Page 51 - The First Fifty Years

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CARRY ON BOLDLY 45

students promise to raise the necessary start-up funding
themselves.28

Keeping the journal financially viable throughout the
remainder of Decade 1 and on into Decade 2 had required many
strategies, including assiduously peddling law-publisher and
clothing-store advertisements within the volumes themselves29
and seeking support directly from College of Law and HLR
alumni/ae, as well as from the Texas Bar, through enhancing the
quality of the Review’s state-based content.30

During the second decade of HLR’s existence, however,
Houston was greatly reliant on the energy industry to sustain
the local economy, and with it the Texas government economy—
which, in turn, contributed mightily to the funding of the
University of Houston, the College of Law, and Houston Law
Review.

Thus, the international energy upheavals of Decade 2 hit
home powerfully at HLR. First came the OPEC-initiated oil
shock of 1973, followed by Congress mandating a maximum
speed limit of 55 mph across the United States, including the
vast American West,31 and President Jimmy Carter going on
television to urge every citizen to “put on a sweater” and conserve
energy aggressively in what he termed the “moral equivalent of
war.” The second oil bust that began in 1979, following hard on
the Iranian Revolution, set in motion other worrying
developments in the Texas Oil Patch. The Review was notably
responsive to the energy crisis gripping the nation, as the
decisionmakers of Decade 2 ensured due coverage in numerous
energy-themed issues and conferences.32

Funding came and went but, by the end of Decade 2,
financing Houston Law Review had returned as an issue. Board
19’s business manager reports that the Review was in “shaky
financial standing” by the time his board took office, but that
“actually sending out bills” (the business manager had an
accounting background) “helped.” 33

At a meeting of the Board of Directors in 1981, the student
editors reported publishing costs nearly twice the funding they
were receiving from the Law Center ($48,000 and $24,000,
respectively). “Simply stated, the Law Review does not have
enough money in its operating expenses to pay for the issues it
has scheduled for publication.” 34

Something had to change. Accordingly, Associate Dean
Raymond T. Nimmer mandated a solution: the Review would
need to develop a source of private funding. 35