Campus News Briefs – Summer 2015

A Law Degree for Non-Lawyers

The University of Colorado Law School has established its first degree program for students who will not be lawyers.

The initial one-year Master of Studies in Law (MSL) degree will train students with technology backgrounds to work as patent agents and prepare them for the Patent Law Exam.

Potential employers include technology firms, research institutes, government agencies, universities and law firms.

“There are a range of opportunities for professionals interested in legal-related fields who are not practicing lawyers,” said Phil Weiser, dean of the law school.

In time, the school expects to offer additional MSL specialty tracks focused on other realms of law.

The initial MSL class is expected to enroll in August.

The traditional three-year Juris Doctor law degree will still be CU-Boulder’s biggest law degree program.

Heard Around Campus

“Thousands of schools reach out to the Dalai Lama. We thought a personal invitation would help our chances.”

— Ellie Roberts (Comm, Edu’15), a member of a group that took a top-secret trip to California in February 2014 to ask the Dalai Lama
to speak at CU-Boulder.

He visits this fall.

New College Gets Debut Dean

The university appointed Lori Bergen as founding dean of the College of Media, Communication and Information (CMCI), which formally opens in the fall semester.

Most recently dean of the J. William and Mary Diederich College of Communication at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisc., Bergen starts at CU-Boulder in late July.

She is president-elect of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and serves on the National Advisory Board of the Poynter Institute.

CMCI, CU-Boulder’s first new college in 50 years, will include six academic departments and a graduate program focused on media, communication and technology for the digital age. The college will operate out of the Armory building.

Photography © iStock/EdStock