Thank you all for the responses. I got about 35 reponses and 34 of them strongly suggested www.asterisk.org as an open-source linux-based solution that will work with either 4-port POTs PCI cards or 1- or 4-port T1 PCI cards.
Also recommended were Turn-key solutions at www.conference-bridge.net. So as the followup, does anyone know of a "widget" that will allow me to take 24 POTs lines in and spit out a channelized T1 line? Because of the bureaucracy of the univerisity, it is very easy to get get POTs lines (even in large quantities) and set them up in a hunt group and not easy at all to get a T1 drop. Thanks again for all the commends. Robert Hayden Senior Network Engineer and bottle washer University of Wisconsin Madison