Here's my $.03 on paying interns as someone who's done internships.

If you can afford to pay an intern something, whether it be travel
expenses, housing or a stipend, do it, especially if they are working
full-time.  For the most part, museum interns, especially in smaller
museums, work as much as "regular" staff.  If they are acting like staff,
they should be paid and treated like staff.

Now the reality, not all museums, especially smaller ones, can afford to do
this and many interns would go without internships and gain that valuable
experience if there weren't unpaid internships out there.  Thus not
offering an internship because of lack of funds is not beneficial for
anyone.  But surely every museum or department can scrape together
something for an intern even if it's paying for the cost of the metro to
and from the site.  Many interns also work full-time jobs in order to pay
their living expenses even whilst working at an internship full-time so
every extra penny helps.  Even if interns get college credit, we still have
to *pay* for our credits.  This can mean paying our colleges thousands of
dollars for the priviledge of working.  How many of us would pay the museum
to let us work there?  So I've always thought the option of accepting
college credit for an internship instead of getting paid  was a raw deal.

Just my opinion.  :)

Deb

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