
United Taps Criminology Students to Uncover Patterns in Accident Data - helloworld
http://www.wsj.com/articles/united-taps-criminology-students-to-uncover-patterns-in-accident-data-1475161313
======
pm24601
> United says the program’s costs are “negligible” because its own technical
> department provides the computing power and the _unpaid_ interns work with
> existing employees to collect and load the data.

Not having to pay people is a great way to save costs.

Considering how valuable the benefit United received, United could have
coughed up the money.

~~~
burkaman
Not only could they have, but this type of unpaid internship is pretty clearly
illegal:
[https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.htm](https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.htm)

~~~
gohrt
They'll claim to be exempt:

> In general, the more an internship program is structured around a classroom
> or academic experience as opposed to the employer’s actual operations, the
> more likely the internship will be viewed as an extension of the
> individual’s educational experience (this often occurs where a college or
> university exercises oversight over the internship program and provides
> educational credit).

It's still possibly over the line, and tacky as all get-out.

~~~
ghaff
It's hard to tell from the article exactly what "intern" means in this
context. If it's effectively a full semester unpaid co-op job then I tend to
agree. If it's more along the lines of a class project then that's extremely
common, mutually beneficial, and nothing I'm going to get very excited about.

~~~
sbisker
Often when it is a class project the department or the professor's lab can
collect the payment as a sponsorship instead of the students. Still sketch,
but arguably at least the company is forced to pay _someone_ for the labor,
and arguably better than the company getting work for free.

~~~
dogma1138
That's arguably even worse, especially considering the price the students pay
to attend the institution and the extra costs they pay for lab credits.

