Although internships are unpaid, interns will gain invaluable work experience with opportunities for academic credit and will also be given opportunities to make career contacts.

But she attaches herself to a script writer named Virgil (Guy Richards Smit), who promises career contacts and gives her a picaresque tour through cultural hell.

Students, teachers and alumni say they fear the demise of the program could devalue degrees already granted, dry up career contacts and hurt the management of struggling arts groups in New York and other cities.

To the Editor: "Colleges Make Way for Internships" (news article, July 19) rightly notes the value of practical learning through internships and of the career contacts that students make in urban centers.