The president’s conference room has been upgraded, and according to Larry Howell, academic provost, it is now “state of the art.”The conference room had not been upgraded since the 1970s, according to Howell. He said previous to the upgrade, the conference room contained only three tables, old chairs, a telephone and black and white photographs of alligator hunters hanging on the walls.

“We upgraded it so it would be a nice facility,” Howell said.

If presentations were to be made in the conference room previous to the upgrade, a big screen, projector and computer would have to be brought in, according to Howell.

“It was designed in the 1970’s, and all the furniture was from then, too,” Howell said. “Since we haven’t done anything in approximately 30 years we wanted to make everything state of the art now, because it’ll probably be another 20 years before we upgrade it again.”

Howell said that the former conference room was not a very presentable atmosphere. The new, up-to-date furniture includes a cabinet that contains the standard definition and high definition television and other electronics, a large square-shaped table surrounded by chairs, chairs along the walls and various enlarged photographs of the University hanging on the walls.

In addition to the new furniture, the conference room has new electronic devices and gadgets. There are three video cameras for videoconferencing, video streaming and general video recording; a main computer; a guest computer; a DVD player and burner; a hard disk recorder; a VCR player and recorder; the aforementioned standard definition and high definition television; a touch pad control; and wireless microphones.

“It was redone to get the president’s conference room up to where other things on campus are,” Howell said. “We have a need for that kind of equipment. It should be something that the University can be proud of. When others see us through a compressed video, they see this room. They don’t see a classroom with desks and papers on the floor.”

According to Howell, now video conferencing can take place with anyone across the country without having to go to Gouaux Hall to use the equipment. The room seats up to approximately 20 people.

Howell said that construction in the conference room began around July and was completed in December. The funds for this upgrade were taken from the University’s building use funds. These building use funds cannot be used for anything else except different building use categories and “a little” of this building use fund is used every year, Howell said.

“It’s not something that we could have taken out of and put it towards salaries, fringe benefits or to hire more faculty,” Howell said. “It’s a restricted account.”

The conference room is used by academics as well, according to Howell. Many presentations, press conferences, deans’ council meetings, and academic council meetings are held there. Howell said that there are regular scheduled meetings. The president’s cabinet meets on a regular basis and vice presidents use the room almost daily.

“It’s not the president’s private conference room,” Howell said. “Various groups can use it if they have the need for that equipment as long as it’s approved by a vice president and is available. It’s quite usable and is a nice place for a meeting.