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(04/25/12 7:36pm)
With all the criticism regarding the Student Government Association circulating around campus in recent months, it is worthwhile to highlight many of the benefits SGA provides for the student body.
Mercer’s 25 dedicated senators and eight executive members volunteer countless hours of their time to ensure that students are able to follow their passions, in addition to providing forums for students to connect with each other, their campus and their city.
First and most importantly, SGA approves most of Mercer’s organizations, excluding honor societies and Greek organizations. This year, SGA approved 14 new student organizations, bringing Mercer’s total number of active student organizations to 107.
The majority of student organizations seek SGA approval because it opens the door to key benefits around campus. To reserve rooms, put up fliers, or reserve a table in the Connell Student Center among other benefits. Organizations need SGA approval.
Another advantage of SGA approval is instant access to a portion of SGA’s budget. SGA can spend up to $70,000 on student organizations. This funding is broken down into Bear Grants, Conference and Lodging Funding, and Special Funding.
This year, SGA distributed all of its $37,462 in Bear Grant funding to the 49 organizations who applied. In addition, SGA spent 91% of its $19,538 Conference and Lodging budget to help subsidize 15 organizations who represented Mercer at conferences around the country.
Finally, SGA approved five organizations for special funding, spending $5,082.50 of the $13,000 dollars available. In total, SGA spent $60,324.08 on student organization this year.
Without this funding, most organizations on campus would not have the budget required for students to pursue their passions and interests without charging significant fees that students either cannot afford or do not want to pay.
Further, without SGA’s ability to distribute funds, it would be financially impossible for students to join several of these groups and Mercer would lack the vibrant community its students currently enjoy.
Four of Student Government’s eight standing committees host campus and city events open to all students. The Heritage Life Committee plans SGA’s major events including Pilgrimage to Penfield, the Christmas Tree Lighting and Founder’s Day. The purpose of the Heritage Life Committee is to “promote and develop the heritage and traditions” of Mercer. These events were attended by a toal of 1800 students, each of whom received a gift for attending. In addition, the Heritage Life committee played an important role during Family Weekend along with several SGA senators and executive members.
Next, the Macon Connections Committee is charged with planning three events geared toward student engagement with the downtown community.
This year the Macon Connections committee planned the Luck of the Irish festival on St. Patrick’s Day as well as Taste of Downtown in both the fall and spring semesters. All told, almost 3,000 students attended these events.
The Student Life and Organizational Affairs Committee is not only responsible for representing student organizations wishing to be approved, they also plan President’s Roundtable in the fall and spring.
At each event, 50 to 60 of Mercer organizations’ presidents gather around a dinner to connect with one another. Further more, all the presidents in attendance have the opportunity to ask members of Mercer’s administration questions, express concerns and request changes they would like to see around Mercer.
Finally, the Public Relations and Elections Committee is in charge of marketing as well as planning and running elections. This committee is also responsible for holding the annual trip to Kennesaw to watch the Bears take on the Eagles.
This year over 100 students partook in the event, which included free transportation to the game as well a meal.
This year, Senate offered nine free events with gifts and giveaways for the student body, averaging out to about one a month, in addition to giving out $70,000 worth of financial aid to student organizations. But that is not all SGA has done this year.
The other committees work hard to ensure that Mercer makes the changes students want and provide the programs students desire.
As far as green initiatives, this year Student Government aided Student for Environmental Action in obtaining more recycling bins on campus and revamped the Bear Bikes program.
As far as student services are concerned, SGA successfully lobbied the administration to move spring break to the second week of March instead of the last week of February, as was originally planned. This is in large part due solely to your president, Jordan Locke.
In addition, the senior class will be adding their gift this year, as in years past, due to SGA funding and fundraising.
This year a beautiful clock tower will be built by the new stadium for students to enjoy. Other initiatives completed by SGA this year include increasing the volume of the Bear DVDs collection, providing food for various events like the CIT Finals party, making general campus improvements, holding a faculty appreciation luncheon and working in the Fresh Food Company serving our constituents their meals.
Finally, SGA spent most senate meetings cleaning house, attempting to make SGA more democratic, more transparent and more able to handle controversy.
We expanded the campaign season to one month, expanded qualifications to two days and increased the number of advertisements students were allowed to put up during campaign season.
In addition, Senators Ronnie Davis and former Parliamentarian Gene Mitchell amended the constitution to create a judicial branch so SGA has some oversight by students. Finally, we amended our constitution again, to fix mistakes Senators noticed throughout the year.
Student Government is a very important student organization that provides countless services for students.
SGA requires Senators and Executive Board members to volunteer hundreds of hours of their time. We would not do this if we did not love our school and were not passionate about the issues Mercer faces.
This year SGA spent over $60,000 on students, not counting give-aways and food, hosted nine events and achieved a slew of initiatives as a result of student interests or wishes.
Overall, despite the controversy SGA saw this year, the Senators and Executive Board united as one body to provide students what they needed, give students what they wanted and make our own organization better.
Comments or questions about this opinion can be emailed to matthew.lorin.hickman@live.mercer.edu
(03/14/12 8:55pm)
The Mercer men’s golf team has recently had some disappointing tournaments, though it appears that their slump is finally coming to an end in dramatic fashion.
On Feb. 20-21, the Bears participated in the Mobile Bay Intercollegiate Magnolia Grove Crossings Golf Course in Mobile, Ala. The tournament was hosted by the University of South Alabama.
After the first day, Mercer was in sole possession of sixth place, due in large part to the play of sophomore James Beale and senior Josh Cone. Beale shot a 71 and a 74, while Cone managed a 75 and a 73. Sophomore Hans Reimers rebounded from his first round to shoot a 69. Mercer finished the first day with a shot total of 579, four shots out of second place and nine out of first.
Unfortunately for Coach Bradley, his team fell to eighth place after the second day, due to a final round total of 296, 875 for the tournament. Reimers shot another sub-par round on the final day, which made him one of two golfers at the event to do so.
After a short week, the orange and black would head back to Sawgrass Country Club to play in the John Hayt Intercollegiate, hosted by the Eagles of the University of North Florida. After the first day of play, Mercer was in 14th place with a shot total of 309, behind the field-leading 294 of Central Florida. Beale led the team with a two-over-par 74. The second round saw the Bears falter, posting a 308 and falling to 15th place. Cone led Mercer through the second round, shooting a 76, although Beale had the best combined score for the Bears at 181. Mercer would rebound on the final day with their lowest score in the tournament of 295. Freshman Trey Rule shot a 71 in the last round, while junior John Gregory Joseph would finish on par at 72.
Mercer would rebound on March 9 in the first round of the Seminole Intercollegiate, hosted by Florida State. Junior Thomas Holmes would shoot his collegiate-career best total of 68, while Beale and Rule each added sub-par rounds as well. As a team, Mercer was minus five on the back nine holes. Reimers and Joseph added a 73 and 74 respectively to the effort.
“The way this course is laid out, there are some opportunities for birdies,” Mercer head coach Steve Bradley said to mercerbears.com. “We made those birdies and managed ourselves well around the hard holes today. But I was most impressed with how we finished off the round— it really shows what we are capable of.”
At the end of the second round, Mercer had slipped to fourth place, one shot behind conference-rivals Kennesaw State. Beale shot a 69, Rule shot a 72,while Holmes, Joseph and Reimers each shot a 74 to bring Mercer’s two round total to 570.
(03/17/11 8:09pm)
Yesterday I watched more than 10 hours of debate on the Georgia House floor. Most of the bills were well drafted and encouraged economic development, increased public safety or reduced environmental degradation.
But one bill, House Bill 461, did none of these, and will surely die as it travels to the national level, or hopefully when it crosses the hall to the Senate.
H.B. 461 is formally known as the “Health Care Compact.” Its supporters believe that the compact will exempt states that pass it from following the Affordable Care Act (PPACA), or as some have called it, "Obama Care."
The Health Care Compact affords states the right to regulate their own health care policies and not follow the guidelines of the PPACA. It sounds great if you like smaller government and local control.
But here is the hang-up that everyone who voted for the bill is aware of: the compact has to be approved by the United States Congress and sent to President in order for it to be law and deemed constitutional. Without this approval, it does nothing. The Compact is almost certain to fail in Congress, if it ever makes it there, because the Senate has a Democratic majority and will definitely be rejected by the President, who drafted the PPACA.
The Compact passed the Georgia House with a 108-63 vote following party lines, with a few minor exceptions. So the question looms: Why would the Republicans pass a bill destined to fail and waste time debating a bill when real issues are on the line?
The Answer: 2012
In an era of polarized politics in an especially polarized state, where anything anti-Democrat is innately pro-Republican, seemly anti-Obama bills look great as campaign season begins to take shape. For the 2012 Georgia General Assembly elections, candidates will undoubtedly bring up healthcare reform.
Fortunately for the more than 100 Republicans who voted for the moot H.B. 461, it sounds great to say upon the ears of uneducated voters that they voted to remove ObamaCare from the state, when in fact they did no such thing.
What they did was waste time on the floor when they could have been debating serious issues like the $1.2 billion shortfall in the budget, the $72 million dollars Clayton County needs to operate its school system properly or the poor public transportation abound in the state, among countless other problems the state is currently facing.
But instead they spent time debating a bill that ultimately is little more than a symbol of the fact that Republicans are unhappy with Obama. H.B. 461 is designed to appease the new polarized Tea Party-based constituents who got Republicans elected in 2010 instead of focusing on what is good for Georgia and its people.
A preacher on the General Assembly floor two days before this bill was passed said that, like preachers, legislators are called to do what is right for the people, even if it puts them in political hot water. He went on to say that if the General Assembly starts to pass bills simply for reelection purposes they have missed the mark as legislators. Well, Mr. Preacher, is seems as though 108 of Georgia’s Reps have done just that.
Matt Hickman is a junior at Mercer currently interning at the State Capitol in Atlanta. He can be contacted at hickman2008@yahoo.com.
(03/03/11 3:52am)
ATLANTA – A recently proposed overhaul of the HOPE scholarship could mean that many Mercer students will have to pay at least $400 more for tuition when they return to campus this fall – and possibly up to $1,200 more in the coming years depending on future lottery revenues.
The Georgia House approved a bill 155-22 Tuesday that would reduce the amount of HOPE scholarship funds awarded annually to in-state students attending private universities such as Mercer by a minimum of 10 percent, from $4,000 to $3,600. The bill is now set move to the Senate for a final vote in roughly two weeks.
House Bill 326 is a part of Gov. Nathan Deal's plan to save the state’s lottery-funded education programs - including the college scholarships and the state's prekindergarten program - from going broke.
To compensate for the HOPE fund’s currently estimated $400 million budget shortfall, the current bill would slash public and private university HOPE scholarships by 10 percent across the board for all in-state students with a 3.0 to 3.3 GPA.
Current public and private college students with a 3.3 GPA or higher would not be affected by the proposed cuts, however, as they would qualify for a newly-formed “Zel Miller” scholarship that would retain all the benefits of the old HOPE scholarship.
Perhaps most significantly, H.B. 326 would make the amount of future HOPE scholarships dependent on the amount of lottery revenue generated, meaning individual HOPE scholarships could dip to as low as 70 percent of what they are now in the coming years if the funds are not available.
At public universities like the University of Georgia and Georgia State, students with a 3.0 to 3.3 GPA would only receive 90 percent of their tuition payments for the 2011-2012 academic year.
At private universities such as Mercer – where HOPE only pays partial tuition – students in the 3.0 to 3.3 GPA range would incur a similar 10 percent scholarship reduction from $4,000 to $3,600 for the coming year.
That means Mercer students receiving HOPE who have less than a 3.3 GPA would be required to come up with an additional $400 to cover the cost of the next two semesters, and could be forced to pay as much as $1,200 more for each of the coming academic years if lottery revenues don't pan out as hoped.
To qualify for the new Zel Miller scholarship and maintain the old HOPE benefits, students must have either maintained a 3.3 GPA in college, or enter in from high school with a minimum of a 3.7 GPA as well as a score of at least 1200 on the SAT or 26 on the ACT.
Mercer President William B. Underwood said in a statement to The Cluster on Wednesday that although he regrets the fact that some Mercer students may lose part of their scholarship packages, he supports the House’s overall aim in passing the bill.
"It is clear that the current level of funding for HOPE scholarships is unsustainable. While I regret that many Mercer students will receive a $400 reduction in their HOPE grant, I believe that the governor's plan is a reasonable and measured response to the financial crisis facing the HOPE scholarship program,” Underwood said.
The Georgia Tuition Equalization Grant would not be affected by passage of H.B. 326, which means that qualified Mercer students would continue to receive the GTEG funding of $750 per academic year.
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For more on this developing story, read the next issue of The Cluster, or check back in at www.mercercluster.com for updates.