inform young people of their rights or protect them from the 7)miserly 8)calculus
of employers. In hundreds of interviews with interns over the past three years, I found 9)dejected students resigned to working unpaid for summers, semesters and even entire academic years—and,
increasingly, to paying for the privilege.
The uncritical internship fever on college campuses—not to mention the 10)exploitation of
graduate student instructors, 11)adjunct faculty members and support staff—is 12)symptomatic of a broader 13)malaise. Far from being the liberal, pro-labor 14)bastions of popular image, universities are often blind to the realities of work in contemporary America.
Three-quarters of the 10 million students enrolled in America’s four-year colleges and universities will work as interns at least once before graduating, according to the College Employment Research Institute. Between one-third and half will get no compensation for their efforts, a study by the research firm Intern Bridge found. Unpaid interns also lack protection from laws 15)prohibiting racial discrimination and sexual 16)harassment.
The United States Department of Labor says an intern at a for-profit company may work without pay only when the program is similar to that offered in a vocational school, benefits the student, does not displace a regular employee and does not entitle the student to a job; in addition, the employer must derive “no immediate advantage” from the student’s work and both sides must agree that the student is not entitled to wages.
Fearing a 17)crackdown by regulators, some colleges are asking the government, in essence, to look the other way. In a letter last year, 13 university presidents told the Labor Department, “While we share your concerns about the potential for exploitation, our institutions take great pains to ensure students are placed in secure and productive environments that further their education.”
Far from resisting the exploitation of their students, colleges have made academic credit a commodity—they sell credits to companies, while these 18)accredited internships may also be sold. To meet the credit requirement of their employers, some interns have essentially had to pay to work for free. Charging students tuition to work in unpaid positions might be justifiable in some cases—if the college plays a central role in securing the internship and making it a 19)substantive academic experience. But more often, internships are a cheap way for universities to provide credit—cheaper than paying for faculty members, classrooms and equipment.
A survey of more than 700 colleges by the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that 95% allowed the posting of unpaid internships in campus career centers and on college Web sites. And of those colleges, only 30% required that their students obtain academic credit for those unpaid internships; the rest, evidently, were willing to overlook potential violations of labor law.
Campus career centers report being 20)swamped; advisers I spoke to 21)flatly denied being able to “monitor and 22)reassess” all placements or even postings, as the 13 university presidents claim to do—their ability to visit students’ workplaces, for
instance, is almost 23)nil. They described feeling caught between the demands of employers and
interns, and scrambling to make accommodations: issuing vague letters of support for interns to show employers; offering 24)sketchy “internship transcript notations” or “internship certificates”; and even handing out “0.0 credit”—a mysterious 25)work-around by which credit both is and isn’t issued.
Is there a better way? Cooperative education, in which students alternate between tightly integrated classroom time and paid work experience, represents a humane and pragmatic model.
Colleges shouldn’t publicize unpaid internships at for-profit companies. They should discourage internship requirements for graduation—common practice in communications, psychology, social work and criminology. They should stop charging students to work without pay—and ensure that the currency of academic credit, already cheapened by internships, doesn’t lose all its value.
To be sure, the unpaid internship is only part of a phenomenon that includes the growing numbers of 26)temps, 27)freelancers, adjuncts, self-employed “entrepreneurs” and other low-wage or 28)precariously employed workers who live 29)gig by gig. The academy should critique, not amplify, those trends.
While higher education has tried to stand for fairness in the past few decades through 30)affirmative action and financial aid, the internship boom 31)gives the well-to-do a foot in the door while 32)consigning the less well-off to dead-end temporary jobs. Colleges have turned internships into a 33)prerequisite for the professional world but have neither ensured equal access to these opportunities, nor insisted on fair wages for honest work.
在大学校园里，一年一度的暑期实习机会竞争已进行得如火如荼，而其中许多工作却是无薪的。然而，许多高等教育学院非但没能指引学生们找到最好的工作机会并鼓励他们重视自己的劳动，反而当起帮凶，协助各家公司绕过劳动法的模糊地带。
各学院和大学非但未能告诉年轻人所拥有的权利或是保护他们免受雇主的悭吝盘剥，反倒还成了这种无薪实习潮的奉承者和推手。在过去的三年里，我对实习生们进行了数以百计的采访。我发现学生们已不无沮丧地放弃了无谓的挣扎，乖乖地用整个暑假、学期，甚至全学年进行无薪实习——而且越来越多学生甚至会自掏腰包为求一享实习的“特权”。
在大学校园里盛行的这股毫无非议的实习热——更别提毕业生的指导老师、助理教职工和后勤人员对学生的任意使唤——反映出一种更为广泛的浮躁症候。各大学非但不是大众心目中的那种提倡自由、站在劳工那边的坚实堡垒，而且常常对当下美国的工作现状熟视无睹。
根据大学就业研究院的调查，在入读美国四年制学院和大学的一千万名学生中，有四分之三的人在毕业前至少会实习一次。而一家名为“实习生之桥”的研究公司在一项调查中发现，有三分之一到二分之一的人尽管努力工作也拿不到报酬。无薪实习在种族歧视和性骚扰方面也缺乏法律
保护。
美国劳工部称，在营利性公司里的实习工作只有在项目与职业学校所提供的项目相类似、能使学生从中受益、不会取代正式员工的职位且不会授权学生负责工作的前提下，才能不支付薪水；此外，雇主从学生的工作中只能获得“非直接好处”，且必须双方均同意学生无权获得薪水。
由于害怕会受到监管机构的处罚，有些高校正在要求政府从另一个角度去看待问题的本质。在去年的一封信中，13所大学的校长对劳工部宣称：“尽管我们和您一样对于潜在剥削充满了忧虑，但我们的学院正极力保证学生们都被安置在有助于他们学业的、安全而有成效的环境中。”
这些高校不仅没有抵制外界对于自己学生的剥削，还使得学分变成了商品——他们将学分卖给各公司，且这些获得认可的实习职位也可以被买卖。要想达到他们的雇主规定的学分要求，基本上，有些实习生不得不花钱才能得到无薪工作。在某些案例中，收取学费让学生从事无薪工作或许还说得过去——如果学院能够发挥核心作用去帮学生找到实习职位并使其成为真正的学习体验的话。但在更多的时候，对于大学来说，实习是一种提供学分的廉价方式——比支付教职工薪水、课室和设备的费用要廉价得多。
全美学院和雇主协会对700多所高校所做的一份调查发现，95%的高校允许雇主在校园职业中心和学校网站上发布无薪实习的信息。而其中只有30%的高校要求其学生从那些无薪实习中获得学分；很显然，其他的高校则愿意放任违反劳工法的潜在可能。
而校园职业中心则报告称他们已经陷入了困境；我所访问的那些指导老师们直截了当地否认了他们像那13所大学的校长们所声称的那样，能够对所有的人员安排，甚至是实习信息发布进行“监督和再评估”——比如说，他们视察学生工作岗位的可能性几乎为零。他们称自己陷于雇主和实习生双重要求之间，还要仓促地做出协调：给雇主发送内容含糊的实习推荐信；提供粗略的“实习成绩单”或“实习证明”，甚至还拿出了“0.0学分”——一个神秘的权宜之策，是否获得学分尚不明确。
那么，有没有更好的方式呢？合作教育，能让学生在安排紧密的课程和带薪工作体验之间游刃有余，这种模式也更人性化、更实用。
学院不应宣传营利性公司的无薪实习，不再将实习列入毕业条件——传播、心理学、社工、犯罪学专业往往要求学生参与实习。他们应该停止向参加无薪实习的学生收费——并确保已经因实习工作而降低质量的学分不会完全丧失其价值。
当然，无薪实习只不过是一种社会现象的冰山一角，其中包括数目不断攀升的临时雇员、自由作家、兼职雇员、个体经营“企业家”和其他低薪或是不稳定的雇佣工人，他们由一份工作跳到另一份工作借以谋生。学院应该批评而非扩大这种趋势。
尽管在过去的数十年里，高等教育曾努力通过平权行动和经济援助以树立公平的形象，但这股实习大潮使得生活优裕者迈出了成功的第一步，而将不太富裕者打发去了毫无出路的临时性工作。学院已经将实习工作变成了进入专业领域的先决条件，却既没有确保机会均等，也没有强调给予诚实的工作一份合理的薪酬。
3)is well under way. But instead of steering students toward the best opportunities and encouraging them to value their work, many institutions of higher learning are complicit in helping companies 4)skirt a 5)nebulous area of labor law.
Colleges and universities have become 6)cheerleaders and enablers of the unpaid internship boom, failing to inform young people of their rights or protect them from the 7)miserly 8)calculus
of employers. In hundreds of interviews with interns over the past three years, I found 9)dejected students resigned to working unpaid for summers, semesters and even entire academic years—and,
increasingly, to paying for the privilege.
The uncritical internship fever on college campuses—not to mention the 10)exploitation of
graduate student instructors, 11)adjunct faculty members and support staff—is 12)symptomatic of a broader 13)malaise. Far from being the liberal, pro-labor 14)bastions of popular image, universities are often blind to the realities of work in contemporary America.
Three-quarters of the 10 million students enrolled in America’s four-year colleges and universities will work as interns at least once before graduating, according to the College Employment Research Institute. Between one-third and half will get no compensation for their efforts, a study by the research firm Intern Bridge found. Unpaid interns also lack protection from laws 15)prohibiting racial discrimination and sexual 16)harassment.
The United States Department of Labor says an intern at a for-profit company may work without pay only when the program is similar to that offered in a vocational school, benefits the student, does not displace a regular employee and does not entitle the student to a job; in addition, the employer must derive “no immediate advantage” from the student’s work and both sides must agree that the student is not entitled to wages.
Fearing a 17)crackdown by regulators, some colleges are asking the government, in essence, to look the other way. In a letter last year, 13 university presidents told the Labor Department, “While we share your concerns about the potential for exploitation, our institutions take great pains to ensure students are placed in secure and productive environments that further their education.”
Far from resisting the exploitation of their students, colleges have made academic credit a commodity—they sell credits to companies, while these 18)accredited internships may also be sold. To meet the credit requirement of their employers, some interns have essentially had to pay to work for free. Charging students tuition to work in unpaid positions might be justifiable in some cases—if the college plays a central role in securing the internship and making it a 19)substantive academic experience. But more often, internships are a cheap way for universities to provide credit—cheaper than paying for faculty members, classrooms and equipment.
A survey of more than 700 colleges by the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that 95% allowed the posting of unpaid internships in campus career centers and on college Web sites. And of those colleges, only 30% required that their students obtain academic credit for those unpaid internships; the rest, evidently, were willing to overlook potential violations of labor law.
Campus career centers report being 20)swamped; advisers I spoke to 21)flatly denied being able to “monitor and 22)reassess” all placements or even postings, as the 13 university presidents claim to do—their ability to visit students’ workplaces, for
instance, is almost 23)nil. They described feeling caught between the demands of employers and
interns, and scrambling to make accommodations: issuing vague letters of support for interns to show employers; offering 24)sketchy “internship transcript notations” or “internship certificates”; and even handing out “0.0 credit”—a mysterious 25)work-around by which credit both is and isn’t issued.
Is there a better way? Cooperative education, in which students alternate between tightly integrated classroom time and paid work experience, represents a humane and pragmatic model.
Colleges shouldn’t publicize unpaid internships at for-profit companies. They should discourage internship requirements for graduation—common practice in communications, psychology, social work and criminology. They should stop charging students to work without pay—and ensure that the currency of academic credit, already cheapened by internships, doesn’t lose all its value.
To be sure, the unpaid internship is only part of a phenomenon that includes the growing numbers of 26)temps, 27)freelancers, adjuncts, self-employed “entrepreneurs” and other low-wage or 28)precariously employed workers who live 29)gig by gig. The academy should critique, not amplify, those trends.
While higher education has tried to stand for fairness in the past few decades through 30)affirmative action and financial aid, the internship boom 31)gives the well-to-do a foot in the door while 32)consigning the less well-off to dead-end temporary jobs. Colleges have turned internships into a 33)prerequisite for the professional world but have neither ensured equal access to these opportunities, nor insisted on fair wages for honest work.
在大学校园里，一年一度的暑期实习机会竞争已进行得如火如荼，而其中许多工作却是无薪的。然而，许多高等教育学院非但没能指引学生们找到最好的工作机会并鼓励他们重视自己的劳动，反而当起帮凶，协助各家公司绕过劳动法的模糊地带。
各学院和大学非但未能告诉年轻人所拥有的权利或是保护他们免受雇主的悭吝盘剥，反倒还成了这种无薪实习潮的奉承者和推手。在过去的三年里，我对实习生们进行了数以百计的采访。我发现学生们已不无沮丧地放弃了无谓的挣扎，乖乖地用整个暑假、学期，甚至全学年进行无薪实习——而且越来越多学生甚至会自掏腰包为求一享实习的“特权”。
在大学校园里盛行的这股毫无非议的实习热——更别提毕业生的指导老师、助理教职工和后勤人员对学生的任意使唤——反映出一种更为广泛的浮躁症候。各大学非但不是大众心目中的那种提倡自由、站在劳工那边的坚实堡垒，而且常常对当下美国的工作现状熟视无睹。
根据大学就业研究院的调查，在入读美国四年制学院和大学的一千万名学生中，有四分之三的人在毕业前至少会实习一次。而一家名为“实习生之桥”的研究公司在一项调查中发现，有三分之一到二分之一的人尽管努力工作也拿不到报酬。无薪实习在种族歧视和性骚扰方面也缺乏法律
保护。
美国劳工部称，在营利性公司里的实习工作只有在项目与职业学校所提供的项目相类似、能使学生从中受益、不会取代正式员工的职位且不会授权学生负责工作的前提下，才能不支付薪水；此外，雇主从学生的工作中只能获得“非直接好处”，且必须双方均同意学生无权获得薪水。
由于害怕会受到监管机构的处罚，有些高校正在要求政府从另一个角度去看待问题的本质。在去年的一封信中，13所大学的校长对劳工部宣称：“尽管我们和您一样对于潜在剥削充满了忧虑，但我们的学院正极力保证学生们都被安置在有助于他们学业的、安全而有成效的环境中。”
这些高校不仅没有抵制外界对于自己学生的剥削，还使得学分变成了商品——他们将学分卖给各公司，且这些获得认可的实习职位也可以被买卖。要想达到他们的雇主规定的学分要求，基本上，有些实习生不得不花钱才能得到无薪工作。在某些案例中，收取学费让学生从事无薪工作或许还说得过去——如果学院能够发挥核心作用去帮学生找到实习职位并使其成为真正的学习体验的话。但在更多的时候，对于大学来说，实习是一种提供学分的廉价方式——比支付教职工薪水、课室和设备的费用要廉价得多。
全美学院和雇主协会对700多所高校所做的一份调查发现，95%的高校允许雇主在校园职业中心和学校网站上发布无薪实习的信息。而其中只有30%的高校要求其学生从那些无薪实习中获得学分；很显然，其他的高校则愿意放任违反劳工法的潜在可能。
而校园职业中心则报告称他们已经陷入了困境；我所访问的那些指导老师们直截了当地否认了他们像那13所大学的校长们所声称的那样，能够对所有的人员安排，甚至是实习信息发布进行“监督和再评估”——比如说，他们视察学生工作岗位的可能性几乎为零。他们称自己陷于雇主和实习生双重要求之间，还要仓促地做出协调：给雇主发送内容含糊的实习推荐信；提供粗略的“实习成绩单”或“实习证明”，甚至还拿出了“0.0学分”——一个神秘的权宜之策，是否获得学分尚不明确。
那么，有没有更好的方式呢？合作教育，能让学生在安排紧密的课程和带薪工作体验之间游刃有余，这种模式也更人性化、更实用。
学院不应宣传营利性公司的无薪实习，不再将实习列入毕业条件——传播、心理学、社工、犯罪学专业往往要求学生参与实习。他们应该停止向参加无薪实习的学生收费——并确保已经因实习工作而降低质量的学分不会完全丧失其价值。
当然，无薪实习只不过是一种社会现象的冰山一角，其中包括数目不断攀升的临时雇员、自由作家、兼职雇员、个体经营“企业家”和其他低薪或是不稳定的雇佣工人，他们由一份工作跳到另一份工作借以谋生。学院应该批评而非扩大这种趋势。
尽管在过去的数十年里，高等教育曾努力通过平权行动和经济援助以树立公平的形象，但这股实习大潮使得生活优裕者迈出了成功的第一步，而将不太富裕者打发去了毫无出路的临时性工作。学院已经将实习工作变成了进入专业领域的先决条件，却既没有确保机会均等，也没有强调给予诚实的工作一份合理的薪酬。