Mar 28, 2024  
2022-2023 Undergraduate Catalog 
    
2022-2023 Undergraduate Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Regulatory Ethics Minor


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The Regulatory Ethics Minor is open to students in any degree program at USM.

This minor presents an interdisciplinary approach to understanding regulation, an enterprise that cuts across a wide array of domains ranging from health and social services, to education, business, energy, environment, and more. Thus, it can benefit a broad range of students including but not limited to those interested in pursuing a career in law. The minor provides an understanding of the sociocultural bases of the need to regulate and the relationship between regulation and ethics, as well as the psychological processes that impact policy-making and drive reactions to regulation. Students will gain an overview of the social underpinnings and structure of regulation; become familiar with where to find relevant information and how to navigate through it; and understand when to call in legal expertise. They will select a specific regulatory domain to learn about in more depth, and complete a supervised internship experience. Regulatory expertise is highly desirable in an increasingly complex world of intersecting rules and requirements.

Important: This page describes the Regulatory Ethics Minor. This minor can be completed fully online if the student does an independent study instead of the internship. Regulatory Ethics is also available as a Certificate, which is open to anyone.

** Students should complete the necessary paperwork so that the Regulatory Ethics Minor appears on their MaineStreet academic plan. **

Program Requirements


For all USM students, a total of six courses is required for the Regulatory Ethics Minor. A minimum grade of C- in each SBS course is required to earn the Regulatory Ethics minor. Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS) majors must also take four additional SBS courses (in any SBS elective area) beyond the six courses listed below:

The following four courses are required:


In addition, two of the following elective courses must be completed (any prefix, not necessarily from the same domain):


* Please note: Asterisked courses numbered 600 through 699 are restricted to graduate students or undergraduate students who have been formally accepted into an accelerated graduate pathway, OR need permission of instructor.

Food, Drugs, and Devices


Health and Human Services


Policy and planning


Permissible Substitutions


  • Online training modules on subtopics in regulatory compliance are currently in development through the Cutler Institute, including Clean Tech, Food Regulations and the FDA, International Importing/Exporting, Manufacturing, Shipping, and Transportation, OSHA, and Research Regulation. Students may take any three of these modules, and then work individually with a supervisor from MeRTEC (the Maine Regulatory Training and Ethics Center) in an Independent Study to integrate across domains and deepen their understanding, to earn the equivalent of one 3-credit elective course. This is allowed for one, but not both, of the required electives.
  • Alternative courses may be accepted by individual approval. Any graduate course in a relevant content domain will be accepted with instructor and advisor approval.
  • Students whose career will focus on educational contexts may substitute EDU 310 - Education, Schooling, and Democracy  for SBS 370 - Toward a Global Ethics .

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