Course Requirements

Financial Wellness is a practical approach to making informed and empowering decisions about financial health. Students explore values, feelings and knowledge related to money, acquire basic financial knowledge and apply this knowledge to short and long term financial decisions. Curriculum is customized to individual student learning, with four required modules and two elective modules.

This course introduces the integration of communication skills essential for effective reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college level. In this writing intensive course, students develop composition skills to produce collegiate-level papers modeling rhetorical modes and thematic content in addition to strategies for reading complex texts; presentation skills for personal introductions, verbal summaries of readings and response writings, and peer review of papers; and basic technological skills for word processing, e-mail, and introductory-level online research.

In this course students will apply the practices for effective reading and writing introduced in ENG114 to the distinctive language and forms of various disciplines. This course lays the foundation for academic and professional research and stresses the use of appropriate and effective information sources. Readings for a variety of academic audiences will provide students with strategies to communicate in the sciences, business and technology, psychology, liberal studies, and the social sciences. Research and documentation skills appropriate to the disciplines are stressed. In addition to leading students through the research process from start to finish, this course will examine the many ramifications of academic honesty. (Prerequisite: ENG114)

Selected readings in fiction, poetry, and drama introduce the student to literary types and techniques. These readings provide a basis for collegiate-level discussion, analysis, and the development of critical judgment. Building on the communications and research skills from earlier courses in the sequence, this course emphasizes continued practice in writing, and students complete a documented research paper using primary and secondary sources as one of the course writing assignments. Discussions and oral presentations based on assigned literature support the overall goal of the sequence: to enhance the advancement of the students, first academically and then professionally. (Prerequisite: ENG114)

This course provides an understanding of the function of the American national government. The development of the Constitution and the American political system are considered in the light of contemporary economic, social, and technological conditions.

This course introduces students to basic legal concepts, the structure of the American state and federal court systems, basic legal theory and practice, and provides an overview of several areas of law.

This course studies the legal environment of business, including an examination of the format and characteristics of corporations, partnerships, and agency law. The law of contracts is studied in detail. (Prerequisite: LAW 103)

This course introduces students to the principles and process of civil litigation from pre-suit investigation through trial. Students will gain insight into the litigation process from lecture and class discussion, reading assignments, examination of actual-case documentation, and the drafting of pleadings and motions and other documents. (Prerequisite: LAW 103)

This course surveys published sources and materials of the law. Students are trained in the research and analysis of legal problems and in the practical applications of legal writing. This course includes drafting correspondence, case briefs, and legal memoranda. (Prerequisites: LAW103)

This course provides an opportunity for hands-on experience in legal research and fact investigation. Topics covered include citation and searching methods, types of resources, Web site evaluation, and a comparison of print and electronic research tools. Students will perform tasks similar to those expected of them in a legal setting. Print, electronic, and Web-based resources from information providers such as WESTLAW and LEXIS-NEXIS are included. (Lab fee) (Prerequisite: LAW 240 or permission of Department Chair)

This introductory course covers basic tort law, including assault, battery, trespass, conversion, infliction of emotional distress, products liability, and negligence. Classroom work will be reinforced by assignments in which students research and brief a variety of tort cases. (Prerequisites: LAW 232 and LAW 240)

This course provides an overview of criminal procedure with special focus on the respective rights and duties of the defense and prosecution. It covers the development and present state of the law as it applies to arrest, search and seizure, statements by the accused and others, the right to counsel, trial proceedings and issues, sentencing, punishment, and appeal. The course is designed to give students an understanding of the history and development of the constitutional dynamics of a criminal case and the current state of the law from the perspective of legal practitioners. Students will use a text supplemented with outside readings that include criminal case law, law-review articles, court pleadings, and fiction. Instructional materials also include videotapes, such as 'The Thin Blue Line.' Students will be required to brief cases and write short papers. (Prerequisite: LAW103, Sophomore status or permission of the Department Chair)

An examination of the law of property and how it is obtained, held, and disposed of during life and at death. The course includes preparation and drafting of various estate planning documents. Instruction includes using computer software in the writing of wills. (Prerequisite: LAW 103)

Contract law is critical in all legal and business transactions. The existence and validity of a contract is determined by specific rules. Students will learn about formation through offer and acceptance, contract enforceability, the necessity of consideration, and breach of contract and will draft contract provisions as a paralegal might in a law office.

This course introduces the student to the following areas: ownership interests, methods and problems of co-ownership, contracts for the sale of real estate, deeds, mortgages, title examinations, brokerage contracts, leases, and landlord and tenant rights and liabilities. The course includes preparation of a title examination and various real estate documents, including RESPA forms. (Prerequisite: LAW 103)

This course is designed to give students background and training in various current law office technologies. Understanding the newest technology is important as the student embarks on their position as a paralegal. This course will introduce the student to technologies used in law firms.

This course introduces students to aspects of laws affecting traditional and non-traditional families, including such issues as marriage, divorce, custody, support, alimony, adoption, and property rights. (Prerequisites: LAW 232 and LAW 240)

This course examines the rules of evidence in both civil and criminal proceedings, focusing on the gathering of potential evidence and the presentation to a judicial tribunal of admissible evidence. Topics include relevancy, competency, impeachment, real and demonstrative evidence, best evidence (original writing), judicial notice, expert testimony, character evidence, the hearsay rule and its exceptions, privileged communications, admissions and confessions, and civil rights. Using federal and state rules of evidence, students will analyze and evaluate possible pieces of evidence and argue orally and in writing through dispositive motions, for inclusion or exclusion at trial. (Prerequisite: LAW 103, LAW 248, Junior status or higher or permission of the Department Chair)

This course offers an in-depth examination of the ethical considerations and dilemmas faced by paralegals in their work environment. Building on the ethics learned in earlier courses, students will explore complex ethical issues using case studies, literature, and films. The students will evaluate ethical issues and research, write, and present a paper. (Prerequisites: LAW 232 and LAW 240 and three legal specialty electives, or permission of the Department Chair)

This is an introduction to the basic descriptive and inferential statistics for students from all disciplines. It emphasizes the development of statistical literacy and the use of computer for analyzing data. Topics include principles of experimental design; graphical and numerical methods for summarizing, describing, exploring and analyzing data; binomial and normal probability distributions; point and interval estimates for means and proportions; hypothesis testing; and correlation and regression (Pre-requisite: MAT104 or appropriate placement test score).

Women as Empowered Learners and Leaders is an interdisciplinary course, designed to give all students entering Bay Path University a common experience and foundation for their education. This course is an introduction to the University, to academic study, and to various approaches to thinking about personal potential, to understand the process of becoming a learner, and a leader, and composing a life, to appreciate beauty, and work actively toward establishing community and justice in the context of being a woman at the beginning of the 21st century.

(This course is graded Pass/Fail.) In their junior year before the opening of the spring semester, baccalaureate degree students will be offered a special opportunity to learn up-to-date information about the current work world in an intensive two-and-a-half-day workshop format. Students will meet successful professionals who will discuss the challenges and opportunities of their respective fields and help students prepare for interviews as well as learn how to navigate the early stages of their new careers.

By WEL400, you will be ready to blend all the skills you have learned during the WELL program—leadership, critical thinking, research, writing, analysis, and public presentation—with a community service project. Empathy, respect, and tolerance are the core human values that are stressed. It’s what every good leader needs to confidently show the way.