Some might say that when aspiring lawyers set their minds to something, they get it done. Whatever the case may be, the Dartmouth College Undergraduate Journal of Law has grown from a computer text file into a thriving publication with a 35-person staff.
Since Winter term of 2003, Rockefeller Center interns Meg Thering '05 and Josh Marcuse '04 have developed their idea for an undergraduate law publication.
Thering, who is a senior editor at the journal, said she intended for it to fill a void in Dartmouth's array of student publications.
"Last year, a friend of mine was looking to publish some of his papers, and he had to look to other schools," Thering said.
Thering's friend was unable to find a Dartmouth publication that dealt exclusively with law, and publications at other schools tended to favor graduate-level research material.
Thering and Marcuse then sought and received funds from the Rockefeller Center. Thering was working as a Daniel Webster Legal Society intern at the Rockefeller Center when she conceived the journal, and Rocky agreed to fund a separate internship position devoted entirely to the publication.
Marcuse, the editor-in-chief of the journal, is currently serving as Rockefeller's Undergraduate Journal of Law Intern.
"It was one of the things we worked out with the Rockefeller Center to provide institutional support for the journal ... Rocky has been incredibly generous," Marcuse said.
The Rockefeller Center continues to supply extensive financial support for the journal.
The first issue of the journal was published during Spring term 2003. Marcuse said he was thrilled by the student response to the new publication.
"It was quite positive. One thing that surprised me was the number of requests to see the journal. We had to do a second run of the first issue," Marcuse said.
Although the journal's second issue has yet to be released, Thering insisted that it will hereafter publish once per term. Both the publication and the production staff have swelled since the first issue's second run. "We made the journal bigger than it was in the spring," Thering said.
In order to cope with an influx of articles and research papers, the journal is expanding is production staff. The team has grown to include 35 workers in three separate departments. Copy editors have been added for the express purpose of reviewing pre-publication drafts. A management team has been assembled in order to seek additional funding, design the journal's layout, conduct student outreaches and oversee business operations. The editorial staff decides which submissions will be selected for publication.
Marcuse and Thering insist that the editorial staff maintain the journal's standards without becoming discouraging to students.
"We're looking for original ideas that are thoroughly researched and clearly presented, we accept only a fraction of the articles that are submitted," Marcuse said.
Thering explained that high quality, timeliness and unique opinions improve an article's prospects for acceptance, and added that all students with an interest in being published are encouraged to contact the journal.
"Anybody can submit ... we want articles to be submitted by all academic disciplines," Thering said.
