22 • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18,2003
JOBS
Internship credit can be difficult to secure
By Richard Gintowt
rgintowt@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
University of Kansas senior Matt LeCover will be in the Houston Astros' dugout next week interviewing players for a post-game radio show. LeCover's summer internship has been a dream come true, but it almost never happened.
LeCover, a strategic communications major from Plano, Texas, was accepted for the internship with KRLD radio in Dallas last spring. The job—which allows him to cut highlights and interview players for Astros and Texas Rangers games required LeCover to get school credit. The only kink: the school of journalism would not give him credit for the internship until he took a message development class.
"I was pissed off," said LeCover, who appealed to James Gentry, dean of journalism, but was denied. "It's a stupid rule."
LeCover was unable to take the class because he was studying abroad in Paderno, Italy.
LeCover is among a growing group of students at the University who have difficulty securing internships because they do not qualify for internship credit within their schools or are in departments that do not offer formal internship credit.
"It's ridiculous that students have to jump through all these loopholes for an internship when it would be very easy to offer as a class."
Mary Andrade Carlson Assistant director of career and employment services
"It's ridiculous that students have to jump through all these loopholes for an internship when it would be very easy to
These students often look to Mary Andrade Carlson, assistant director of career and employment services, for help. Andrade Carlson said she helped between seven and 10 students find ways to get around the requirement last semester, often by finding a professor willing to take on an independent study.
"If we're going to count the credit towards a degree, we need to be sure the internship is consistent with what the four years are supposed to achieve."
Kim Wilcox Dean of liberal arts and sciences
offer as a class," Andrade Carlson said.
Andrade Carlson and Gail Rooney, director of career and employment services, submitted a proposal for a general internship class in October 2002, but it was turned down by Kim Wilcox, dean of liberal arts and sciences.
Wilcox said he did not endorse the class because it lacked the focus and faculty advising of an internship course within a specific department.
Due to standards dictated by the Fair Labor Standards Act, most employers required their interns to receive school credit, Carlson said. School credit also ensures that interns will show up and be accountable for their jobs.
"If we're going to count the credit towards a degree, we need to be sure the internship is consistent with what the four years are supposed to achieve," he said.
Pam Houston, director of undergraduate services for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said she saw the need for a college-wide internship course.
"There is a gap on our services," Houston said. "It hasn't been a priority for departments to create internship opportunities."
Ultimately, LeCover found a way to take the KRLD internship, but he had to go outside the University. LeCover wrote letters to six universities in the Dallas area and found a journalism professor at Richland Community College in Dallas willing to take him on for a one-credit independent study. His story had a silver lining: saving $950.
"All you need is a piece of paper saying you're getting school credit," LeCover said. "I'm probably better off this way."
— Edited by Annie Bernethy