History

1833 

• Mercer Institute, the forerunner of Mercer University, is founded by Georgia Baptists in Penfield as a manual labor school for boys.  

1838 

• Mercer’s first Board of Trustees is elected and Mercer Institute becomes known as Mercer University.  

1839 

• First college classes begin. 
• Female Seminary is approved by the Mercer Board of Trustees.  

1841 

• First college class is graduated.  

1843 

• Principal college building at Penfield is destroyed by fire.  

Early 1860s 

• Mercer is one of the few colleges in the South and the only one in Georgia to remain open during the War Between the States.  

1870 

• During the April 1870 Georgia Baptist Convention (GBC) meeting, the decision is made to move Mercer away from Penfield. In August, the commission, appointed by the GBC to find a new location, votes to approve Macon. In September, President David E. Butler tells Macon Mayor George S. Obear and the City Council that Macon has been chosen and “that the proposition on their part to pay you the sum of $125,000 … in bonds of the city of Macon, and a site to cost not over $25,000 … was accepted.” On Oct. 28, President H.H. Tucker reports that a six-acre site, adjoining Tattnall Square, has been selected. On Nov. 2, Mayor Obear presents $125,000 in bonds and the title deed to the land; a written contract has been entered into between the Trustees and the city. The end of the year marks the closing of the school at Penfield and the University moved.  

1871 

• Mercer relocates to Macon.  

1873 

• A law school is organized and classes begin in February 1874. The first classes are held in the courthouse and in law offices.  

1874 

• Construction of the Administration Building is completed at a cost of $100,000.  

1880 

• The cornerstone of the new chapel building (current-day Willingham) is in place. The chapel is dedicated in 1881, debt-free.  

1892 

• Mercer plays the University of Georgia in Athens in the first college football game in the state of Georgia and one of the first in the Southeast. The game, scheduled for Thanksgiving Day 1891, is postponed until January 1892. Georgia triumphed, 50-0. 
• In the fall, Mercer would record its first win in football, beating Georgia Tech, 12-6, in Macon, in the Yellow Jackets’ first game ever.

1903 

• Mercer opens the School of Pharmacy.  

1918 

• The School of Pharmacy closes. 
• During World War I, the Mercer Board of Trustees authorized President Rufus W. Weaver to tender to the Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of War the buildings and equipment of the University that they might be used effectively in service of the nation. The Student Army Training Corps is established at Mercer on Oct. 1, 1918, and continues until the following spring. Following the war, Mercer discontinues systematic military training. Altogether, Mercer’s war dead numbers 14.  

1919 

• Mrs. W. E. Jackson is the first woman to receive a degree from Mercer. Mrs. Jackson, who later becomes Mrs. Joseph Seth Weekly, is awarded the LL.B. degree.  

1922 

• WMAZ Radio, with call letters standing for “Watch Mercer Attain Zenith,” goes on the air, located in the tower of the chapel building.   

1927 

• Mercer turns the fledgling radio station over to the Macon Junior Chamber of Commerce.  

1939 

• Macon Baptist Pastors Union requests an investigation of the character of teaching in some of Mercer’s classrooms. After a 10-hour hearing held in Roberts Chapel on March 30, the Board of Trustees accepts the action of the special committee disposing of the charges.  

1942 

• Mercer sets apart the Law Building and Roberts Hall for use by the War Training Service during World War II.  

1943 

• The Navy V-12 School is established on July 1 and continues until October 1945. Mercer is one of nine institutions in the Southeast selected to give aviation instruction in the Navy War Training Service. During this period, 731 trainees receive basic aviation instruction in the Mercer V-12 program.  

1949 

• Mercer dedicates the restored Mercer Chapel at Penfield with Dr. Louie D. Newton as speaker.  

1957 

• Construction is completed on the George B. Connell Student Center.  

1959 

• The Southern School of Pharmacy in Atlanta merges with Mercer University.  

1963 

• Sam Jerry Oni of Ghana, Africa, becomes the first black student to enter Mercer. On April 18, Mercer Trustees vote to admit qualified students without regard to race, and Mercer becomes one of the few private colleges in the South to do this before being required by the 1964 Civil Rights Act.  

1965 

• Mercer dedicates the Eugene W. Stetson Memorial Library.  

1967 

• Mercer dedicates Knight Hall of Humanities.  

1968 

• The Hugh M. Willet Science Center is dedicated.  

1972 

• Mercer dedicates the new School of Pharmacy building in Atlanta. Atlanta Baptist College merges with Mercer University and becomes known as Mercer University in Atlanta. Today, it is known as the Cecil B. Day Graduate and Professional Campus.  

1973 

• The Law School’s centennial is celebrated and Mercer graduate and U.S. Congressman Carl Vinson’s 90th birthday is observed.  

1976 

• Mercer acquires the Insurance Company of North America Building on Coleman Hill in Macon as the home of the School of Law under a gift-purchase agreement for $1 million. The property is valued at more than $4 million.  

1978 

• The former Tattnall Square Baptist Church on the Macon campus is rededicated as Newton Hall in honor of Dr. Louie D. Newton. 
• Mercer acquires the Overlook Mansion on Coleman Hill, now known as the Woodruff House.  

1979 

• Mercer dedicates the Law School building with U.S. Attorney General and Mercer alumnus Griffin B. Bell on the program and Chief Justice Warren Burger as guest speaker.  

1980 

• Mercer dedicates the restored Administration Building. 
• Inauguration ceremonies for Mercer’s 17th president, Raleigh Kirby Godsey, are held at the Macon City Auditorium. 
• Mercer dedicates the A.T. Davis Administration Building, College of Arts and Sciences, in Atlanta. 
• Mercer dedicates the Sheffield Building, College of Arts and Sciences in Atlanta.  

1981 

• Mercer dedicates the School of Medicine’s Education Building in Macon.  

1982 

• Mercer University School of Medicine admits its charter class of students in the fall.  

1983 

• Mercer establishes the School of Business and Economics in Atlanta.  
• Mercer dedicates the W.G. Lee Alumni House in Macon. 
• Mercer dedicates the Monroe F. Swilley Jr. Library in Atlanta. 
• The Plunkett-Sewell family commissions a Holtkamp pipe organ, specially designed for Newton Chapel. The 52-rank Tracker instrument is one of the largest organs of its kind on the eastern seaboard, establishing Mercer as a center for organ performance and teaching.  

1984 

• The School of Business and Economics is established in Macon. 
• The School of Engineering is established in Macon. 

1985 

• The charter class of the School of Engineering begins its studies and construction on a new building for engineering is begun.  

1986 

• Tift College, a Georgia Baptist women’s institution in Forsyth, merges with Mercer University. 
• The new School of Engineering building opens for classes in the fall and is dedicated in October.  

1987 

• University College, formerly the College of Continuing Education, is established, with educational centers located in Macon, Thomaston, Griffin, Eastman and Douglasville. 
• Groundbreaking is held for a new 93,750-square-foot library building located on the main campus in Macon. 
• The Mercer Engineering Research Center (MERC) is established as an extension of the School of Engineering. MERC provides a broad range of customer-oriented services to commercial and government clients.  

1988 

• The School of Law receives the largest gift in the University’s history at that time — $14 million from George W. Woodruff.   

1989 

• The University’s Board of Trustees votes to discontinue undergraduate liberal arts education on the Atlanta campus. The mission of the Cecil B. Day Campus in Atlanta is changed to focus on graduate and professional education.  

1991 

• In April, the University breaks ground on a new education and research center for the School of Pharmacy on the Cecil B. Day Campus in Atlanta.  

1992 

• In July, the School of Pharmacy moves from downtown Atlanta to the 300-acre Cecil B. Day Campus in northeast Atlanta.  

1994 

• The Board of Trustees approves plans to establish a School of Education and a School of Theology.  

1995 

• In April, the University’s Board of Trustees approves plans to locate the School of Theology on the Cecil B. Day Campus in Atlanta.  
• On Oct. 1, Mercer enters into a long-term lease with Bibb County for the management and administration of The Grand Opera House in downtown Macon.   

1996 

• Construction is completed on the new 32,000-square-foot School of Theology building on the Cecil B. Day Campus in Atlanta. The School’s charter class of students is admitted in the fall. 

1997 

• The former Findlay House, located next to the W. G. Lee Alumni House on Coleman Avenue in Macon, is restored and dedicated in May as the Tift College Alumnae House.
• Construction is completed on a 26,557-square-foot academic facility for the Douglas County Regional Academic Center.

  

• Construction is completed on a new 52,155-square-foot facility for the Mercer Engineering Research Center in Warner Robins. 
• The School of Medicine completes construction on a 10,000-square-foot expansion of its research wing. 
• The former Stetson Library is rededicated in September as Stetson Hall and converted into office and classroom space for the School of Business and Economics and the School of Education.  

1998 

• On Dec. 4, the University breaks ground on a 28,300-square-foot building for the Department of Music of the College of Liberal Arts.  

1999 

• The School of Theology graduates its charter class in May. 
• Mercer breaks ground for a Greek Village in Macon and student apartment buildings in Macon and Atlanta. 

2000 

• During a ceremony on April 20, Mercer dedicates the Jack Tarver Memorial Library. 
• In August, Mercer opens its new police station and seven new apartment buildings on the Macon campus and two new apartment buildings on the Cecil B. Day Campus in Atlanta. 
• In September, Mercer dedicates the new 18-building Greek Village. 
• Mercer and the Georgia Baptist Convention announce that the 98-year-old Georgia Baptist College of Nursing, located in downtown Atlanta, will merge with Mercer on Jan. 1, 2001.  

2001 

• The School of Education is renamed the Tift College of Education of Mercer University at the April Board of Trustees meeting. 

2002 

• The new College of Nursing building on the Atlanta campus is dedicated during the College’s centennial celebration.  

2003 

• Mercer opens the doors to its newest regional academic center in McDonough, providing opportunities for adult learners in Henry County and surrounding areas. The University’s programs in Griffin and Covington are merged into the Henry County location. 
• The University’s 10th academic unit, the College of Continuing and Professional Studies, is established from the former Division of Extended Education.  
• Mercer purchases the Georgia Baptist Center, which was previously owned by the Georgia Baptist Convention and is adjacent to the Atlanta campus. It becomes the Atlanta Administration and Conference Center.  

2004 

• The University plays its first basketball games in the new University Center Arena during Homecoming week, Jan. 27-Feb. 1. The remainder of the signature facility on the Macon campus opens March 15. The official dedication of the University Center and the Griffin B. Bell Board Room is held in April, following the Board of Trustees meeting.  

2005 

• The Townsend-McAfee Institute is established to offer graduate programs in church music that prepare musical artists for the ministry. The institute is a collaboration between the Department of Music in the College of Liberal Arts in Macon and the School of Theology in Atlanta.   

2006 

• After 27 years as president, R. Kirby Godsey steps down from his leadership role to become chancellor, leaving office as the longest-serving president in University history. William D. Underwood, former interim president of Baylor University and noted legal scholar and teacher, becomes the University’s 18th president on July 1. 
• The Department of Music in the College of Liberal Arts becomes the School of Music on July 1. Trustee Carolyn McAfee, widow of James T. McAfee Jr., former chairman of Mercer’s Board of Trustees, and her son and daughter-in-law, Tom and Julie McAfee, provided the founding endowment. 
• The Robert McDuffie Center for Strings is established on the Macon campus, offering conservatory-quality music training in a comprehensive university setting.  
• The 103-year-old School of Pharmacy changes its name to the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences on July 1. The name change reflects additional health science programs, including a new physician assistant program. 
• The American Baptist Historical Society, with the largest and most diverse collection of Baptist historical materials and archives in the world, announces it will relocate to Mercer’s Atlanta campus. The ABHS consolidated holdings from facilities in Valley Forge, Pa., and Rochester, N.Y. 

2007 

• Three teams of students and faculty inaugurate the Mercer On Mission program over the summer in Kenya, Brazil and Guatemala. The program combines academic credit with service-learning opportunities. 
• The School of Medicine, as it celebrates its 25th year, announces it will open a second, four-year doctor of medicine program in Savannah in fall 2008. The program will be based at Memorial University Medical Center, where Mercer has had a clinical relationship since 1996 to provide instruction for part of the school’s third- and fourth-year medical students.

  

• The Mercer Athletic Foundation is established to raise funds for intercollegiate athletics.
•  The University completes a new gateway entrance to the Macon campus on Mercer University Drive, near Interstate 75, and a new Hilton Garden Inn opens on that side of the campus. 
• The building housing the Douglas County Regional Academic Center is dedicated to longtime benefactors Fred and Aileen Borrish. 
• The new Science and Engineering Building is dedicated, and the University celebrates the School of Engineering’s 22-year partnership with Warner Robins Air Logistics Center. 

2008 

• Thirty first-year medical students receive their white coats and begin their education as members of the inaugural class in Mercer’s new four-year medical program in Savannah. 

2009 

• An announcement is made that a $10 million mixed-use development on the Macon campus will feature loft-style apartments and retail space for the Mercer bookstore and other businesses that cater to the Mercer community and residents in the College Hill Corridor. Called “The Lofts at Mercer Village,” the development is located on Montpelier Avenue and designed to create a vibrant streetscape, enhancing the recent retail development in Mercer Village. 

2010 

• The University’s Board of Trustees on Nov. 19 unanimously approves a plan to resume competition in football in the fall of 2013, after a 72-year absence. 

2011 

• Mercer’s first outdoor commencement is held May 14 on the Cecil B. Day Campus in Atlanta. More than 6,000 guests witness the largest 2012 ceremony, held on the upper fields of the campus. 
• With $4.6 million in funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Mercer announces establishment of the Center for Collaborative Journalism, a partnership between the University’s Journalism and Media Studies Department, The (Macon) Telegraph and Georgia Public Broadcasting. A few months later the Peyton Anderson Foundation provides a $1 million grant to name the Center’s newsroom for the late Telegraph publisher and foundation founder Peyton Anderson.  

2012 

• Mercer joins 24 institutions across the country as a participant in the prestigious Stamps Scholars Program, funded by the Stamps Charitable Foundation Inc. Initially, five entering freshmen will be designated as Stamps Scholars and receive the full cost of attendance, plus a $16,000 stipend over four years for enrichment activities, such as study abroad or undergraduate research. When the program is fully implemented, 10 members of each Mercer freshman class will be designated as Stamps Scholars. 
• The Eula Mae and John Baugh Center for Baptist Leadership is established and endowed with a $2.5 million grant from the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation. 
• The University announces in February plans to partner with The Medical Center and St. Francis Hospital to establish a Columbus campus for its School of Medicine. Columbus joins Macon – where the School was established in 1982 to prepare physicians for rural and medically underserved areas of Georgia – and Savannah in hosting campuses for the medical school. 
• A $1 million gift from Macon cardiologist Dr. Chuck Hawkins and his wife, Kathy, to benefit the Mercer basketball program is recognized later that month as the arena housed within the University Center is renamed “Hawkins Arena.” 
• The Board of Trustees authorizes establishment of the Mercer University Health Sciences Center, a multi-campus academic health center encompassing the School of Medicine, College of Pharmacy and Georgia Baptist College of Nursing, as well as the creation in July 2013 of a new College of Health Professions.  
• Phase II of the Lofts at Mercer Village opens. The first floor houses the Center for Collaborative Journalism, and student apartments occupy the top three floors.
• The University dedicates the Emily Parker Myers Admissions and Welcome Center at the corner of Winship Street and Montpelier Drive. The building is named in honor of Myers, who was one of the longest–serving administrators in University history, serving as senior vice president for university advancement and external affairs when she retired in 2008.

  

• The Board of Trustees, at its November meeting, gives the green light for construction to begin on Cruz Plaza, to transform the appearance of the central part of the Macon campus from the University Center to the Historic Quad and from the Greek Village past Tarver Library. Milton L. Cruz, his wife Aileen, father Juan L. Cruz Rosario and sister Zoraida Cruz Torres provide the lead gift for the project. An official groundbreaking is held Dec. 11, 2012. 
• Former President Jimmy Carter joins the Mercer University Board of Trustees. Carter is believed to be the first former U.S. president in modern times to serve on a university governing board. 

2013  

• A $425,000 grant from ArtPlace America will support Mercer’s effort to revitalize the former Tattnall Square Presbyterian Church into the Tattnall Square Center for the Arts. The Center will serve as a community theater and arts venue, as well as home to the University’s Theatre Department. 
• The University announces the acceptance of an invitation to join the Southern Conference, affiliating Mercer Athletics with the nation’s fifth-oldest NCAA Division I athletic association.  
• More than 12,000 fans overflow the Mercer Football Stadium on Aug. 31 to watch the Bears field their first football team in more than 70 years. Mercer proceeds to break the NCAA record for most wins ever by a start-up program, sporting a 10-2 record and finishing unbeaten at home with an unblemished 8-0 campaign. 
• The Lofts at Tattnall Square, the third new loft-style student apartment building to be constructed under the College Hill Corridor master plan, opens to accommodate the University’s growing undergraduate enrollment.
• Former U.S. Congressman, Ambassador to the United Nations and Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young kicks off Mercer’s yearlong commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the institution’s integration during a convocation in Willingham Auditorium. 

2014 

• The men’s basketball team turns the attention of the entire country – and beyond – to the University when the 14th-seeded Bears beat the third-seeded Duke Blue Devils 78-71 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. 
• The College of Continuing and Professional Studies, established in 2003 and whose roots date back to Tift College’s merger with Mercer in the late 1980s, is renamed Penfield College of Mercer University. 
• On the strength of its growing research profile, Mercer is admitted as a member of the Georgia Research Alliance, whose mission is to expand research and commercialization capacity in Georgia’s universities to launch new companies, create high-value jobs and transform lives. 
• Mercer breaks ground on an $18 million expansion of School of Medicine (MUSM) facilities on its Savannah campus at Memorial University Medical Center. This endeavor includes renovation of the William and Iffath Hoskins Center for Biomedical Research as well as construction of an addition to the Hoskins Center to serve as a medical education and research facility for the University. 
• President William D. Underwood uses the opening night of Homecoming weekend to announce a $400 million capital campaign for the University. “Aspire, The Campaign for Mercer University, seeks to provide financial resources that will empower Mercer, already emerging among the Southeast’s elite private research universities, to become an international leader in applying its intellectual capital to better serve the needs of humankind.”  

2015  

• Mercer’s two-year-old, 10,000-seat stadium, home of Mercer Bears football and lacrosse, is renamed Five Star Stadium in recognition of a multi-million-dollar commitment, the largest-ever for Mercer athletics and one of the largest in the University’s history. The financial commitment came from Five Star Automotive Group, owned by Charlie Cantrell and Dick Pope. 
• A large multi-million-dollar commitment from a Macon resident and devoted friend of the University establishes the Jo Phelps Fabian Center for Musical Excellence in Mercer University’s School of Music. The commitment by Fabian is the largest ever, along with the gift that founded the School of Music, to support the arts at Mercer. 
• Mercer Theatre’s first performance in the newly completed Tattnall Square Center for the Arts features William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.” The Tattnall Square Center for the Arts, formerly Tattnall Square Presbyterian Church, was extensively renovated to serve as the new home of Mercer’s theater department as well as a community performing arts center in the heart of the College Hill Corridor.

  

• Mercer student and reigning Miss Georgia Betty Cantrell is crowned Miss America in Atlantic City, N.J.  
• The nation’s most prestigious academic honor society – Phi Beta Kappa – approves the granting of a chapter to Mercer during the organization’s 44th Triennial Council in Denver. Mercer becomes just the third Georgia research university – joining Emory and the University of Georgia – to shelter a chapter.  

2016  

• The Lofts at Mercer Landing student housing opens on Mercer University Drive in Macon, across from the main entrance to Mercer and linked to campus by a new pedestrian bridge. The building features one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom, fully furnished apartments, as well as offices for Mercer’s alumni, advancement, marketing communications and human resources departments. 

2017  

• The School of Medicine recognizes the first 25 students to receive inaugural Physicians for Rural Georgia Scholarships, which cover 85 to 100 percent of tuition for up to four years in the Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) program. The University funded the scholarship program with the entirety of a one-time infusion of $35 million from the state of Georgia as a result of a settlement agreement offer from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in February 2016. President William D. Underwood announced that current and future recipients of the scholarship will be called Nathan Deal Scholars in recognition of Georgia’s 82nd governor, who is a graduate of both the University’s College of Liberal Arts and School of Law. 
• Mercer is named a participating institution for the Churchill Scholarship, a prestigious and highly selective award for American students to engage in a year of master’s-level study in science, mathematics and engineering at the University of Cambridge. Mercer joins Emory, Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia as the only institutions in the state to participate in the scholarship program, and is the only participating institution in the Southern Conference.  

2018  

• Classes begin Jan. 8 in the newly completed Spearman C. Godsey Science Center. The largest academic facility project in the University’s history in terms of cost at $44 million and size at 143,410 square feet is named in honor of Mercer Chancellor Dr. R. Kirby Godsey’s father and in recognition of Dr. Godsey’s multi-million-dollar naming gift. The Godsey Science Center includes 60 teaching and research labs, three medium classrooms, four small classrooms and 46 offices. 

• Mercer Medicine Plains, a primary care practice and division of the faculty practice of Mercer University School of Medicine, opens on Main Street in Plains, Georgia. Former President Jimmy Carter, a Life Trustee at Mercer, and First Lady Rosalynn Carter were instrumental in the project and attended the grand opening ceremony for the practice in August. 
• Mercer is classified as a Doctoral University with High Research Activity (R2) following an adjustment to the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. R2 is the second-highest level of doctoral research universities in the country. 

2019 

• The McEachern Art Center opens in downtown Macon as the new home of the University’s art gallery and student studios.

  

• Mercer Law School’s first-floor courtroom is named the Griffin B. Bell and Frank C. Jones Courtroom in honor of these Mercer alumni. Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Clarence Thomas delivers the keynote address for the dedication ceremony. 
• The Board of Trustees renames Penfield College as the College of Professional Advancement.
• The School of Medicine announces it is expanding the School’s two-year Columbus campus to a full four-year campus, and the Board of Trustees approves construction of a new $32.4 million, 76,000-square-foot facility.
• The School of Medicine announces two additional rural health clinics. Mercer Medicine Peach County opens in Fort Valley and Mercer Medicine Clay County is expected to open in Fort Gaines in 2020.
• Mercer University and Robins Air Force Base announce a partnership that will bring an innovative software development center to downtown Macon. The center will be housed in the ground floor of The Lofts at Capricorn.
• The Board of Trustees approves name changes for the College of Liberal Arts and the Stetson School of Business. The College of Liberal Arts is renamed the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to reflect the growing significance of the sciences within the University. The Eugene. W. Stetson School of Business and Economics is renamed the Stetson-Hatcher School of Business to recognize longtime supporter and trustee Robert F. Hatcher.
• The Board of Trustees approves construction of a new 57,000-square-foot Pharmacy and Health Sciences Building on the Cecil B. Day Campus in Atlanta.
• Mercer Music at Capricorn celebrates the grand re-opening of the historic Capricorn complex, which now includes recording studios, a music incubator, a museum, and offices and co-working space.

2020

• Mercer dedicates the Stembridge Center in honor of alumnus, donor and former staff member Willard D. “Bill” Stembridge to centrally locate all student services in Macon.
• In March, Mercer transitions to online classes as the COVID-19 pandemic grips the country.
• Mercer opens COVID-19 testing lab on Macon campus.

  

• Mercer returns to in-person classes for the start of Summer Session 2 with many new protocols in place to curb the spread of COVID-19.
• Mercer breaks ground on a new four-year medical school campus in Columbus.
• Mercer Music at Capricorn formally affiliates with the GRAMMY Museum.
• Mercer’s final fall enrollment surpasses 9,000 students for the first time.
• Mercer Medicine holds a ribbon-cutting for its third rural health clinic in Fort Gaines located in Clay County.
• Mercer’s endowment at the end of the calendar year surpasses $400 million for the first time.

2021

• The School of Medicine held a ribbon-cutting in February for its fourth rural primary care clinic, which opened March 1 in Putnam County.
• The Macon-based Phil J. and Alice S. Sheridan Foundation committed $10 million to endow The Sheridan Center to support the work of Mercer On Mission throughout the globe. The Center maintains a special focus on the University’s prosthetics program, which promises to become the largest supplier of high-quality prosthetics to people who could not otherwise afford them throughout the world.

  

• A five-year, $300,000 Peyton Anderson Foundation grant brought symphony orchestra back to Macon for the first time since 2017 with the announcement of the Macon-Mercer Symphony Orchestra. The new orchestra, which played its opening concert Oct. 4 at The Grand Opera House, is a collaboration between the world-renowned Robert McDuffie Center for Strings in Mercer University’s Townsend School of Music and musicians from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
• Mercer set a fall enrollment record for the 15th consecutive year with 9,033 students across all campuses as of November’s census date.

2022

• Mercer opened a new four-year campus for the School of Medicine in Columbus.

  

• The Grand Opera House hosted “A Night of Georgia Music,” featuring students from Mercer’s Robert McDuffie Center for Strings, internationally renowned violin soloist and Macon native Robert McDuffie, former Allman Brothers Band member and current Rolling Stones keyboardist Chuck Leavell, and R.E.M. founding member and Macon native Mike Mills. The concert was recorded for public television, and after its premiere on Georgia Public Broadcasting on July 4, 2022, it was distributed to other PBS stations across the country for airing in 2023.
• Mercer was one of three recipients of the worldwide Council on Undergraduate Research’s Campus-Wide Award for Undergraduate Research Accomplishments, which recognizes institutions with exemplary programs that provide high-quality research experiences for undergraduates.
• Mercer Law advocacy teams achieved unprecedented success, ultimately tying for second place in the national 2021-22 American Bar Association Competitions Championships. This included first-time national championships in client counseling and negotiations.
• Mercer broke ground on the Moye Pharmacy and Health Sciences Center on the Cecil B. Day Graduate and Professional Campus in Atlanta.
• Mercer announced the establishment of Roberts Academy at Mercer University, a transitional school for children with dyslexia, to be built on the Macon campus thanks to a major gift commitment by Hal and Marjorie Roberts of Lakeland, Florida.
• Mercer dedicated the Sheridan Mercer On Mission Center, funded by a $10 million endowment gift from the Phil J. and Alice S. Sheridan Foundation. It was designed to support the Mercer On Mission prosthetics program.

2023

• Mercer School of Medicine and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta launched a major initiative focused on improving pediatric health care in rural Georgia. The initiative includes scholarships for medical students specializing in pediatrics and rural health pilot projects.

  

• The new Tony and Nancy Moye Pharmacy and Health Sciences Center opened on Mercer’s Atlanta campus. The 65,000-square-foot building contains some of the most cutting-edge lab technology found in any academic setting.
• Mercer set a fall enrollment record with 9,164 students across all campuses. In addition, the residential undergraduate program welcomed a record-breaking 1,015 new first-time college students and 103 transfers — the largest incoming class in University history.
• Mercer closed out its highly successful $500 million Aspire capital campaign with gifts and pledges surpassing $503 million. The Aspire campaign was launched during Homecoming in 2014.