W
hen we founded Affordable
Michigan
—
formerly
known as the Michigan
Affordability and Advocacy Coalition
— we were attempting to address a need
that is twofold: An institutional need
for University of Michigan policies that
accommodate low-income students and
a social need for low-income students
to connect with one another and build
organizational capacity. In our first
semester as an organization, we have
worked to pinpoint which aspects of the
University’s rhetoric on socioeconomic
inclusion are the most dissonant with
how its policies and its distribution of
resources actually impact the student
population.
This brought us very quickly to
the
problems
surrounding
unpaid
and poorly-paid internships, how the
University provides funding and how
many students are still left without
the financial and community support
they need. For many low-income and/
or first-generation college students,
the idea of working for free or next-to-
nothing seems completely unintuitive.
The experience, connections and
resume bullet points unpaid internships
provide do not pay the bills. In fact,
they create bills. When considering the
cost of working for free, covering living
expenses and potentially moving to a
large, expensive city for the duration
of the internship, the completion of
an unpaid internship becomes less a
result of genuine merit and instead
the product of supplementary funds
and connections. This is especially
troublesome considering the value
entry-level positions in many fields
place on unpaid internships completed
while in college. College students (who
are able to do so) complete these unpaid
internships year after year because
getting one’s foot in the door of their
career is sometimes next to impossible
without them.
The
University’s
$11
billion
endowment makes it one of the
wealthiest universities in the country,
and
programs
such
as
the
LSA
Opportunity Hub, the Public Service
Intern Program, the LSA Internship
Fund and the internship funds that
virtually every University school and
department offer, attempt to provide
both
the
institutional
knowledge
required to obtain an internship and
the money necessary to complete
one. Overall, University students can
access far more resources than most
when it comes to this type of support,
and the scholarships and counselling
available are a main reason students
apply to universities like Michigan
in the first place. However, as unpaid
internships are one of the main ways
not-rich students are excluded from
certain careers, it is important to listen
to students navigating this process
to see if their needs are being met.
We hope the following testimonies
from Monica Kim, Lydia Murray and
Zachary Tingley about the difficulties
they have faced during the unpaid
internship experiences despite being
University students help to illuminate
this problem.
Wednesday, November 21, 2018 // The Statement
2B
ILLUSTRATION BY CHRISTINE JEGARL
BY GRIFFIN ST. ONGE & LAUREN SCHANDEVEL
Foreword
Managing Statement Editor:
Brian Kuang
Deputy Editors:
Colin Beresford
Jennifer Meer
Editor in Chief:
Alexa St. John
Photo Editor:
Amelia Cacchione
Designer:
Elizabeth Bigham
Managing Editor:
Dayton Hare
Copy Editors:
Elise Laarman
Finntan Storer
statement
THE MICHIGAN DAILY | NOVEMBER 21, 2018