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Volume 102 Issue 3
89 t h Year of Publication
www.stmurattlernews.com
March 6, 2014
Committee organizes month-long celebration of women CLAUDIA CARDONA CONTRIBUTING WRITER
A golf clinic, a film showing and discussion, a science engineering and technology luncheon, oral debates, art openings, serving projects and book Photo by Tamara Garcia
club meetings: these are just a few of
Dean Detten, freshman finance and spanish major, and Deniz Hernandez, sophomore international business major, volunteer to help local San Antonio residents file their taxes.
the events planned for the University’s
$1.4 MILLION IN TAX REFUNDS
celebration of Women’s History Month. According to the St. Mary’s Women’s History
Month
webpage,
Women’s
History Month is observed in March
During the first six weeks of the 2014 tax season, the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program has reached over $1.4 million in refunds for the communities it aids.
every year to recognize and reclaim women’s history and raise awareness. The University’s Women’s History Month Committee on campus, which is composed of 14 members, aims at lifting up the contributions that women have
HUBEL GONZALEZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER
made in society and, more specifically, the
St.
Mary’s
community.
The
A University program organizes volunteers to file
committee begins meeting in October of every year to begin planning events that
taxes for lower income families in the city.
revolve around promoting awareness of
Approximately 450 tax returns that generated just
Women’s History Month.
over $1.4 million in refunds were completed in the first
This year, the theme is celebrating women
of
character,
courage
six weeks of the 2014 filing season. The program, which
which began in 2003, is a partnership between the Bill Greehey School of Business and St. Mary’s University School of Law and is supported by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Wells Fargo. The program offers tax
preparation services to lower income families at the Center for Legal and Social Justice (CLSJ) every Saturday during tax season. Madison, who coordinates volunteer recruiting, training,
and
consultation
of
onsite
operations,
also offers tax preparation services to students and international students at the University Center to teach students how to prepare their own tax returns. San Antonio alone has 20 VITA sites dispersed throughout the city, Madison said.
and
is under the direction of Associate Dean for Clinical
commitment. Women in San Antonio and
Education and Public Service, and professor of law,
the University will be able to participate
Ana Novoa, and professor and chair of accounting, Tom
in various women-driven events during
Madison, has expanded to mobile tax preparation sites at
this month that discuss the importance
Madison stated that, although the majority of the
Haven for Hope and Daughters of Charity, while the CLSJ
student volunteers come from the business school, any
site provides year-round tax preparation services to the
university student is allowed to join the program. All
San Antonio community.
volunteers that assist Saturdays at the CLSJ site have
of women’s contributions to society. The
Women’s
History
Month
Committee hosts a multitude of events
The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program (VITA),
SEE HISTORY PAGE 3
At one point, the city was only second to New York in terms of how many tax returns were filed that year by a VITA program.
SEE VITA PAGE 3
Philosophy professors receive grant to teach human dignity course A professor and the Chair of the philosophy department received a grant last semester which allowed to develop a class on the topic of human dignity.
University’s
newest
“What is Human Dignity?”, Mustain and Hughes said. The
grant
awarded
$25,000
to
the
University and required both of the founders to teach the course from the fall 2013
TRAVIS BOWLES WEB EDITOR
The
based for a class that answers the question
semester through the spring 2015 semester. philosophy
course that teaches students about human dignity was made possible last semester through a grant.
The class “investigates the development of ideas about human dignity from Biblical and ancient Greek philosophical times up to the present,” Mustain and Hughes said.
Chair of the philosophy department,
Hughes taught the human dignity course
Megan Mustain, and professor of philosophy
during the fall 2013 semester, but Mustain is
Glenn Hughes, are the founders of the course
teaching the course this semester. The course
at the University and are the only professors
stresses the “importance of ideas about
who teach it. They discovered the National
human dignity, both in the development of
Endowment
“Enduring
Western culture and in present-day political
Questions” grant program and worked
and international life,” they said. They also
together with Jennifer Speed in University
said that they want students taking the
for
Humanities
Advancement to develop a grant proposal
SEE DIGNITY PAGE 2
Photo by Adriana Avila
Chair of the philosophy department, Megan Mustain, and professor of philosophy Glenn Hughes are the only professors allowed to teach this human dignity course.