At the suggestion of the SBA President...

I sent out an email to the student body, soliciting submissions. The text of which follows:

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Fellow classmates -

I understand that law school, unlike so many other academic pursuits, lacks in challenge and consumes virtually no time. I imagine a number of you end up sipping coffee at Tina's day in and day out, waiting for something interesting to happen while reading biographies of Warren Buffett. I understand.

To help alleviate the monotony, the College of Law publishes inter alia every other week. Many students therefore find certain Wednesdays to be the most exciting day of the bi-week. Maybe you are one of them. Maybe you wish the pleasure inter alia brings could be extended to more than just a few minutes of reading pleasure. Maybe you wish it could consume your every waking hour.

If this sounds like something that might appeal to you, perhaps you should consider writing for inter alia. I know, I know. You are such a good writer that it couldn't possibly provide much of a challenge and will ultimately only kill a minute or two. The solution? To write another article. And another. And another. Until inter alia is so inundated with submissions, it may actually have to decline to publish certain materials for want of space.

Yes, my fellow law students with entirely too much time on her hands, the solution is clear. Write for inter alia and you will never be at a loss for things to do again.

Regards,

Christopher Taylor
Editor-in-Chief, inter alia

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I hate doing this. It makes me feel like a whiny bitch. I took on this publication, and I'll be damned if I'm going to fail to put the thing out every other week, regardless of how much work I have to do. At least that was how I was looking at it.

Sue, the SBA President, apparently feels differently: that there is little reason to publish unless there are a sufficient number of articles (not including my filler) to justify the expense. Which I guess follows from two premises: 1) the value of having inter alia stems from its soapbox status, not from its readability, and 2) a consistent publication schedule is not much of a reason for publishing.

I wish I could see it. I understand the good that comes from having a voice for the law students. But what good is a voice if no one hears it? And without a consistent publishing schedule, there is no readership. Furthermore, there is a good that comes from having something to read that exists independent of the good of having a place to write.

I expect inter alia is something of a special case, and this is where my reasoning goes wrong. Perhaps no one would even notice if inter alia skipped a week. Perhaps no one looks to inter alia to relax for a few minutes. Perhaps it is nothing more than a forum in which to vent and voice controversial opinions. But then it would seem to me all we really need is a message board upon which people can tack their every thought. And then maybe we wouldn't need inter alia at all.