My laptop is getting quit a bit of mileage this month, having traveled two weeks ago to the SigEp Carlson Leadership Academy, and now to the Southeast Journalism Conference (SEJC). While it is horribly slow, it's good to not have to rely on the lab computers that may or may not be too fond of non-students.
We arrived in Ruston, a town a size larger than Martin, but very similar atmospher. They have a Super Wal-Mart, but a business district that looks once removed from Mayberry. We arrived at the Ruston Ramada Inn yesterday afternoon around 4:30 p.m. After a quick sign-in for the conference and a check-in, we mostly hung around the hotel. Samantha and I ended up with a private room (was NOT requested, but it seems the other Pacer folks don't want to distrub this universe). We (Eric, Will, Amy, Samantha and I) went to Louisiana Tech while Tomi and Elizabeth worked on contest entries. I'm sure I was supposed to help out there, but it's mostly just filing things away.
The first place we went was to what apparently was the freshmen women's dorm. We didn't know this until this co-ed comes walking down the hall in a towel and a shower basket. This reveals that Tech has at least one major flaw: community showers. It also shows that they didn't think very clearly when they put clear glass in a door leading down a hallway.
Next stop was their Student Center and a place called Toliver Hall. The Student Center is your run-of-the-mill university center, but with tile on the wall. Nothing spectacular about it, built in the seventies. However, I did notice black panels on the wall that looked like flat panel monitors. Upon further inspection, touching them brought to life a free Internet kiosk. Strike one.
Tolliver Hall looks like something straight out of Opry Mills food court. It has flamboyant design effects, and six or eight restaurants. Aparently when UTM bid out the food service contract to Sodexho instead of Aramark, we lost out on a lot of atmosphere improvements. Strike two.
Wireless Internet in almost every building is becoming a mainstay on college campuses. Tech doesn't dissappoint, although you can't get onto it as a non-student. Ball one.
Their campus is laid out in a thoughtful approach to create a village like atmosphere, with clean roads, fountains and stone benches. The architecture is consistent (in most places, except for this huge monolithic white tower) . Strike three.
It's official: I like this campus more than Martin, which keeps in tact the two previous years that I've gone elsewhere for SEJC.
Time for my on-site competition, I'm sure I'll have more later.