Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.

Students and faculty gathered in Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs Tuesday to learn about its newest undergraduate integrated learning major — law, society and policy.

The LSP integrated learning major, which was launched in the fall but formally announced Monday, is intended for students who are interested in human rights and the pursuit of justice, according to Maxwell’s website. Within the program, students will examine how “law shapes, and is shaped by, political, cultural, economic and social forces” and how “policies are devised and implemented to address social problems.”

Gretchen Purser, the director of the LSP ILM and an associate professor of sociology at Maxwell, led Tuesday’s presentation, outlined the new major’s required classes and highlighted the “flexible” nature of the program.

The program requires students to choose an applicable base major from Maxwell, the College of Arts and Sciences, the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, the School of Information Studies, the College of Visual and Performing Arts or the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Purser said that the program focuses on sociology because they noticed a high number of students interested in the subject, with classes specifically relating to criminal justice filling up quickly year after year.

Patrick Berry, an associate professor of writing and rhetoric, said he will teach courses for the new major next fall.

“It becomes a good opportunity to tell how to work all together and really get good students a chance to work through, and to hear from people who’ve been impacted by different policies,” said Berry, who currently teaches about policy solutions focused on better supporting formerly incarcerated individuals.

Students can choose either law, crime and society in the United States or comparative and international law as a concentration for the major. Students within the major are also required to complete at least one course on research methods so that they are “better prepared to read, evaluate and conduct research,” according to Maxwell’s website.

The details of the major have been in discussion for two years because there was uncertainty regarding which school the program would fit into, Purser said.

Tia Keuter, a freshman policy studies major with an ILM in LSP, said she appreciated how well the requirements worked with her major, and said she has already found herself well into the process of completing her ILM.

“I knew that it wasn’t as many credits as a declared major … I think it was more appealing because those classes that overlap there would count towards each of the double majors,” Keuter said.

The course requirements of the ILM include three credits toward an internship, which can be completed in the Syracuse community, in Maxwell’s Washington D.C. program and through SU Abroad, according to Maxwell’s website. At least 18 of the 27 credits required for the ILM must be upper-division credits.

Cat Jimerson, a junior psychology major who has declared an LSP ILM, was interested in these classes because of her goal to go to law school and eventually become a civil lawyer.

“My goal is to go to law school to represent my nation’s people, for the children,” said Jimerson, who applied for the ILM program last year.

Purser said she will approve courses that are related to the major’s topic areas, especially for study abroad programs. For instance, she said the Santiago, Chile, abroad program has courses that focus on law and human rights, which would all count towards the LSP.

“The petition process is … a little bit laborious, but for something that’s meant to be as flexible and integrated as this nature is, we were going to have to use it a lot,” Purser said.

Published on March 6, 2024 at 12:03 am