Baylor Law School’s impressive new “home,” the Sheila and Walter Umphrey Law Center, was the setting Aug. 13, 2002, of President George W. Bush’s Economic Forum, bringing together policy makers, business leaders, workers, economists, ethicists and others to discuss the fundamentals of the economy and the President’s agenda to increase economic growth for the future. Among those participating with President Bush were Vice President Dick Cheney, Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, Commerce Secretary Don Evans and several other Cabinet members.

The President was welcomed at the Law Center by Baylor President Dr. Robert B. Sloan, Jr. and Dean Brad Toben. The Dean’s second-floor office was used by President Bush and he visited various classrooms at the Law Center where the forum’s breakout sessions on key economic issues were held. Dr. Sloan and other Baylor faculty members were among the participants at the breakout sessions, which were relayed live back to large flat-screen monitors at Baylor’s 156,000-square-foot McLane Student Life Center (SLC) where more than 400 print, television and radio journalists from around the world had gathered. Such was the impact of the forum that, as of Aug. 14, Baylor’s name was mentioned more than a thousand times in newspapers and on television and radio nationally and internationally.

Major U.S. television networks set up temporary studios on the first and second floors of the SLC where, through the glare of studio lights, their reporters and anchor persons presented live updates on the forum and interviewed participants. Media crews from other countries, including England’s BBC, also kept their viewers, listeners and readers abreast of the forum proceedings. Most of the journalists prepared their stories from a spacious media complex at the SLC. The 24,000-square-foot area – which is normally occupied by four full-size basketball courts -- was equipped by Baylor’s facility services with 250 tables, more than 500 phone lines and an abundance of power available for laptop computers, television cameras, monitors, editing equipment, studio lights and satellite trucks.

The breakout sessions focused on key economic issues including economic recovery and job creation, corporate responsibility, small investors and retirement security, small business and regulatory relief, education and workers, trade and agriculture, technology and innovation, and health care.