The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Minority Issues
Abbreviated title (ISO 4) | Scholar (San Antonio Tex.) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Edited by | Student run |
| Publication details | |
| Publisher | |
Publication history | 1999–present |
| Indexing | |
| ISSN |
1537-405X |
| LCCN | 00234212 |
| OCLC no. | 42307728 |
| Links | |
The Scholar: St. Mary’s Law Review on Minority Issues was founded in 1998 as The Hispanic Scholar at St. Mary's University, Texas School of Law by six law students. The intention was to create a law review that would give a voice to ethnic minorities, gays and lesbians, immigrants, racial minorities, women, and other disenfranchised groups which are often silenced in legal discourse.[1]
The initial Editorial Board was a non-hierarchical student-run panel in which all members shared tasks, volunteered for projects, and took charge of assignments collectively delegated by the Board. After a few months the name was changed to The Scholar: St. Mary’s Law Review on Minority Issues. The group obtained left-over furniture from the law library and paid for office supplies out of their own pockets. The first issue was published in Spring 1999.[2]
Since then the Editorial Board has evolved into a hierarchical panel, but the mission remains the same. The Board is now headed by the Editor-In-Chief, Managing Editor/Symposium Editor, Solicitation Editor, two Executive Editors, and 3 Associate Editors. In 2006, the Volume 9 Editorial Board began publishing three issues a year, instead of two per year, as the boards before did. In 2007, the Volume 10 Editorial Board added a Symposium issue, increasing the number of total issues published to four issues a year. Issues are published in October, February, March (Symposium), and May.
The Scholar's Mission
The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Minority Issues seeks to speak on behalf of minorities by reaching out to the larger community, to inform them, to share with them, to educate them and to grow with them. The goal of The Scholar is to give all minorities a "voice" in the publication of a legal journal on issues affecting all minorities. In today's climate, where affirmative action is seen as a necessary evil, and where discrimination is viewed as a problem of the past, this scholarly journal wishes to extend and further the discourse of issues that touch upon race, ethnicity, class, gender and sexual identity, as well as the countless other labels applied to individuals and groups in our society.[3]
The Scholar's primary goal is to educate themselves and, in the process, offer some different perspectives not often allowed or sought after in our society. The Scholar members and staff will strive diligently and honestly to produce articles that will offer insights into the daily struggles of minorities today.[4]
The Scholar strives to publish articles that will be building blocks for an understanding of the issues that face all of individuals today. These building blocks will form bridges: bridges to bring together all the members in society, bridges to connect all groups that comprise our community and bridges to access self-discovery and an understanding of the other.[5]
The Scholar wishes to add to the existing discourse on the role of the law and the influence of one state over others hegemony in the lives and identities of minorities. They plan for the work of their journal to be transformative: to educate, inform and enlighten those who participate. The Scholar strives to create an environment that will allow everyone to learn, to teach, to share, to work together and to contribute to the legal and educational communities.[6]
Annual symposium
On February 12, 2010, The Scholar will hold its third symposium titled "Education and Minorities in the Modern Era: Working Civil Rights into Practice, Policy, and Procedure."
In 2008, The Scholar held its Inaugural Symposium on Immigration. On January 30, 2009, the Law Review held its second symposium focusing on Women and the Law. Each year, selected symposium speakers are published in the Symposium edition in the Spring.
Community Service
In recent years, The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Minority Issues has grown to be something much greater than a law review. On top of publishing quality scholarly pieces aimed at bring awareness and support to issues surrounding minorities, The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Minority Issues has chosen to also support the people that fill the pages of our Law Review through our community service. The Law Review seeks to speak on behalf of minorities by reaching out to the larger community, to inform them, to share with them, to educate them, and to grow with them. While The Scholar: St. Mary’s Law Review on Minority Issues has always brought a “voice to the voiceless,” we now bring food to the hungry, homes to the homeless, and hope to the hopeless.
Volume 12: 2009-2010 Service Events
In recognition of October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, The Scholar: St. Mary’s Law Review on Minority Issues is currently collecting hats for all cancer patients who lose their hair to chemotherapy. We will be donating these hats to the Cancer Therapy & Research Center (CTRC) at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio. The Cancer Therapy & Research Center, one of the nation’s premier cancer centers, first opened its doors in 1974 as a nonprofit corporation dedicated to providing the community with outpatient radiation therapy. The CTRC continues to serve, in a vastly expanded capacity, residents of San Antonio and South Texas, as well as patients from across the U.S., northern Mexico, and other countries around the globe.
Planned for Volume 12: 2009-2010
Adopt a Military Family – We plan on adopting three military families whose service member relative has been deployed and could use a helping hand.
2nd Annual The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Minority Issues Children's Book Drive
Volume 11: 2008-2009 Service Events
Fall 2008- Hurricane Ike Charity Drive: The Scholar: St. Mary’ Law Review on Minority Issues collected food, money and clothing to send to the victims of Hurricane Ike. Over 50 boxes of clothing and 10 boxes of food was donated to the victims of Galveston and well as a monetary donation was made to the first responders of the City of Galveston.
Spring 2009- Children’s Book Drive: More than 30 boxes of children’s books and over $1,000 were collected for local San Antonio children shelters. We donated books to the Guadalupe Home, which is a transitional residential program for homeless pregnant women and homeless mothers with infants. We also made a contribution to The Children's Shelter (www.chshel.org), which is a child service agency offering emergency shelter and therapeutic foster care.
The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Minority Issues would like to thank the St. Mary's University School of Law Student Bar Association and Half-Price Price Books for their generous contributions to our efforts.
Other community service events The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Minority Issues members participate in: Ask a Lawyer, Wills Clinic, Race Judicata, Boo Bash, Clinic Thanksgiving baskets, VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistant).