On Fri, 5 Apr 1996, Indianapolis Art Center wrote: > The best way to "defend" the practice, as I see it, is to balance it against what a student would pay if he or she took a course in museum practice. > > Thank you, Ivy. Our past interns have had no trouble getting credit for > their internships and either substituting them for an elective course or > using them as a a required practicum. Actually saves them money in some cases. > Julia Moore > Indianapolis Art Center > Julia- Aren't you forgetting that in addition to your interns getting credit for their internship, that they have to pay for those credit hours? The average number of college credits for the internship experience is likely three (a guess)- - roughly five hundred dollars at a big ten school. Couple the cost for the academic hours with expenses associated with moving to Indianapolis for the duration of the internship, and the your potential field of interns gets smaller and smaller. I'm not clear how this would save them money... I agree with Jeanne Finan's original observation that the unpaid internship may account for a lack of diversity in our field, I praise her for bringing up the topic. Timothy Reed Dept. of Anthropolog University of Iowa [log in to unmask]