New legal studies minor approved for department of government

A new minor has been approved for students under the Department of Government.

The new legal studies minor, which will become available in fall 2012, focuses on topics discussed in the paralegal field but does not offer the prerequisites for paralegal certification or for helpful law school applications.

"We chose this new minor because there have recently been a lot of students who are interested in paralegal, so this is from a liberal arts point of view," said Lynnette Noblitt, chair of the Department of Government. "There are several programs outside of Kentucky that have used this minor and it has been very successful."

The minor focuses on the basic study of law, legal ideas and concepts and the legal system.

Students who declare this minor are expected to take classes in psychology, sociology, paralegal studies, political science, legal studies among others.

The program began discussing the possibility of the minor last spring and created a committee to discuss the feasibility of setting up the minor requirements.

"Because of all the thought and development the process was lengthy and took two to three years to get it fully put on campus," Noblitt said.

The total curriculum requirement is 18 hours to complete the legal studies minor, as is common among most other minor programs.

"I'm not sure how the turn out will be, but we hope that it will be successful and popular," Noblitt said.