College students already have plenty of expenses, so why should they have internship fees, too?
As a communication arts major, I am not required to have an internship. However, internships look fantastic on a resumé when applying for jobs.
This past semester I was given the opportunity to work as an art director for a magazine that was founded through CRJ by me and few other students. It fit in my schedule, so I decided to proceed in taking on the internship for the semester.
I was unaware, though, of a supervision fee of $100 to fit the internship in my schedule for 2.5 credit hours. I did not see this balance until halfway through the internship. Luckily, I had scholarships to cover the fee, but other students—like business majors, who must have a minimum of three internship credits in order to graduate—may not have an extra $100-150 to pay upfront. If they did not know about the fee beforehand, then they might end up in some financial trouble.
Students should not have to pay the supervision fee in order to add credit hours to their schedule. It puts a lot of pressure on the student to come up with this extra amount of money that is supposed to go to a supervisor or professor (who many not even be present). Plus, a lot of students get internships off campus and even find them on their own.
For my internship, I learned and worked alone or with another student; not once was a supervisor present. At the end of the semester I received an email from my supervisor telling me that they had received an email from the Registrar notifying them to put a grade in for me. My supervisor, however, did not even know what the grade was for. They had forgotten I even had an internship.
So why must I and many other students pay more than $100 for a supervision fee? If my supervisor was unaware of the fact that they were supposed to supervise me, I do not believe taking money for a supervision fee is necessary.