As a still fairly young working professional, I thought I would put in
my two cents worth about the intership issue.  It was only five years
ago that I was an intern myself, and it was one of the best summers of
my life, so I remember it well.  I was fortunate enough to be paid a
stipend from the university I was attending to help defray the costs of
living.  I know now that had I not received some sort of payment it
would have been difficult to do the internship without having to work
nights and weekends or having to borrow money to get through the summer.
Thankfully, my program recognized the needs of its students.  But, as
one subscriber noted, we did pay for the college credit in the first
place. . .

My feeling is that as a profession we have a duty to pay people who come
to work for us.  In some cases it is difficult for an institution to do
this, but if an institution is committed to a good internship program, I
feel it is their responsibility to find a way to pay their interns
whatever they can.  (I can give a good example here if anyone needs
one.)

I find that my biggest philosophical difficulty with unpaid internships
is that museum work remains the domain of the elite or those of
independent means, and let's face it, we can't achieve diversity and
"Excellence in Equity" when we don't pay people.  In some cases museums
will miss an opportunity for an excellent candidate due to lack of
funds, or a good student will miss out on a good learning experience
because he or she has no money to live off of for three or four months.
I am not going to make a lot of friends saying this, but this is a
*class* issue that we must confront in our profession.

I also feel that paying people encourages responsibility and good work.
Pay is their "buy in," if you will.  This is also why I feel that
interns should be given performance evaluations, but that is another
issue.

Thank you all for your time.

Mariah Sacoman
NM Hispanic Cultural Center
600 Central SW, Suite 201
Albuquerque, NM 87102

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