Founded in 1923 by the YMCA, South Texas College of Law graduated its first class-consisting of 11 students—on June 1, 1927. Two months later, on August 8 of that year, the South Texas Ex-Students Association (later to be known as the Alumni Association) was established "to promote the general welfare and interest" of the law school.
In 1950, in response to the increasing number of students graduating from South Texas, the Ex¬Students Association incorporated itself as a Texas corporation. By the mid-fifties, the association was holding monthly luncheon meetings and publishing a newsletter known as the South Texan.
The 1970s brought significant changes to the Ex-Students Association. In 1972, the group reorganized itself and became the South Texas College of Law Alumni Association, the name that it goes by today. Also in 1972, the college began publishing Quarterly, which originated as an alumni newsletter and eventually became the alumni magazine. In 1976, the Alumni Association established its first state chapter, in Florida, and also created the Distinguished Alumni Award, which is awarded annually.
The following year, 1977, produced several more "firsts" for the organization. In April, the Alumni Association became chartered with the Texas secretary of state as a nonprofit charitable educational corporation, which it remains today. Later that year, the group published its first Alumni Directory.
In 1984, seven months before Dean Walker's death, the college completed its ll-story Tower building. Later that year, the Alumni Association honored Dean Walker by establishing the Garland R. Walker Memorial Scholarship Fund, which provides annual scholarships to students based on merit and need.
By 1991, over one-third of all lawyers in Harris County were South Texas alumni. That year, as a means of keeping these graduates, and their more far-flung classmates, up to date on alumni news, the Alumni Association launched Postscripts, a newsletter that was replaced in 2006 by @alumni e-news, and online newsletter distributed via email.
In April 1995, the Alumni Association inaugurated what was to become its signature event for 14 years: the gala. Funds from the event helped support the Garland R. Walker Memorial Scholarship Fund and the Lizabeth Parham Matthews Scholarship Fund, and in 2006 and 2007, supported the College's Annual Fund.
Having grown from an organization of 11 members to one of 11 thousand during its 80-year history, the Alumni Association today sponsors Texas chapters in Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas, and East Harris County, as well as the aforementioned Florida Chapter; a Washington, D.C., Chapter; a Carolinas Chapter; a Judicial Chapter; a Minority Chapter; and Advocacy and Law Review affinity chapters. With members in all 50 states and a number of foreign countries, the Alumni Association continues to be a crucial source of support for the academic goals of the college and the professional goals of its graduates.
