On Thursday, January 8, 2015, the National Defense University's International Student Management Office held a New Year's Reception in honor of the International Fellows Class of 2015. During the reception, Major General Frederick M. Padilla, 15th President of the National Defense University, presided over a ceremony in which a new conference room was unveiled and dedicated in honor of Lieutenant General Paul G. Cerjan.
Lieutenant General Cerjan was the seventh President of the National Defense University. During his tenure, he led the first U.S. military delegation to China subsequent to Tiananmen Square; increased the priority and annual reservations for the International Fellows Program; and secured funding for renovations to the National War College and the Eisenhower School.
Subsequent to his retirement from active duty, General Cerjan spent a year working as a civilian for U.S. and Coalition Forces in an active Iraqi combat zone. Later, as President of the NDU Foundation, he was instrumental in launching the annual American Patriot Award Gala. He is survived by his wife Patricia, of 48 years, along with their sons Robert (Heidi), David (Amy), and Timothy (Isari), as well as two grandchildren, Christopher and Meghan.
The new Cerjan Conference Room – with a 150 person capacity – can be divided into two or three smaller rooms in less than a minute via partitions that descend from the ceiling. Its more than two dozen highly sensitive wireless table and ceiling microphones allow for Q&A without hand-held microphones, and its seven new high definition cameras (the first on campus) can be controlled from a remote AV booth. The room also features new programmable lighting, an enlarged and sound-proofed service corridor, and increased cooling capacity for sensitive AV/IT equipment.