2008 Woodie Awards
College to eliminate $900 fee for summer internships
International students who choose to pursue internships in the United States over the summer will no longer have to pay the college for the credit
By: Matt Won, Opinion Editor
Issue date: 4/28/06 Section: News
- Page 1 of 2 next >
International students received word last Thursday from International Student Program Coordinator Aaron Colhapp that they would no longer have to pay the college an approximately $900 credit fee for their summer internships.
This work must be done for credit and up until now, international students were forced to pay school tuition for the one credit necessary to comply with US work eligibility requirements. The school's new policy waives this fee for international students.
The debate over this policy has been constant for the eight years that Colhapp has been working for the school, with students asking if the US government policy is discriminatory, why should the school play along and force the students to pay for the necessary credit, when it could simply waive the fees?
Many questioned the merits of a policy that financially discouraged what the college admits is an important part of Macalester's educational philosophy.
Internship Director Michael Porter called the old policy a disincentive to valuable internships. “I think it put a lot of students in a position of having to decide `Can I make enough money in this job, this internship, to counter the cost of the credit?'”
An average of 25 international students each summer took internships in the United States the last several years, and became a revenue source for the college. The college's announcement last Thursday came late in the game for many students, who have already planned their summers.
“[The timing] is probably later than would have been ideal because maybe then more students would have thought about an internship, a paid one, but most students I've talked to have been thrilled,” Porter said. “I think they were gonna make the decision to do the internship anyway, and this is just an $890 bonus.”
Na Yeon Oh '07 interned summers in Singapore, where she grew up, in jobs including Media Corporation's Singapore Idol, but thought working in the States would be a good opportunity. “[The credit fee] didn't discourage me,” Oh said. “If you do get an internship in the states, that's wonderful and even if you pay $900, if you're getting paid more than that then it's always an incentive to work here.”
This work must be done for credit and up until now, international students were forced to pay school tuition for the one credit necessary to comply with US work eligibility requirements. The school's new policy waives this fee for international students.
The debate over this policy has been constant for the eight years that Colhapp has been working for the school, with students asking if the US government policy is discriminatory, why should the school play along and force the students to pay for the necessary credit, when it could simply waive the fees?
Many questioned the merits of a policy that financially discouraged what the college admits is an important part of Macalester's educational philosophy.
Internship Director Michael Porter called the old policy a disincentive to valuable internships. “I think it put a lot of students in a position of having to decide `Can I make enough money in this job, this internship, to counter the cost of the credit?'”
An average of 25 international students each summer took internships in the United States the last several years, and became a revenue source for the college. The college's announcement last Thursday came late in the game for many students, who have already planned their summers.
“[The timing] is probably later than would have been ideal because maybe then more students would have thought about an internship, a paid one, but most students I've talked to have been thrilled,” Porter said. “I think they were gonna make the decision to do the internship anyway, and this is just an $890 bonus.”
Na Yeon Oh '07 interned summers in Singapore, where she grew up, in jobs including Media Corporation's Singapore Idol, but thought working in the States would be a good opportunity. “[The credit fee] didn't discourage me,” Oh said. “If you do get an internship in the states, that's wonderful and even if you pay $900, if you're getting paid more than that then it's always an incentive to work here.”
Be the first to comment on this story