Mizzou Coaches Get Paid Millions But Interns Get “Experience”
The University of Missouri Athletics Department is one of only 14 athletic programs in the Football Bowl Subdivision (with 120 teams) to turn a profit last year. The Mizzou athletic department just hired Basketball Head Coach Frank Haith for $1.5 million per year, and Football Head Coach Gary Pinkel earns $2.35 million per year.
But the athletic department doesn’t want to share any of its profits with a lowly intern to help run its website WeAreMizzou.Blogspot.com, which apparently is different from WeAreMizzou.com. The department is looking for unpaid interns in the Missouri School of Journalism “to gain experience” managing the website.
The email looking for potential interns was forwarded out over the Missouri School of Journalism’s listserv earlier this afternoon, which is how it came to our attention.
I’ll spare you the unpaid-internships-are-unfair rant, but seriously. Mizzou’s athletics department can throw millions at head coaches and their assistants, but it can’t shell out eight bucks an hour to some intern to help operate its website?
We tried to interview the person behind this email, and we were in the process of doing so until she realized I wasn’t interested in applying for this scam unpaid internship.
Get lost, Mizzou Athletics. Let us know if you’re willing to fairly compensate your interns and not reduce them to indentured servitude. We’ll even promote the internship on our Twitter if you pay up.
UPDATE: In a brief phone interview with the person behind this email, we were able to confirm the web intern position is in fact unpaid. We learned this piece of information before we originally published this blog post, but omitted it from the original version of this story. We apologize for not being more clear.
Here is the full email:
Web Internship for Student-Athlete Blog
Want to get real experience managing a website? Want to get involved with Mizzou Athletics? The University of Missouri Department of Athletics – Life Skills is seeking a highly motivated and organized individual to manage the Mizzou student-athlete blog and website at www.wearemizzou.blogspot.com
The website encompasses the athletic, academic and community service highlights for Mizzou’s 502 student-athletes. Fans, donors, recruits, parents and current student-athletes visit the site to fully understand what goes on in the life of a Mizzou athlete with behind-the-scenes interviews, photo slideshows and departmental updates. Applicants should be able to commit 10-15 hours per week beginning in the Fall 2011 semester with the opportunity to continue in the spring. Class credit is available but must go through proper department channels.
Applicants should be familiar with Photoshop, InDesign, and iMovie. They should also have strong creative thinking skills and communication skills.
Please submit a resume, cover letter and 2-3 examples of work [redacted]@mail.missouri.edu by Wednesday, April 13.
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THIS is exactly why I’m intrigued by J-School Buzz. Many other people would scoff or maybe even apply at the opportunity to work FOR FREE for the Mizzou athletic program. It’s a good program, definitely. But it’s a joke that they can’t shell out 8 dollars an hour. Thanks for posting this and sticking up for journalists who are already both underpaid and under-appreciated.
Actually, the NCAA has very specific limits on how many employees an athletics department can have. It’s to avoid the abuses in the system that happened in the 1970s and 1980s, when schools could hire athletes to be “student assistants” as a way to funnel cash their way. Leaving the issue of unpaid interships aside, I don’t think Mike Alden has a choice in this matter.
You bring up a really interesting issue about student athlete pay (or lack thereof) that Frontline just did a really great report on: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/money-and-march-madness/
Why don’t you respond to the fact that your lack of understanding of the finances involved and general reporting dramatically changes the angle of the story? This is not a debate about whether compensating college players is fair.
also, I think you meant Football Bowl Subdivision. That’s distinct from the Football Championship Subdivision. These used to be called Division 1-A and 1-AA. I would embed the link, but I don’t know if Disqus will accept html:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_I_(NCAA)#Football_Bowl_Subdivision
Good call, I just changed that in the post. Thanks!
I’m confused as to the difference between WeAreMizzou.com and mutigers.com. Aren’t both run by the Athletic Department? Can you try and clarify for me?
Because I know mutigers.com has paid student employees.
Starve the damn interns, so long as we can go back at Matt Painter with a $3 million offer. Or, divvy up Haith’s $1.5 million to all incoming freshmen over the next 4 years, as compensation for future NIT pain and suffering.
Until journalism students refuse to work for free, there’s no reason for employers to stop taking advantage —but we need that experience to get ahead. It’s such a vicious cycle! How frustrating that our own university would perpetuate such a negative trend.
Interesting article. I’m interested into seeing if this same article would have been written for an unpaid internship for the White House, where the government spends millions upon millions but couldn’t shell out $8/hr for an intern. But since this a college athletic department it’s easy to tear down for holding an unpaid internship position. Like you said, our athletic department was one of few who brought in a profit for the University, thus making the head coach position one of the most important in the hierarchy of jobs in the athletic department. You can’t compare the pay of a collegiate head coach to a student operating a website.
Austin – in the case of the White House internships and other (legal) paid internships, they meet the test set forth by the Labor Department.
In this case, I think the University may be at a legal risk here, as it derives a material benefit from the interns work.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/business/03intern.html
While I appreciate the spirit of this post (and this blog in general), it seems disingenuous to compare the salary of a University employee whose job — aside from being tied to the actions of 19-year-olds — brings money and exposure to the University, with a communications major who occasionally writes a promotional Tweet.
Also: I am bad at being on the Internet and apparently attached a photo. So, in summary: d’oh.