Statement regarding recent changes with the Department.

Here is the official statement from the Chair of the Department of Sociology, Dr. Keith Warriner regarding recent changes to the Legal Studies Department.

Dear Legal Studies students:

This is a message to let you know of some changes being planned for Legal Studies which are meant to assist LS students and provide more support for your program.  For the most part since Legal Studies was created in 2004 it has operated only as a program rather than a formal academic department as in the case of most other disciplines found in the Faculty of Arts.  Given the extent to which Legal Studies has grown it is now time to give it departmental status,  along with the administrative resources, staff and faculty this brings.  Therefore a decision has been made to create a new  Department of Sociology and Legal Studies to replace the existing  Department of Sociology in the Faculty of Arts.   This will provide  much more support for Legal Studies students, as well as a formal  departmental home.  Already a new administrative  secretary for Legal  Studies, Mrs. Pauline Smeaton, has been hired and will begin work this Monday (November 3rd).  Her office is in PAS 2038, close to  other administrative staff in Sociology, who are also available to  assist you, and as well to the office of  Dr. Jennifer Schulenberg,  the new Legal Studies Academic Advisor, and who has been very busy  this term helping many of you.  These new services are just the beginning.   The members of the new Department of Sociology and Legal Studies  will be working very hard to make it a highly supportive learning  environment for Legal Studies students.

Legal Studies students who are registered with St. Jerome’s  University will continue to be served and supported by St. Jerome’s.  St. Jerome’s would also like to continue to host the Legal Studies  Student Society and St. Jerome’s and the new Department of Sociology and Legal Studies will continue to work very closely together while  sharing resources in support of Legal Studies courses. The main change  for the majority of Legal Studies students registered with the Faculty of Arts is that you will now have a formal academic departmental home, like other Arts majors, along with the services,  involvement and support that comes with that.

Be assured that the creation of the new department will not change  your academic plan.  On graduation you will still be awarded the  degree of Bachelors of Arts with a major in Legal Studies, just as Sociology students in the department will continue to earn their  BA in Sociology.  The rationale for the new Department of Sociology and Legal Studies is to enhance the university’s support for Legal Studies’ students and to create administrative efficiencies, not to  amalgamate the two programs which will continue to operate  independently.

Further updates will be coming soon, but for now this is just a  head’s up on this important new development.

Dr. Keith Warriner,
Chair, Department of Sociology