News@Mercer Alumni Edition Cover

Homecoming Moves to Fall, Bears Take On Tech in Homecoming Game

Mercerians from all generations are planning to return to campus in mid-November to join current students, faculty and staff for Homecoming 2008, as the annual celebration moves to fall for the first time in several years. The theme for the week is “Reconnect, Reunite and Rediscover.” The program will be a joint effort of the University’s Alumni Services, Student Affairs and Athletics departments. [more]

Mercer Ranked Among Top 10 Schools in the South for 10th Consecutive Year

or the 10th consecutive year, U.S. News & World Report has ranked Mercer among the top 10 comprehensive universities in the South. Mercer is ranked No. 8 in the South in the 2009 “Best Universities-Master’s” category. The University has been ranked in the top 15 in that category for 19 consecutive years. [more]

School of Medicine Welcomes Inaugural Class to Savannah Campus

Aug. 17 was an historic day for Mercer, Memorial University Medical Center, the city of Savannah and the state of Georgia. Thirty first-year medical students received their white coats and began their education as members of the inaugural class in Mercer’s new four-year medical program in Savannah. The White Coat Ceremony, which symbolizes that a doctor should “care” as well as “cure,” was held in the Mercer Auditorium of the Hoskins Center for Biomedical Research on the Memorial campus. [more]

Mercer to Host National Torture Summit in Atlanta

An unprecedented national summit on torture sponsored by 15 diverse faith groups will convene on Mercer’s Atlanta campus Sept. 11-12 to examine how U.S. government policy in recent years came to sanction torture and discuss ways Evangelical Christians and Americans of other faiths can mobilize to secure a “no torture-no exceptions” policy. [more]

Mercer School of Medicine Awarded Largest One-time Grant by NIH to Study Community-Based Diabetes Prevention

The School of Medicine, which last year celebrated its 25th anniversary, has been awarded the largest one-time grant in the history of the school. The National Institutes of Health will provide the Department of Family Medicine at the School of Medicine with $3.1 million to conduct a five-year study of the Church-Based Diabetes Prevention and Translation program. [more]

Senior Leadership Features Changes in Advancement, Provost's Office, Admissions and Administration

A number of changes to top administrative posts went into effect with the new fiscal year on July 1. In addition to reorganizing external affairs functions, Mercer President William D. Underwood appointed several new administrators, including a new provost, new senior vice president for enrollment management, a senior vice provost for service-learning, and a senior associate vice president – Atlanta. [more]

American Baptist Historical Society to Hold ‘Grand-Reopening’ Sept. 27

Nearly two years to the day after announcing it would be relocating and consolidating its vast archives of Baptist historical material to Mercer’s Atlanta campus, the American Baptist Historical Society will celebrate the completion of its move. The ABHS is celebrating “the Dedication and Grand Re-Opening Celebration” of the Archives Center and American Baptist-Samuel Colgate Historical Library on Saturday, Sept. 27, on Mercer’s Atlanta campus. [more]

Mercer Welcomes Islamic Scholar to Campus to Help Raise Understanding, Build Study of Islamic World into Curriculum

Mercer University is hosting a Fulbright Scholar over the coming weeks as part of its efforts to foster a greater understanding of the Muslim world, both inside and outside the University. The scholar will also help the University to infuse its curriculum with a greater emphasis on, and understanding of, the Muslim world. [more]

Medicine Educator Tapped by CDC and Indian Health Service to Develop Youth Program

Thanks to the previous success of an HIV prevention program developed in a rural Georgia school system, Mike Smith, Ph.D., has been tapped by the Indian Health Service (IHS) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to lead in the development of a similar program for Native American youth in the western U.S. [more]

New Programs Launched in Education, Business and Counseling

The beginning of the fall semester marked the beginning of several new degree programs, as well as the expansion of several others. The Tift College of Education expanded its programs, while the Eugene W. Stetson School of Business and Economics and the College of Continuing and Professional Studies added to their offerings. [more]

Mercer Lecture Series To Examine National Identity, Immigration

The 10th Annual College of Liberal Arts Lecture Series, which begins in September, will center on the theme of “National Identity and the Future of Democracy: Immigration and its Consequences.” The Department of Political Science is sponsoring the six-lecture series, which will feature professors from inside and outside of Mercer speaking on a diverse array of topics related to the theme. [more]

‘Supersized’ Entertainment Coming to The Grand

Just in time for Halloween, the Stephen Sondheim musical thriller “Sweeney Todd” will open The Grand Opera House’s “supersized” 2008-2009 season with two performances on Sunday, Oct. 12. The musical that inspired the Tim Burton and Johnny Depp movie of the same name is the first of seven nationally touring shows in the 2008-2009 Broadway Series at The Grand, a performing arts center of Mercer University. [more]

Men’s, Women’s Soccer and Volleyball Highlight Athletic Action for Fall

ith the beginning of a new academic year also comes the return of Mercer student-athletes to the courts and fields in their respective venues. First to get under way for 2008-09 was competition involving men’s and women’s soccer and volleyball. [more]

Anti-Human Trafficking Advocate to Speak at John James Lecture

Surgeon and anti-human trafficking advocate, Professor the Lord McColl of Dulwich CBE, will present “Human Trafficking – A World-Wide Problem” at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 16, at the Eighth Annual John E. James Distinguished Lecture. The presentation will take place in the Moot Court Room of Mercer's Walter F. George School of Law in Macon. [more]

Mercer Professors Attend National Political Conventions

Two Mercer professors stopped in on the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. David Gushee, Ph.D., Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics, was a panelist for a discussion on faith at the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 28 in Denver, Colo. Gregory Domin, Ph.D., an associate professor of political science, is leading a group of students in a seminar course during the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., from Aug. 24-Sept. 5. [more]