It was a BAD week for asking students for money, after several law students at the University of Toronto expressed distaste for the #OneDayofPay campaign. The Students’ Law Society proposed that those with paid summer jobs donate one day of their wages to subsidize $1,000 to $2,000 grants for first- and second-year students in unpaid, public interest roles.
The campaign, which is set to launch in March pending faculty approval, has left several Canadian law students peeved.
“It’s really the wrong target in my opinion,” third-year law student Ella Henry told Canada’s Metro News. “They’re sort of suggesting that the people who should fix the problem of unpaid work are students rather than employers that are getting people to work for free and getting the benefit of that work.”
First-year student Riaz Sayani-Mulji wondered why faculty members weren’t asked to sacrifice any of their pay for the cause.
“It would have been great to see if our faculty which are one of the highest paid in the province…were asked to give half a day or a day of their pay,” University of Toronto first-year Riaz Sayani-Mulji said.
Controversy over unpaid externships has plagued law students in America for some time. For some students, an unpaid externship provides valuable experience and a resume boost. But for others, time unpaid just isn’t worth the tradeoff of not being able to pay bills or even feed your family.
Do you think a similar program would fly with law students in the States?
 Update: On March 2, Legal Feeds reported that the program will not proceed as planned.Â
“In terms of pulling back the campaign all together we are not in the process of doing that, but we are also not moving forward until we have a better sense from students, if that’s what they want to do,” Natalie Lum-Tai, president of U of T’s Students’ Law Society, told Legal Feeds.
