{"id":12145,"date":"2025-08-25T11:04:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T16:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/hr\/?p=12145"},"modified":"2025-08-25T11:04:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T16:04:09","slug":"updated-policies-on-unpaid-internships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/hr\/2025\/08\/25\/updated-policies-on-unpaid-internships\/","title":{"rendered":"Updated Policies on Unpaid Internships"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>In an effort to strengthen our internal processes and align with U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) compliance, we are re-evaluating policies related to unpaid internships. As part of this initiative, the following changes will take effect in the upcoming fiscal years.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><b>Effective FY \u201926: Unpaid Internship Policy<\/b><\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>Individuals participating in an unpaid internship must be enrolled at a higher education institution.<\/li>\n<li>Unpaid interns may not work more than 25 hours per week during the academic semester.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div>\n<h3><span style=\"font-family: arial, sans-serif;font-size: small\">Changes for F-1 and J-1 Students<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, sans-serif;font-size: small\">Per U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) regulations:<br \/>\nFor any work performed on campus by a student holding an F-1 or J-1 visa\u2014whether paid or unpaid\u2014an employee-employer relationship is considered to exist. This means that all F-1 and J-1 students must obtain proper work authorization before engaging in any form of on-campus work, including internships, assistantships, and unpaid or volunteer roles. The requirement applies regardless of whether compensation is provided.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, sans-serif;font-size: small\">Students\u00a0must work with the appropriate campus office to ensure they are authorized to work before any duties begin. F-1 and J-1 students are responsible for informing their hiring manager or supervisor of their immigration status prior to beginning any work on campus. This disclosure is essential to ensure proper hiring procedures and timely authorization.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, sans-serif;font-size: small\">Hiring managers\u00a0are encouraged to include ACU F-1 and J-1 students in their programs. These students are eligible to work on campus, but they must be hired as student employees and paid hourly at a minimum rate of $8.00 per hour, in compliance with university and federal guidelines.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Failure to comply with federal regulations may jeopardize a student\u2019s immigration status and could result in institutional consequences.<span style=\"font-family: arial, sans-serif;font-size: small\">For questions or assistance with employment authorization, please contact:<\/span><\/p>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Lucy Dawson, PDSO<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Associate Director<br \/>\nOffice of International Students and Visiting Scholars<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">124 Hardin Administration Building<br \/>\nlld09a@acu.edu<br \/>\n(p) 325-674-2237<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">For questions or assistance with the hiring process, please contact:<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>ACU Human Resources<\/div>\n<div>213 Hardin Administration Building<\/div>\n<div><a href=\"mailto:humanresources@acu.edu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">humanresources@acu.edu<\/a><\/div>\n<div>325.674.2359<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><b>\u00a0 Effective FY \u201927: Cost-of-Living Stipends<\/b><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Cost-of-living payments are nominal stipends intended to assist participants with basic living expenses.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Stipends cannot be tied to productivity, hours worked, or performance.<\/li>\n<li>Budgets for cost of living stipends must be equally distributed among all participants.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Please begin to consider any future impact to your budget now so that you can make adjustments for FY27.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In an effort to strengthen our internal processes and align with U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) compliance, we are re-evaluating policies related to unpaid internships. As part of this initiative, the following changes will take effect in the upcoming fiscal years. Effective FY \u201926: Unpaid Internship Policy Individuals participating in an unpaid internship must be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16565,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announcements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16565"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12145"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12146,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12145\/revisions\/12146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}