Page 141 - The First Fifty Years

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THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD 135

and via teleconferences. Editors availed themselves of the
resources of the STCL library (which sits atop, not beneath, that
school’s downtown building).

Most importantly, a local copy shop allowed HLR personnel
to have behind-the-counter space to conduct cite checks from
copied resources, store documents, and come and go at will. At a
time before laptops were required of every Law Center student,
and when in-house edits were still accomplished, despite all the
new technologies, the old-fashioned way (on paper and using
different-colored pencils for each step in the editing cycle), such
courtesies were invaluable.

Progress was labored but steady. Things improved when, in
January 2002, FEMA furnished several dilapidated trailers and
located them adjacent to the Law Center complex, making the
commute to and from the copy shop to classes no longer
necessary. Law firms and Review alums donated funds for
computers and furnishings.

Against all odds, Board 39 published its first issue on-time,
per the schedule that Board 32 had created in far less stressful
times.

What about permanent housing, however? Work on the
lower two levels of the Law Center had progressed. All utilities
had been restored in the basement. But the books could not be
put back. FEMA forbade it, lest a disaster like Allison ever again
result in the loss of such expensive physical properties.
Accordingly, the Ground Floor of the Law Center had been totally
reconceptualized by the Facilities Policy and Planning
Committee to enable FEMA to reconstitute the library without
the use of half of its former footprint.

Of what use now, however, was the Basement? Clearly, the
school could not afford to forego all employment of its 34,000
square feet. But who or what could be relocated there? The
answer: student organizations. In the event of another Allison,
books could not run; but with notice, students could. While the
former library basement periodically thereafter would experience
minor “water intrusions,” life and limb have never been
imperiled; and the $1 million worth of first-class modular
furnishings,96 designed by architects in consultation with the
organizations as to their desired configurations, have provided
great flexibility as student groups and journals expand, contract,
or spring to life to meet changing needs.

Thus was born the new Student Organizations Suite, drolly
named by the Law Center’s facilities chair for the sheer
enjoyment of thereafter referring to the school’s former in-house