Faculty Information

Internship Registration Deadlines

• Fall 2026 internship registrations open on 4/7/26 and close on 9/20/26

Students are encouraged to submit their Handshake proposal as soon as they have their internship selected and should not wait until the semester begins! 

Students must complete the Late Internship Registration Appeal Form if proposing an internship after the registration deadline (late internship registrations will not qualify for a stipend).

A note about registering internships:
Internships are courses with academic expectations and requirements. They are also opportunities for students to practice professionalism and work ethic with community partners. To ensure the best experience for employers, students, and faculty, and to safeguard the academic integrity of the student learning experience, internships must be registered through established processes. Additionally, internships must always be registered in advance of student work and taught in the term in which the student is gaining the site experience. Internship registration deadlines cannot be infinitely flexible, just as course enrollment cannot be infinitely flexible.

All courses with a schedule type of Internship or Practicum are managed administratively through the Lougheed Center for Applied Learning internship approval process (this is done through Handshake for all internships). This creates centralized liability management, assessment, and reporting for all off-campus credit-bearing applied learning activities outside of teacher education.

What is an Internship Proposal, and how does it work? 

• Student interns use the Internship Proposal Template (PDF) when meeting with their site supervisor and faculty sponsor to gather information about the internship experience. Once complete, the student can copy information from this form to the official Handshake proposal. 
• Faculty sponsors may need to assist students in completing their internship proposal. The internship proposal, in concert with the syllabus:
  • Details the course the student is enrolling in. The faculty sponsor is the instructor of record for the course, so should assist the student in determining these details - subject code and number, grading system, number of credits, etc.
  • Outlines what a student intends to learn and accomplish during the internship.
  • Acts as a contract between the student, the internship site supervisor, and SUNY Potsdam. It details mutual intentions and expectations.
  • Specifies educational and work-related expectations as well as outlining criteria and techniques for mid-term evaluation and grading at the internship’s conclusion.
  • Provides a reference against which progress can be measured.
  • Represents a description of learning goals and specific strategies for achieving those goals. An intern is not an employee or a “free agent.” In return for their experiential opportunity, they carry out agreed upon activities and projects. They are negotiating what they want to learn, what the supervisor needs to be done, and what the faculty sponsor wants the student to demonstrate they have learned.

What is the Approvals Process for an Internship Proposal? 

• Once the Internship Proposal template is completed by the student, they will transfer all information to the official internship proposal on Handshake and submit. The proposal will then enter the approvals process to be reviewed by all parties and then registered/added to the student's schedule. 
• A typical approvals process looks like: Faculty Sponsor—Site Supervisor—Associate Dean (or Dean) of that Student's School—Registrar
• Note: The Internship Coordinator reviews all submitted internship proposals on Handshake for accuracy and completion. In cases where corrections are needed, the Internship Coordinator will contact appropriate parties to ensure proposal details are correct prior to approvals. The Internship Coordinator can make edits to a proposal at any time. 

Why are internships approved differently than regular courses, and how does APLE work?

• "Internship" and "practicum" are schedule types, coded into Banner.
  • Example from BearPaws for Fall 2023:
    @GRAPHIC DESIGN INTERNSHIP - 92863 - APLE 491 - 005
    Associated Term: Fall 2023
    Levels: Matriculated Undergraduate, Undergrad Non-Matric
    Internship - Unpaid Schedule Type
    0.000 TO 12.000 Credits
• APLE is a subject code prefix for interdisciplinary applied learning experiences administered by the Lougheed Center for Applied Learning. The curriculum for APLE is managed by the faculty Advisory Board of the LoCAL.
• APLE 491 is the course for flexible non-departmental or interdisciplinary courses with the schedule type of internship.
  • In addition to APLE 491, there are dozens of departmental courses that are instruction type Internship (list below is the first 5 from the current catalog).
    • ACCT 491 - Internship
    • ANTH 470 - Museum Internship
    • ANTH 490 - Internship in Anthropology
    • ANTH 491 - Internship in Applied Anthropology
    • ARTS 490 - Senior Art Internship
  • Depending on a student's needs for their degree progress, APLE 491 or a departmental course number may be used.

A credit-bearing internship is composed of two distinct parts: the onsite work experience, and the academic work to integrate that experience with the learning done in the student's academic program. As such, it has two key mentors who are separate individuals: the site supervisor (site work) and a faculty member (academic work). The roles are defined as follows:

Site Supervisor

• An individual on site who oversees the intern's site training, guides hands-on and practical learning experience, and offers regular, constructive feedback regarding site work performance.
• Confirmed by the student once they have secured an internship with the site (typically following email/phone communication, a formal interview, or an internship application). 
• Completes a midterm and final evaluation of the student's site work performance and skill development. 
• Is NOT responsible for any academic components, syllabus, etc. 

Faculty Member

• Determines the academic appropriateness of the proposed internship, monitors the student intern's progress, and assigns a final grade for the overall internship experience. 
• Creates a course syllabus for the internship (see Course Syllabus section for guidelines and syllabus template). 
• Faculty are expected to meet with their student interns, face to face or online, on a regular basis during the internship to provide support, feedback, and academic mentoring.
• Assigns final grade based on a rubric in the syllabus, with consideration to:
  • The student's academic work
  • Site supervisor evaluations
  • Any additional criteria created by the faculty sponsor

Grading
Final grades must be submitted by the cutoff of the academic semester (View the Academic Calendar). Students should request an incomplete from their faculty sponsor for internship hours that run beyond the cutoff. Otherwise, late grades negatively impact a student's billing status as well as the university's internship reporting for SUNY. Please reach out to the Registrar and/or Internship Coordinator with questions about this policy. 

Faculty Sponsors

During summer session, faculty are paid $50 per credit hour to sponsor internships.

During regular semesters, faculty are compensated with professional development funding at a rate of $50 per credit hour. Full information is available on the Lougheed Center for Applied Learning funding page.

Faculty Liaisons

During any academic semester, a faculty liaison is assigned load to supervise a cohort of interns in their department/program. Load assignments are handled entirely by the faculty's school Dean and are typically 3 credits per semester. The Internship Coordinator is not responsible for deciding who is given load to supervise a cohort in a given term (all questions about load or interest in serving as a faculty liaison should be directed to the Dean). 

Faculty Sponsors

• Faculty sponsoring an individual internship should use the Faculty Sponsor syllabus template (docx). 
• Faculty sponsors are expected to adhere to syllabus requirements when tailoring the template to a student's particular internship. 
• Note: Faculty will need to identify the appropriate course code and title and list this in the syllabus. APLE 491 will work for many internships, unless a department-specific course code and title will be used from the course catalog. 

Faculty Liaisons

• Faculty Liaisons overseeing a cohort of interns should use the Faculty Liaison syllabus template (docx). 
• Faculty Liaisons are expected to adhere to syllabus requirements when tailoring the template to a student's particular internship. 
• Note: Faculty Liaisons will use a standard course code and title for their entire student cohort (e.g., APLE 490 "Business Internship"). The course code and title cannot differ from this information due to cohort assignments by the Registrar's office. 

Faculty members who support internships have similar roles in guiding the academic components of an internship; however, the expectations and structure around each role is distinct. Please review the following descriptions to better understand each faculty role for internships. 

Faculty Sponsors

• The more common role for faculty who oversee a singular internship experience. In this case, a student must identify their faculty sponsor when setting up their internship (often by asking around their department or program to confirm who can fulfill this role). 
• Most departments/programs have faculty who are experienced, default faculty sponsors. If a student is unsure of who to ask, a recommendation may be made either by a faculty mentor in that discipline or by the Internship Coordinator. 
• A student typically asks a faculty mentor in their home department/program to sponsor an internship. Individuals in staff positions can also serve in this role, as long as they have the expertise/credentials and can craft the necessary academic components for the experience. 
• Faculty Sponsors are paid $50/internship credit in the summer, or they will receive $50/internship credit in professional development funding from the Lougheed Center for Applied Learning. 
• Internships can be variable credit, so a faculty sponsor may oversee a variety of internship credits in a given semester. 
• Note: Faculty Sponsors are expected to work with the student in advance of an internship taking place to finalize details and provide a course syllabus (see Course Syllabus section for more details). 

Faculty Liaisons

• SUNY Potsdam is piloting a new internship model in AY2627, which involves a Faculty Liaison who oversees a cohort of interns in their discipline/program area. 
• Faculty Liaisons receive course load to oversee a cohort (load is assigned by the chair/division chair in consultation with the Dean's office). 
• Cohort internships are non-variable credit and registered as APLE 490 "Internship Cohort." The majority of these cohorts are fixed at 3 credits, though some school exceptions may apply. The Internship Coordinator will work with the Registrar to sort student interns into the appropriate cohort. 
• Faculty members who are interested in serving as a future Faculty Liaison should contact their chair/division chair and consult with the Dean's office regarding load, schedule, and cohort availability. 
• Faculty Liaison positions may rotate between academic semesters (as decided by the chair/division chair and Dean's office), and new Faculty Liaison positions may be created in consultation with the Internship Coordinator. 
• Note: Faculty Liaisons are NOT expected to work with a student in advance of an internship taking place. Instead, students will work with their faculty mentors and the Internship Coordinator to identify suitable internships sites, prepare the internship proposal form, etc. A common syllabus will be posted to Brightspace for all student interns in the cohort, which they can access once the course begins. Faculty Liaisons are expected to create a course structure for class meetings at the beginning, midpoint, and conclusion of the semester (see Syllabus Guidelines section for more details).