I would like to pick at the immense wealth of knowledge out there.
I teach welding at a technical college and we are currently in the process of building a brand new 3500 sq. ft. welding lab. I have an opportunity to purchase enough welding equipment to equip 16 booths with 32 power sources (for AC/DC GTAW, SMAW, GMAW, FCAW, CAC).

To do all the processes we teach we need 2 machines for each booth.

If you were in my shoes;
What brand welders would you be inclined to use if you could only choose 1?
Would you prefer to have more than 1 brand to offer students?
Would you buy all high-end inverters with advance features such as pulse and squarewave given the opportunity?
Would you buy a mix of high-end, mid-range, and lower-end machines?
Would you prefer all machines of one model for standardization?

Thanks,
I would really appreciate your input?