Room 311 Allows You To “Dare Mighty Things” and Help Us Plan For Huntsman Hall

By Ken Snyder

I’m going to write about something here that we haven’t yet shared publically. I do it knowing that some people won’t be able to handle this information and will be forever marked by it. 

You can now write on the table in meeting room 311 with dry erase markers. After talking with a student advisory group about how to set up our project team rooms in Huntsman Hall, we have reworked room 311 to test out some of the possibilities. One of those things we are testing is a table that can act as a white board. 

Room 311 features a desk that can double as a whiteboard.

This is innovation that comes with danger, however. The problem could be that people caught up in a creative process that involves lots of desk illustrations might overlook the fact that adding an elbow to the mix could give them a fashion-stain take-a-way they did not expect. But, hey, we are all about daring mighty things, right? In this case we’ll be daring with our elbows.

The table itself comes equipped with multiple electrical outlets designed to keep electronic devices fired up and working long beyond the elbow-smudge phase. The tables are smaller on purpose to give people more space to move about the room. This can be handy once creative team projects get ignited and the ideas start to flow. The chairs have casters on them so they will can be rolled and repositioned easily. 

The television screen is now built into the wall behind a movable painted glass surface that can also act as a white board when used with dry erase markers. 

As we have done with classrooms, we are testing out this approach to see what works best before we purchase and set up our team project rooms in Huntsman Hall. We plan to equip the other conference room on the third floor with similar but different furniture within the next few weeks. 

Can you handle a white board beneath your laptop? Would you rather have a bigger table and less room to maneuver? We shall find out.