College Park Scholars
University pre-law students used to have to go to law school to immerse themselves in the discipline, but starting next fall, officials will bring a taste of law school to the campus.
The new Law and Society program, housed in the university’s College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, will have two components: a law and society minor and a College Park Scholars program called Justice and Legal Thought. Participating students will take classes taught by law professors while pursuing their undergraduate degrees.
The program itself comes as a partnership between the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s law school and this university made possible by the MPowering the State program. Robert Koulish, who will serve as director of the Law and Society program, said the collaboration may be the first of its kind in the country.
“From what we know, there are no other programs that have actual law school professors teaching undergraduate programs,” Koulish said. “What we’re offering — the involvement of the law school and classes — is going to be a really unique opportunity.”
The Law and Society program is not restricted to pre-law students, Koulish said, emphasizing that it will focus on the role of law in all aspects of life — something that could appeal to students of all majors. Already, he said, students have expressed interest in the program, emailing him and asking when applications will be available.
“There’s been a lot of buzz among students, both last spring and this semester,” Koulish said. “I teach a Law and Society class, and those students are very excited about the prospect of the minor. We just want to make sure that everything is squared away before we make it official.”
He expects a formal announcement to the student body will come later this semester, and applications will be made available at that time. The minor will be available beginning next school year, and applications will be examined during winter break.
Greig Stewart, the executive director of College Park Scholars, is enthusiastic about the Justice and Legal Thought Scholars program and what it means for the Scholars community.
“We have an array of Scholars programs, but there has always been an absence of one that would examine legal and ethical issues or the role of law in society,” Stewart said. “Given our location and proximity to D.C., it seems that this is the perfect kind of opportunity for students.”
Scholars programs require students to complete a practicum during the spring semester of their second year in the program — either an internship, research paper or a creative service-learning project.
For Justice and Legal Thought Scholars students, there will be a wide variety of paths available, Koulish said, including potential internships with the Supreme Court, the Department of Justice or university alumni in the law field.
The new Scholars program means an additional cohort of roughly 75 students will be admitted into the fall 2014 class of College Park Scholars, Stewart said.
The additional students will be housed in the Cambridge Community, and the Justice and Legal Thought students will be living in Cumberland Hall for the 2014-15 school year, Stewart added.
The plan for the curriculum includes discussions about the idea of justice, looking at it through the lens of law and society, as well as interdisciplinary examinations of the law and social issues.
Koulish hopes to incorporate an international component to the program in later years, perhaps even including an alternative break program for students in the Law and Society program to the U.S.-Mexico border to study immigration issues — an area he has spent time researching.
Ben Esenstad, a member of the Public Leadership program, said the new Scholars program is likely filling a need in the community.
“Any time there’s an opportunity to expand to a new field or a different set of people, then that’s a good thing. It makes the overall scholars program more inclusive,” said Esenstad, a sophomore economics and government and politics major. “It sounds really exciting, especially for students who might be pre-law or even just people interested in that field. It definitely would have made my top three.”
