Family law seminar provides service to community

For the fourth year in a row the Center for the Study of Southern Culture will host a seminar on family law. Deborah Hodges Bell will lead the six-hour seminar on Friday.

The seminar is intended to give practicing lawyers and law students an update on family law and will provide information on relevant and important topics, including child support collection, tax implications, and Mississippi's alimony laws.

Sponsoring a seminar on family law that tackles real-life issues provides a valuable service to practicing lawyers, law students, and the university and Oxford community. Law professor Bell and the Center for the Study of Southern Culture are not strangers to providing such public service.

Last semester, Bell taught a class on poverty law and the class hosted workshops where community members could get basic legal advice for free.

According to U. S. Census Bureau statistics, there were 34.5 million poor in 1998. The poor are often unable to afford legal counsel and can encounter trouble even in getting simple legal advice.

While Bell's law students were not acting professionals, they offered valuable service to those who may have had trouble seeking legal advice.

The Center for Southern Culture is also quite familiar with providing services to the community. The center sponsors a brown bag lecture series, in which topics, which range from race to gender issues are discussed. In February, the center received a $100,000 grant from Ole Miss alumnus Harold Burson to fund the study of the university's relationship with Jewish students.

A university has the responsibility and the means to provide help to its community. On Friday, Bell and the Center for the Study of Southern Culture will being doing just that. It seems fitting that one of the university's most active bodies is teaming with one of its most active individuals on campus.

It is always refreshing to see activism on a campus plagued with student apathy. Students should look to Bell and the Center for the Study of Southern Culture for examples of how one ought to be.