ACSA: Newsletter (4 June 2010) https://www.acsa‐arch.org/Newsletters/view.aspx?ID=76&printv...

4 June 2010

From ACSA From the President

At the ACSA Board meeting in March in New Orleans, we had a

conversation with the other collateral organizations – AIA, AIAS,
NCARB, and NAAB – about anecdotal information that some
architectural firms had interns working for them for free because of the
recession. The collaterals decided that we needed to develop a joint
statement about this issue.

Judith Wegner, the ACSA Board’s Public Member and a law professor
at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, drafted a statement,
and the collateral representatives at the Five President’s meeting in
Washington, DC, in May edited it into the final form you see here. I
encourage you to read it and to share it with students and recent
graduates, who are most vulnerable to exploitation. The law requires
employers of for-profit organizations to pay at least the minimum wage
to every employee who is not a volunteer or who is not receiving
academic credit for the work. The recession is no excuse.

Tom Fisher

From the Collaterals

Joint Statement on Architectural Internships

AIA, ACSA, AIAS

The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, the American

Institute of Architects, and the American Institute of Architecture
Students recognize that architects are bound by law and ethics to pay
interns, and strongly advocate for the appropriate compensation of
architectural students and interns. Because of current economic
transformations, some architects have both solicited and accepted the
services and labor of interns without pay. We strongly urge
architectural firms and other for-profit employers to respect the law and
comply with the ethical standards of our profession, and we strongly
encourage interns to refuse to accept employment without pay, and to
notify the Department of Labor in cases where employers propose such
an arrangement. For more information on labor laws and professional
ethics, please see the AIA Code of Ethics and the U.S. Labor
Department standards under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The ACSA, AIA, and AIAS further support architects, students, and
recent graduates doing pro-bono work. We recognize the distinction
between unpaid work for profit-making employers, and unpaid work for
non-profit organizations, communities in need, and volunteer activities,
which allows participants to determine their own hours and degree of
involvement. The AIA has established guidelines for services that are
provided on a Pro Bono basis. They can be found on under the
member section of aia.org.

QUESTIONS? Contact ACSA at info@acsa-arch.org, 202.785.2324 x3

Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture
1735 New York Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20006
www.acsa-arch.org

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