At the February 13 Faculty Meeting, CEPC proposed and the faculty approved the following policies and procedures for credit-bearing academic internships:

CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION: INTERNSHIPS

Academic Internships are viewed as an integral part of a student's academic life at St. Olaf College. An academic internship is a planned, supervised, experiential learning project integrating study and practical work. As a credit bearing experience it allows students to acquire and apply knowledge through direct experience in a field related to their academic program. The academic internship is intended to integrate on-site learning with the knowledge base of a related discipline. Academic integrity is assured through established department/program criteria, faculty supervision, an Academic Internship Learning Plan, and guidance from the Internships Program of the Center for Experiential Learning.

The following regulations govern academic internships:

  1. To assure that a proposed academic internship is credit-worthy, a student must complete a Learning Plan in advance of the internship. A form for a Learning Plan is available from the Office for Internships.

  2. Credit for an academic internship will be granted only when the academic internship is completed in conjunction with a St. Olaf academic program.

  3. Each academic internship must have a St. Olaf faculty supervisor and an on-site supervisor. There must be on-going communication between the college, the student, and the on-site supervisor during the academic internship to assure fulfillment of the Learning Plan.

  4. An academic internship as outlined in a Learning Plan must be approved by the Office for Internships and by the faculty supervisor. Approval by department chair is needed for the academic internship to be counted toward a major.

  5. Each academic internship must include both practical work experience assigned by the on-site supervisor and complementary academic work assigned by the St. Olaf faculty supervisor as outlined by the Learning Plan.

  6. A student may enroll for an Academic internship as either a Level II (294) or Level III (394) course, using criteria established by individual departments or programs. At the discretion of an individual department, a student may take a second internship with the same number in that department, provided it has a different focus.

  7. A student may be paid for work done during the academic internship.

  8. The academic internship experience must be evaluated by the St. Olaf faculty supervisor, with input from the on-site supervisor.

  9. Only proposals for internships bearing a full (1.00) course credit will be considered.

  10. Academic internships are offered P/N only.

  11. Academic internships do not fulfill General Education requirements.

  12. Consideration of transfer of academic internship credit from another institution will follow the Transfer Credit Policy for Matriculated Students as outlined in the College Catalog.

  13. No more than three academic internship courses may apply to a St. Olaf degree.

  14. A student may register for an academic internship only after the Director of Office for Internships approves the Learning Plan.

  15. A student must register for an academic internship prior to or during the term for which the student receives credit. Credit will not be awarded retroactively.

  16. The academic internship experience (on-site work in addition to academic work) must total 160 hours, with a minimum of 120 hours on site.

Rationale

The guidelines that now govern internships at the college were first drafted in 1974; they were revised in 1982 following review by CEPC; and they have remained unchanged since then. In the spring of 2002, Associate Dean Samiha Peterson convened an ad hoc Academic Internships Review and Evaluation Committee (Bauer, Huff, Achberger, Hofrenning, Stellmaker, Gonzalez, Kmoch) to insure that the guidelines in the catalog matched the college's best thinking and practices regarding academic internships. The proposed new guidelines are a product of that committee's work.

The integration of learning in a work-place and learning in a classroom has a long history at St. Olaf, and it has received increasing attention through the Center for Experiential Learning. Many programs of the college currently require or encourage the inclusion of work-place experiences in a student's curriculum; and there is a sizable literature testifying to the value of incorporating work-place experiences in a student's academic career. In the context of the expanding importance of experiential learning at St. Olaf, the proposed new guidelines re-enforce the academic integrity of academic internships. Besides emphasizing the integration of classroom and work-place learning, the new guidelines involve specific changes, including:

  1. requiring that a learning plan be filed in advance of the internship;

  2. clarifying the quantity of work involved in an internship;

  3. reducing the total number of internships permitted;

  4. requiring the approval of a department chair or program director if an internship is to be included in a major or concentration; and

  5. clarifying policies for transferring credits earned through internships at other institutions.