Summer Media Internship

I can’t add a whole lot to this thread that hasn’t yet been said. Many of us have the opportunity to gain helpful insight into the field of journalism and work first hand in the aspects that are going to be more prevalent in journalism’s future, such as video editing or web design. Unfortunately, there are many of us, myself included, whose duties can reach into reorganizing closets and coffee fetching. However, I do subscribe to the “you gotta start somewhere, mailroom to vice president” tale that so many of us have heard.
I find myself unable to understand why a media source would ask universities to pay for their students’ work. That, to me, is just a cheap shot in exploiting both the student and his/her educational institution. I will say that when I received the bill for this course- (somewhere upwards of $700- I was amazed that Baruch could charge so much for me to offer my labor with little in return for me but another line to add onto my resume and 2 months of “radio station experience.”
The fact is Baruch will never drop the registration fee for the internship course, but realistically, this internship is not like taking a summer course in biology or mathematics, where costs must be covered for the professors. Where does our semester fee go to? I believe that our internships should pay for part of our course registration fee if they can’t give us actual weekly stipends. No student should ever have to pay to give their labor.