Talk:Mercer University

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Georgia (U.S. state) Portal
This article is part of WikiProject Georgia (U.S. state), an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to Georgia (U.S. state) on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit this article, or visit the project page to join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
Start This article has been rated as start-Class on the quality scale.
Mid This article has been rated as mid-importance on the importance scale.
This article lacks sufficient references and/or adequate inline citations.
A mortarboard This article is part of WikiProject Universities, an attempt to standardise coverage of universities and colleges. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this notice, or visit the project page, where you can join the project or contribute to the discussion.
Start This article has been rated as start-Class on the quality scale.

This article is within the scope of the National Register of Historic Places WikiProject, a collaborative effort to improve Wikipedia's coverage of listings on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
Start This article has been rated as start-Class on the assessment scale.
Christianity
Christianity Portal
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Christianity, an attempt to build a comprehensive guide to Christianity on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit this article, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion. If you are new to editing Wikipedia visit the welcome page to become familiar with the guidelines.
Start This article has been rated as Start-class on the quality scale.
??? This article has not yet received a rating on the importance scale.
This article is supported by the Anabaptist work group. (with unknown importance)
Assessment comments

Contents

[edit] Baptist Affiliation

Mercer's Baptist affiliation or lack thereof can be confusing. Mercer was affiliated with the Georgia Baptist Convention (and the Southern Baptist Convention; the GBC is part of the SBC) until 2006. Mercer is now independent; formal ties with the GBC no longer exist. Mercer however, remains affiliated with a large number of individual Baptist churches in Georgia who support the university's Baptist Scholars Fund that provides scholarships for Baptist students. In addition, Mercer's McAfee School of Theology is affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. The CBF provides financial support for operating costs, scholarships, etc. Also, the American Baptist Historical Society and the Baptist History and Heritage Society have announced plans, in 2006 and 2007 respectively, to relocate to the Atlanta campus.

Bottomline: Mercer is independent, but is not "unaffiliated" with Baptists. Mercer is affiliated at various levels with various groups. In order to prevent confusion, it is probably best to say that Mercer as a whole is "independent" without mentioning affiliations unless reference is also made to which part of of the university is being discussed.

Future: Mercer's president, William D. Underwood, has announced a desire to make Mercer the first "national" Baptist university much like Notre Dame University and Brigham Young University are for their religious groups. "National" refers to Mercer as a large Baptist university without ties to a "state" Baptist convention. Mercer's goal contrasts with other historically Baptist universities such as Wake Forest University, Furman University, and the University of Richmond that became secular after severing ties with their state conventions, and with Baylor University and Samford University that remain affiliated with the Baptist conventions in their states.

[edit] Candle Lighting

The candle lighting is at the end of freshman orientation. It has become a Mercer tradition where all incoming freshman make a circle on the Quad and light the candles, signifing the start of their journey at Mercer.


~No longer done - at least not this year, although the Freshmen do go up and sign the tower of the administration building.

[edit] Comparable Schools

I removed the Comparable Schools section, as it is uncommon (and inappropriate) to list such subjective comparisons in an objective article on Wikipedia. Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view Krazos 23:55, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] SGA website Link

Why was the link to the SGA website removed? The site is the offical site for SGA and useful to people looking for information about Mercer.

[edit] Lack of pictures

I'm surprised that this article doesn't have many pictures. Mercer's campus is consistently ranked one of the most beautiful in America. I've been there myself; it's an accurate description. Does anybody out there go to mercer and have a camera? I would take some myself, but I don't have a decent camera. --BWD (talk) 18:14, 24 June 2007 (UTC)