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PLU launches pre-law minor for fall 2022
PLU launches pre-law minor for fall 2022
Image: Michael Artime lecturing in a political science class at PLU (PLU photo/Silong Chhun)
By Veronica Craker
Marketing & Communications
Pacific Lutheran University has announced it will offer a pre-law minor in Fall 2022. The university has long offered a pre-law advising program, but continued interest in the program prompted the College of Humanities, Interdisciplinary Studies, and Social Sciences to create a formal minor to meet student needs.
The curriculum utilizes the American Bar Association’s guidance on undergraduate preparation for law school. Current students will have the opportunity to pursue the new minor with guidance from faculty.
“We believe strongly that this minor is consistent with the mission of care emphasized by the university,” Michael Artime, assistant professor of political science, said. “The law can be used to advance efforts to care for others, for their community and the earth. Unfortunately, the law can also be used to stymie those efforts.”
“That’s why we are proud of how our students lean into the uncomfortable to seek justice. The legal system is a better place with PLU students navigating it.”
According to Artime, PLU’s pre-law minor will offer courses from several disciplines to develop skills in understanding the law, developing a sense of professional ethics, practicing analytical reasoning, growing in their written and oral communication skills, and the ability to read and discern meaning from complex texts.
“We have courses from political science, business, history, philosophy, English, economics, communication, publishing and printing arts, religion and mathematics,” Artime said. “We think that is demonstrative of the fact that a liberal arts education is ideally suited to help students develop the requisite skills for the law school application process and success in law school”
The pre-law minor is an addition to the PLU’s pre-law advising program, which is designed to help students interested in attending law school, including assisting students in selecting a law school.
The advising program and the student organization, Scales of Justitia, will continue to operate and support students throughout the university who may be interested in attending law school after they graduate.
To learn more about the new minor, visit www.plu.edu/political-science/pre-law.