SGA

Students travel to learn Mercer’s history at annual Pilgrimage to Penfield event

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Published Oct 24, in News, Student Government

Since the 1900s, Mercer University students have made the annual trip to Penfield, Ga. to participate in the historic Pilgrimage to Penfield event. On Oct. 19, students participated in a cemetery tour, gathering in the chapel, dinner and a display of fireworks hosted by the Student Government Association (SGA).
Students gathered inside Penfield chapel for a service hosted by SGA members and Mercer faculty. The service started off with a short welcoming speech and prayer by sophomore senator Raymond Partolan.
“I can’t help but to think about what kind of footprints and handprints each of you will leave in the large span of Mercer’s history. It’s no surprise that Mercer students change the world,” said Partolan.
Ike Ekeke, a senior at Mercer, gave a speech about his past and how he came to choose Mercer. In his speech, Ekeke talked about what impressed him about Mercer when he came to visit before his freshman year.
The chapel gathering continued with speeches from Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students Douglas Pearson, Senior Vice Provost for Service Learning and Professor Mary Alice Morgan and SGA President Mollie Davis.
Former Vice Provost for Institutional Effectiveness and former Dean of Students Barry Jenkins told students during the cemetery tour about the history of Mercer’s founder, Jesse Mercer. The tour also included information about other contributors to Mercer University’s development.
“[Mercer University] started off as Mercer Institute for Men. This was a prep-school for boys 17 to 18 years of age and this was a working community, a working farm.” Jenkins explained.
Jenkins then went on to point out the graves of Jesse Mercer and his wife along with the graves of Spright Dowell and George Boyce Connell, whose namesakes are Dowell residence hall and Connell Student Center, respectively.
Students were enticed to pay close attention to Mercer’s history, as they split up into groups and answered questions competitively.
“Overall, what I enjoyed the most was the walk through the cemetery. It was my favorite part because it set a mysterious mood I enjoyed,” said Avery Lewis, a freshman student.
Raymond Ko, a sophomore who went to Pilgrimage to Penfield last year said, “Last year my favorite part was the Mercer alumna who talked about her experiences as a student. This year though, I really liked the fireworks because that’s when all the groups got to come together.”
Students arrived back on campus with more knowledgeable about their university’s beginnings.

SGA Paints the Town Orange

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Published Aug 15, in News

Mercer’s Student Government Association has taken an active role in initiating two new programs for students to become involved in for this upcoming semester.
The first initiative is a motivation program partnering with Mercer’s Athletics Department. Though the program is still being finalized some of the details include a points-based incentive for students to encourage them to attend athletic games and events.
The second is a collaboration between Mercer students and businesses in College Hill and downtown areas. The initiative is cleverly titled Paint the Town Orange and stems from last semesters SGA Presidential race where elected President and Vice President, Mollie Davis and Josh Lovett, proposed a plan to create jobs and internships for students amongst local businesses. “In essence, SGA is going out on behalf of students to businesses and explaining the benefits of hiring students and how to hire students through Career Services. In addition, we ask that applicable businesses offer deals or discounts to Mercer students. In return, SGA will list and market these “Mercer friendly” business on our Facebook and our website,” explained Davis.
When businesses sign up, SGA provides them with Mercer gear, including team schedules, posters, etc., so that they can show support for the Bears in their place of business. These businesses will also place the SGA decal in their storefront windows to show the community their support of Mercer.
SGA is partnering with College Hill, the Chamber of Commerce, Main Street Macon, Unity-N-Community, and other existing avenues to get the word out to local businesses that wish to participate.     At this time, 10 businesses have registered and pledged to post over a dozen jobs and internships in fields like graphic design, marketing, journalism/ photography, business management, accounting, and music venue promotion. Paint The Town Orange is in its initial stages but has already confirmed partnerships with the Macon-Bibb County Urban Development Authority, Saturna & Company (a CPA firm), the 567 Center for Renewal (a multifaceted non-profit downtown), DonSon Productions (a custom laser-engraving business), 11th Hour and other local businesses.
SGA has taken the steps to ensure the program’s sustainability and growth by working with Mercer’s business school to create a service-learning course that will market the program throughout Macon and on campus. “Josh and I are both in the class and will work closely with that team of students to ensure that we create as many opportunities as possible for students,” said Davis.
The program will be formally announced August 23 at a press conference with Mayor Reichert and Mike Dyer, the president of the Chamber of Commerce.
“We are very excited about the potential of this program to create a sustainable connection between Mercer students and the Macon community. In the long run, we would love to see students living and working in Macon after graduation. As Mercerians, we have so much to offer the local community; it’s just about matching Macon’s needs with Mercer’s abundant resources, namely its educated, service-oriented, vibrant student body,” said Davis.
For more information on the Paint the Town Orange initiative you can e-mail the address paintmaconorange@gmail.com.
SGA is a body of elected representatives that connect Mercer’s administration with the student population. The Senate body meets weekly to discuss issues and pass legislation to enhance student life on campus. Meetings are held every Monday at 5:30 pm in Conference Room II of the Connell Student Center.

SGA president calls for parliamentarian’s resignation

Senior Gene Mitchell resigned from his position as parliamentarian on Monday amid controversy over his recent article in The Cluster

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Published Apr 5, in Breaking, Campus, News, Student Government

Student Government Association Parliamentarian, Gene Mitchell, was asked to resign from his appointed position by SGA president Jordan Locke on April 2. The resignation was a result of Mitchell’s recent opinion article published in The Cluster on March 28.

Mitchell’s article expressed his frustration for the lack of involvement in upcoming SGA elections. Currently, the SGA positions of junior class senator and senator-at-large have only five candidates to fill five availabilities. Therefore, those candidates will be running unopposed.

He explains in his article, “While I applaud those who are running as they, at least, demonstrate the courage to put their name in public view and invite criticism. I must say that some of the candidates who are running lack the competency to give an oral presentation in a one hundred level general education class; it is even more frightening that these same candidates will automatically have the platform to speak whatever is on their mind in front of the Dean of Students and the rest of the student body. These ill-fitted candidates will represent Mercer and will do so because they
will have had no democratic process to vet them.”

In explanation of his article Mitchell explained that, “You need opposition so fruitful debate and passionate ideas can come about. If you look at the campaigns that actually have competition you see a flourish of campaigning all over campus. If you look at the upcoming senior elections with the likes of Sharpe Sablon, and several others, they are campaigning everywhere. If you look at the senator-at large elections and you look at the junior senator election you don’t see any campaigning because they don’t have to.”

Mitchell’s words have stirred up members of SGA and various students resulting in more than 40 comments on The Cluster’s website, many of which have been anonymous. According to Mitchell, “The intent of my article was to say we need more competition because we need more qualified people.”

President Locke explained, “I’m not opposed to students sharing their opinions in The Cluster, in fact I encourage it. The problem I had was not necessarily what he said as a student, if he were just a student than that would have been completely fine, but his main responsibility on SGA is to aid to me, as the president, and my administration in our goals. We have a goal of fostering an environment on SGA that is open to debate and is not destructive personally to anyone who is on the body.”

Locke announced at the SGA meeting on April 2 his reasoning for asking Mitchell for his resignation. In his announcement he stated, “As a fellow member of this body, appointed by myself and confirmed by Senate, it is my opinion that [Mitchell] had a professional obligation to refrain from such an article in The Cluster… My administration does not support explicit name-calling. We do not support what could be perceived as an attack on fellow members of this body. We certainly do not endorse the comments made in the article.”

According to Mitchell, “Those opinions I said about those individuals are not alone. They’re shared in fact, by the same people who asked me to resign.”

Mitchell feels the reasoning behind Locke’s actions consist of contributing factors such as fear and perception. “The end of Jordan’s term is coming up and there was a fear in Jordan’s perception that this could derail what he wanted to accomplish in the last two senates, which was to focus on student achievement. He and I agreed on that.”

Locke was clear that his decision to ask for Mitchell’s resignation had a great deal to do with the amount of legislation that needed to be discussed in the following two senate meetings of the semester.

“We only had two senates left at the time and because of that, I wanted to focus on the legislation rather than any bickering that may have been between senators that may have gotten their feelings hurt,” said Locke.

“The intent of my article was to inspire people to become a part of the government, not to criticize Bentley [Hudgins] or any of them. That was my way of saying, ‘I’m going to give you a specific example,’ because people always say we need
transparency,” said Mitchell.

“[Locke’s] fear was, come time for senate, there would be a crowd of students in the Connell student center and they would be chanting for my impeachment,” said Mitchell. “There were, from my account, seven students present; two were there for legislation to be discussed that night and the other five were there to speak on my behalf. The only backlash was a rush to support my position and my right to speak.”

“I had every inference that if he had not resigned, impeachment charges would be brought against him that evening in senate and without sharing names or motives, I think that with 90 percent certainty, that would have happened which really would have really taken away from the important piece of legislations we were focusing on that night,” said Locke.

Mitchell, however, explained that although he believed there would have been impeachment proceedings, that he would not have been impeached. According to Mitchell, in order to impeach someone from the SGA executive branch, the judicial council must oversee the impeachment process and two thirds of the senate must vote in favor of such impeachment. Mitchell has had no contact with the judicial council.

Mitchell explained that he would have only needed eight votes to prevent an impeachment and he believes he would have had at least 13.

Mitchell believes a factor in Locke’s decision was the influence of those closest to Locke. “From what I understand, Secretary [Matt] Townsend was very upset about my article and probably gave a very negative perception to President Locke about what was happening…the second person I understand felt this way was Senator [Trenton] White. So probably from those two individuals, there was talk of them moving to impeach me,” explained Mitchell.

Both Townsend and White declined to comment on the issue of Mitchell’s resignation.

Locke explained that he felt the article left students with the idea that SGA is a divisive group and not cohesive in representing student interest. “I do think that it sort of spread some dissension among the senate body and among student perception of SGA,” said Locke.

“I’ve gotten a lot of support for asking for his resignation and those students are just as quick to note how much Gene has accomplished this year and how great a parliamentarian he was,” said Locke. “I don’t want this resignation to squelch
his reputation at all because he was a fantastic member of senate, a fantastic parliamentarian and has done so much for the student body this year. I know that there were a few people who were upset with my decision, but overall senators
understand and agree with my actions.”

“We take an oath to speak frankly and candidly in representing student interest and so I think that it is definitely arguable that the article was completely fine, and in fact, his duty to write,” said Locke. “The second part is to bring honor and merit to our organization and the university and that is the part that most senators felt he did not fulfill.”

“There seems to be this idea that SGA has to present itself with a united front. That’s not what respect is. Respect is understanding each others ideals and being able to listen to the other person and even if you disagree, you have the right to say what you say,” said Mitchell.

Mitchell expressed that he had been given permission by Locke to speak his opinion in both the television show, Young Puns; which discusses Mercer politics, and also his articles for The Cluster about the SGA presidential campaign.

“He made a tough decision and I respect Jordan for that but I think that it was too rash,” said Mitchell. “If he had waited a week he would have realized that although people may disagree with my candor and they may not agree with that I said, most people believe I have a right to say it without the fear of being impeached or fear of being asked to resign.”

Locke explained that the decision to ask Mitchell to resign as parliamentarian was the hardest he has made throughout his presidency.

“I tried to focus on whether or not [Mitchell’s article] broke the oath of office and the repercussions it would have in senate. I think I made the right decision,” said Locke.

“Something that is very important to Gene is the student body and the work of SGA. I think he realized that perhaps, with him [at senate], the focus would very likely not be on the issues at hand. It would be on an article which was debatably,
inappropriate for an executive member to write,” said Locke.

“I have a great deal of personal respect for Mr. Mitchell and I personally think that he saw that [the article] wasn’t received the way he intended it to be and that partially played into the reason why he accepted my request for his resignation.”

The final SGA meeting of the year will take place on Monday, April 9 with elections for next year’s office taking place April 9-13.

SGA presidential race – week 1 analysis

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Published Mar 23, in Breaking, Campus, Cluster Editorial, Opinions, Student Government, Uncategorized

The only person that should be thankful the presidential election period has been extended is Sophomore Senator Dalton Turner.  Senator Turner was perceived undoubtedly as the hands on favorite to win the SGA presidential race, but someone forgot to tell fellow Sophomore Senator Mollie Davis that.  Turner’s front-runner style campaign has allowed Davis to land the first blow in the race.  In the first week of a month-long campaign, Davis has flooded the market with her brand on Facebook, YouTube and campus by pushing her message that she and running mate Josh Lovett are the “passionate leadership” that is needed to head SGA next year.

It is evident early on that Davis has constructed a well-organized campaign staff.  Davis’ amazing specificity and ingenuity in her platform gives off the persona of an innovative leader, while Turner’s platform resembles a remake of the issues that former president Trenton White ran on.  Davis and Turner spoke on Young Puns recently about why they both want to become president.  Stunningly, Davis gave crisp talking points while Turner seemed to respond on the fly.  These early stumbles may prove costly to Turner later on if he cannot respond in the second week of the campaign season.

Turner has made a costly mistake by allowing Davis to shape the narrative.  Whatever name recognition he initially had may possibly be erased by Davis’ early campaigning.  Her campaign has no doubt outworked him in the early going.  She has surrounded herself with serious students like Emily Halstead, Senator Bentley Hudgins, Senator Thornton Brewer and many others who are providing more than making a status update and changing profile pictures.  Davis has made it apparent that if she is going to lose this race it will not have been because Turner outworked her.

Both candidates, however, have much ground to make up.  In years past, presidential candidates needed to heavily pander to the underclassmen and social Greek societies as those students were most likely to vote.  In this election, however, all students need persuading as the polls for election will be open an entire week.  This may prove logistically important for Senator Davis as her team is at a disadvantage when it comes to access to on campus students.  Senator Turner’s running mate, Junior Senator Justin Robinson, is a Resident Advisor (RA).  An RA is authorized to enter any on campus dorm at any time of the day.  Senator Davis must have an escort to enter any hall on campus.  This logistical advantage by Turner could prove critical for meeting potential voters in the campaign.

An even larger hurdle Davis must overcome is the minority issue.  In a recent poll conducted, minorities were more likely to vote for a minority candidate for president than a white candidate.  With Senator Robinson on Turner’s ticket, Davis and Lovett will have to explain why minority students should vote for an all-white ticket.

The major aspect both campaigns seem to be missing, however, is the fact that senatorial races are running in conjunction with the presidential race.  Both Turner and Davis should be vying for endorsements by likely winners of the senatorial races.  If managed properly, either campaign could connect their candidacy with another well-liked student who could sway more votes for the presidential race.  Sharpe Sablon, for example, is a soccer player running for senior senator.  Mollie and Dalton should seek Sharpe’s endorsement to attract the athlete vote.  No doubt basketball players know Turner because he announces at the games, but if Sharpe endorsed Mollie that could pull student athlete votes to her side.  In any case, the candidate who has planned the best for the longer campaign season should win this race.  As it appears right now, Mollie may have a slight edge of Dalton.  Do not think for one second, though, that he has not noticed.

 

Early polling shows Turner in lead for SGA Presidential race

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Published Feb 19, in Breaking, Campus, News, Student Government, Uncategorized

According to a recent poll conducted by “Young Puns”, a political commentary show on MERCER 99, and The Cluster, Sophomore Senator Dalton Turner currently leads fellow Sophomore Senator Mollie Davis by six percent as a potential SGA presidential candidate. The poll was conducted between Feb. 2 and Feb. 14, and its full results show Turner receiving 34 percent, Davis receiving 28 percent, Junior Senator Khoi Le receiving 15 percent and Junior Senator Austin Thompson and Freshman Senator Akeme Ubom rounding out the poll with eleven percent.

Senator Turner’s strongest support comes from underclassmen.  In the Young Puns/The Cluster Poll (YPP), Turner was supported by 48 percent of the underclassmen participants, and Davis came in a distant second with 18 percent support from underclassmen participants.

This may prove vital for the upcoming election as more underclassmen live on campus than any other age group.  Since voting for president occurs currently on one day only and only one poll is opened from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Connell Student Center, a strong correlation can be made that underclassmen are more likely to vote than upperclassmen.

In gender groups, Turner also performed well among female participants as 38 percent of the group chose Turner.  He performed particularly well among female white voters, who supported Turner with 44 percent.  Davis also performed well among females, gaining the second highest support with 32 percent.  Turner also has more support with males as he received 30 percent to Davis’ 23 percent from male participants in the poll.

Similarly, Turner performed well with white voters.  Turner received 43 percent of students who recognized themselves as white, while Davis received 36 percent.  No other candidate received more than eight percent of the remaining vote among white students.

While none of the candidates in this poll have formally announced their candidacy for SGA President, they are widely recognized as candidates who may seriously run for office.  No one will know for sure who is running until qualification day.

SGA passes legislation for new recycling bins

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Published Feb 8, in Campus, News

Mercer’s Student Government Association unanimously approved legislation to contribute $2,500 to place new recycling bins on campus. Students for Environmental Action (SEA) requested the money from SGA’s special funding account.

SEA originally requested $7,875 from special funding, enough to purchase three new recycling bins, which amounts to nearly 50% of the remaining money in special funding.

After two weeks of deliberation, SGA approved the legislation to fund $2,500. A request has been made to the Board of Appropriations to match the $2,500, and President Underwood has committed to funding the rest.

Monday night’s vote came after the legislation had been tabled two weeks previously due to concerns over the amount of funding requested.

 Parliamentarian Gene Mitchell had moved to table the legislation because the request came before a turnover in the voting body due to elections and in order to give President Jordan Locke and Vice President Ike Ekeke time to speak with the administration about the issue.

“The first time [the legislation] went through, I could tell that there was no one who was anti-recycling, but I could tell there were some senators who were a little leery about giving so much of our special funding budget to the recycling program,” said Jordan Locke, SGA president.

Over the past two weeks, SEA president Katie Martin organized a movement to gain student support for the recycling initiative.

SEA members and SGA members wrote a letter template to senators asking them to vote in support of the legislation and took copies to classrooms and dorms asking students to address them to their senators. Senators received more than 200 letters.

“It was really grassroots organizing at its finest on Mercer’s campus,” Martin said.

Martin explained that the new bins are needed because the existing program has been so successful since its inception last fall.

SEA has met with Physical Plant to determine the best locations for new bins. Currently, the plan is to put two bins near Winship-Adams and Garden apartments and one near Connell Student Center.

Mercer also stands to make money off expanding the recycling program, Martin said. Currently, the cost of managing the recycling is higher than any profit made from materials like cardboard, paper and aluminum cans.

“By having more bins, you have more recycling, and you can cover the cost,” Martin said. She believes this is an important step towards sustainability for the program.

Senator Mollie Davis expressed reservations Monday night for senators doing legwork for constituents.

 “I applaud senators for working for causes like this, but I feel like in the past when organizations have come up and not done background work or not been fiscally conservative like we’d like them to, we’ve turned them down,” she said. 

Senator Trent White, who helped Martin pass out letters, said he felt compelled to help with the initiative because it’s an issue that’s been very important to him. The move to bring recycling to Mercer was started during White’s presidency.

White said that, in the past, it has been part of SGA culture that senators do not do constituent services, but he disagrees with this mindset.

“I think since senators represent students, it’s important for them to take up causes the students want to be enacted,” he said.

Senator Bentley Hudgins said Monday night that some of the students who addressed letters to him had approached him with concerns that they had not been adequately informed of the cost of the program and may not have supported it had they known.

“I talked to them and I said ‘well I also wanted to ask you did you know that they’re asking for almost $8,000?’ and they said ‘no I didn’t know that,’ and I said ‘did you know they were asking for only three recycling bins?’, and they said ‘no I didn’t know that, and then I said, did you know this is almost 50% of our budget and we can’t afford to do that?’ and they said, ‘no but I wish you would have told me,’” he said.

While Hudgins said he is pro-recycling, he also said he has a problem rewarding actions that mislead students.

“It’s not an attack on SEA, I just don’t know if they realize what they did,” he said.

Parliamentarian Mitchell, who helped recruit students to sign letters, adamantly disagreed with Hudgins.

“When 36 people send you letters and your response to that is to question whether these people understand what they’re signing and then to accuse a student organization and members of senate of concocting some elaborate scheme to manipulate senators is utterly irresponsible, and I would hope that students would pay better attention to who they vote for. When people don’t understand what their constituents are conveying, you get answers and responses like that of Senator Hudgins,” he said.

Mitchell also stated Monday night that those handing out the letters asked each person if they were in favor of increasing the recycling infrastructure. If students had any questions about fiscal responsibility, they were answered, and every single person who signed was encouraged and waited upon to read the letter they signed, he said.

“It is very apparent that Senator Hudgins was blatantly and obviously trying to mislead his constituents by saying ‘only three bins’ because three bins almost doubles the availability of recycling on campus, which Mercer students have demonstrated that they want. For him to suggest to students that we can’t afford these bins is misleading,” Mitchell said.

White, after voting an “emphatic yes” to the motion on Monday, said he feels this is an excellent use of special funding, because it is a long term policy. “I think that SGA should be putting its funds towards public services and public goods that benefit the students,” he said.

Locke said he is glad the motion passed, but he is ultimately glad the motion was tabled so he could work out a solution that made it easier for the senate body to accept the motion and approve it.

He also said he was glad to do the extra work for the initiative. “If students are really passionate about wanting something like this, it is our job to help facilitate that,” he said.

According to Locke, the administration was incredibly receptive of the idea.

“The administration is pretty good with recognizing when students really want to get something done on campus,” he said.

He also believes the amount of support received made it easier for the president to support the initiative, since he feels Underwood is a president who respects students.

The Board of Appropriations has not issued a decision on whether it will match SGA’s funding, but Locke said he is optimistic.

“I think it would be a travesty if they decided not to use the remaining funds on the project,” he said.

Track the Trolley is back

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Published Jan 25, in Campus, News

Track The Trolley is back this semester as a resource for students to use. As of January 16, the popular program that allows students to get a startlingly accurate readout of the trolley’s location is back in full swing at Mercer.
The revival of the program brings to our attention some attractive new features that give the project new life and have the potential to appeal to our new, technologically savvy generation of Mercerians.
“The system that Vice President Ekeke and I selected has many features that students will find very useful,” explained Jordan Locke, senior class president of the Mercer Student Government Association (SGA).
While new students anticipate utilizing the revived program, some of the more seasoned Mercerians wonder why the program was ever discontinued.
“At the end of the White/Giddens administration, it was realized that the carrier for the former Trolley Tracker was no longer supported,” said Locke. “Therefore, at the beginning of the year, Ike and I started looking at options to bring it back.”
“I worked directly with Mickey Belonte from the Information Technology department to select the best program for Mercer Students,” Locke said.
The SGA senators, in conjunction with Information Technology, settled on a program called TransLoc. This program is used by numerous universities across the country, including Georgia Tech.
“I started corresponding with Mr. Belote this summer, but it took until now to get the specifics of the program settled,” explained Locke. “The Trolley Tracker went live [Jan. 16]. Any student can access it from http://trolley.mercer.edu/ or from the SGA website.”
It makes sense that the program is so common among university campuses. After some minor changes, Track The Trolley seems more convenient than ever.
It now offers a text message feature that allows Mercerians to get real-time trolley updates on any personal cellular device capable of text messaging.
The reprise of the program also allows students to gain instant access to the service on smart phones. As the cliché goes, now ‘there’s an app for that!’
If students don’t own a smart phone but have service with Verizon Wireless, they can download a Track The Trolley add-on from the News and Information section in the Get It Now menu.
“I’m very excited that our administration was able to bring the trolley tracking system back. It is a service that is extremely beneficial to students,” said Locke. “Our administration’s aim is to make feasible changes to Mercer. I think that this change is both useful and practical to the well-being of the student body,” he concluded.
Regular trolley hours are from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. Wednesdays thru Saturdays. The trolley departs from Mercer after briefly stopping at two designated pickup locations: the circle between McCorkle and Greek Row and the Connell Student Center lot. It makes numerous stops downtown, including several popular club-centric locations.
For more infrmation on Our College Town transportation, Track The Trolley apps and mobile device compatibility, visit http://trolley.mercer.edu. Download the app to track the trolley at your convenience.

Students explore roots at Penfield

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Published Nov 2, in Campus, News

Mercer University honored an annual tradition on Oct. 21 as approximately 400 students loaded onto eight charter buses and made the two hour trip to Penfield, Ga., the site of Mercer’s original campus.
The theme of this year’s Pilgrimage to Penfield was “Take a step back in your future,” and the evening featured reflections by Mercer alumna Sarah “Honey” Withers.
Students who attended the event visited Jesse Mercer’s grave (and the graves of other important Mercer figures), attended a service in the original Mercer chapel, ate dinner provided by Aramark and enjoyed a fireworks show.
This year, there was a slight change to the graveyard ceremony. Instead of reading a litany by Jesse’s grave, students participated in a round of Mercer trivia to test their knowledge of Mercer history.
Senior Matt Hickman, Co-Chair of the Heritage Life committee, said SGA had received comments from students in the past about the eerie nature of the litany.
“We wanted to do something that would erase the negative connotations of being in a graveyard and do something more entertaining and fun,” Hickman said. Trivia was chosen as a way to both inform and engage students.
Dr. Steve Brown, associate dean of student services, spoke to students in the graveyard about the history surrounding them. Jesse Mercer, founder of Mercer University, is buried in the graveyard along with Billington Sanders, the first president of Mercer. Students also visited the graves of Spright Dowell, president from 1928 – 1953, and the man responsible for the construction of MEP and Connell Student Center. Brown also spoke about the most recently placed grave, that of James McAfee, long-time investor in the theology program at Mercer who was buried there in 2004.
Senior Christopher Driver delivered this year’s ‘Mercer Reflections’ in the chapel, telling freshmen that he understands the emblematic character of Porter Osbourne Jr. much better as a senior than he did when reading it going into his first year at Mercer.

“I’ve learned that I can and should help other people, but that these people often end up helping me more,” Driver said.
The chapel service also featured a history of Penfield, delivered by Dean Doug Pearson, a musical performance by Junior Liz Skinner, opening and closing remarks from Senator Matt Hickman, Co-Chair of Heritage Life, a speech by Mrs. Withers and a litany read by Senior Senator Trent White. Sophomore Class President Dalton Turner closed the service with a benediction and led the audience in singing Mercer’s alma mater.
Withers, introduced by her granddaughter, Senator-at-Large Sarah Brown, spoke about her love of Mercer and encouraged students to make the best of their time here.
“You are a blessed privileged generation because you have chosen Mercer and Mercer has chosen you,” Withers said. “Don’t squander your time in worthless endeavors and seize each day so that you will never be haunted by regret or thoughts of what might have been.”
Withers detailed the differences between Mercer in her time and present day, including family style dinners in MEP separate from the men on campus, curfews for women and compulsory chapel services.
According to Withers, students still managed to have fun with what could be seen as relatively strict rules. Each year, the male students held an intended ‘panty raid’ in MEP in which they would raid girls’ dorm rooms and confiscate pairs of frilly underwear. One year, Withers said, firetrucks came and were stationed in front of MEP with fire hoses ready to shoot at full force.
“Not a one [boy] crossed the street…the girls were so disappointed,” Withers joked.
Withers also met her husband at Mercer and cited the day he proposed to her in Tattnall Square Park as one of her best memories from college.
Freshman Morgan Smith enjoyed her first trip to Penfield. “The food was good, the fireworks were fun, and I liked hearing from Miss Honey about how Mercer used to be,” she said.
Hickman believes the event was a success. “I couldn’t have asked for a better event,” he said. “We had really good speakers, and the events outside of the chapel went smoothly as well. Mollie Davis ran everything spectacularly.”
Although the event is intended for freshmen, many students go multiple times throughout their college career. Hickman himself has been every year, first as a freshman for his FYS class, then as a preceptor and member of SGA and finally as one of the coordinators of the event.
“It’s kind of bittersweet knowing I won’t go back to Penfield as a student,” he said.

SGA general election results announced

Voter turnout on par with last year, officials say

By:
Published Apr 6, in Breaking, Campus, News, Student Government

Newly re-elected sophomore senator Khoi Le (center) expresses his delight just moments after his victory was announced in SGA's general election Wednesday. (MICHAEL DELLA POLLA/The Cluster)

 

Roughly one in four students cast a ballot in Wednesday’s SGA senatorial elections for the coming academic year, marking an official end to the spring campaign season.

SGA election officer Jamel Pee said an estimated 575 students turned out to vote in Wednesday’s campus-wide election. That’s mostly on par with last year’s turnout, Pee said.

A crowd of about two dozen onlookers gathered to watch as SGA election officials unveiled a banner displaying the results of the election around 6:20 p.m. Voting closed at 5 p.m.

Five of the nine candidates vying for Senator-at-Large won their bids to be elected. Sophomore Melissa Thompson led the way with 362 votes to carry the title of Leading Senator-at-Large.

Junior Sarah Brown followed not far behind with 324 votes, while Jonathan Cauthen, Gil Arquisola and Sage Harris each garnered the third, fourth and fifth place spots respectively by a 272-271-249 margin.

Eleven freshmen competed for the five open seats for sophomore senator. Dalton Turner narrowly edged out Nicholas Reynolds by a 155-154 margin to become the next sophomore class president. Mollie Davis, Austin Thompson and Ronnie Davis also won seats as sophomore senators, netting 139, 115 and 100 votes respectively.

All but one of the six candidates running for junior senator positions was elected to serve. Rodrigo Visbal won the job of junior class president over second-place finisher Khoi Le by a margin of 115-110. The three other junior senators elected were Justin Robinson with 104 votes, Branden Ryan with 92 votes and A.J. Patel with 82 votes.

In the race for senior senator as well, six candidates competed for a total of only five positions. Christina Vasquez narrowly beat out Kristen Blackwell to become the next senior class president in a 117-115 vote. Stephen Bradshaw, Matt Hickman and Matt Williams also won seats as senior senators by a 111-103-96 margin, respectively.

Outgoing SGA president Trenton White said that while he’s excited for the new slate of senators, he wishes more females had been elected. Only five of the 20 newly elected senators are females.

“It’s been a great turnout, but I’d like to see more women represented,” White said.

Despite the gender imbalance, however, newly re-elected senator Branden Ryan said he thinks the SGA slate represents a diversity of students from different backgrounds.

“I think we’ve got a very strong group with a broad range of interests this year, and I’m excited to serve,” Ryan said.

For more on this developing story, read the next issue of The Cluster, or check back in at www.mercercluster.com for updates.

Honor code policy changed

By:
Published Mar 30, in Campus, News, Student Government

SGA voted on March 14 to change the wording of Mercer’s Honor Code.

The motion to update the Honor Code was brought to the SGA floor by Vice President Shannon Giddens, who is also a member of Honor Council.

The Honor Council debated this decision carefully because the change also requires an alteration to The Lair, Mercer’s undergraduate student handbook.

Giddens abstained from the vote because she deemed it unethical to vote on the same piece twice.

Sophomores Khoi Le and Branden Ryan also abstained from the vote and freshman Nick Reynolds voted against the piece.

SGA and Honor Council agreed that the change is more beneficial because now it is a pledge about holding oneself to the highest level of academic integrity instead of simply saying “I won’t cheat.”

Branden Ryan decided to abstain from the vote as he felt there was some ambiguity that was not found in the previous version.

“I abstained because the updated text omits a certain degree of specificity that was found in the former version on what constitutes a violation of academic integrity at Mercer,” Ryan said.

The original honor code reads:

“I pledge myself to neither give nor receive aid during tests or for any individual assignments or papers, nor to use any information other than that allowed by the instructor. I further pledge that I will not allow to go unreported to the proper persons any violation of the Honor System and that I will give true and complete information to the Honor Council.”

The new official version reads:

“I pledge to hold myself to the highest standards of academic integrity while at Mercer University. I further pledge that I will hold my peers to these standards by reporting any violations I observe and that I will foster a spirit of honesty in the University’s academic environment.”

The Honor Code will be updated in the next edition of The Lair.

SGA President Trent White stressed the importance of students staying updated to changes in university policy.

“Hopefully this print story will reach a great number of students and they can be aware of the change,” he said.

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