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(03/06/13 5:05pm)
Mercer University hosted the 25th annual Southern Intellectual History Circle last week. The Southern Intellectual History Circle is a gathering of Southern scholars to discuss intellectual trends of the history of the south and its literature.
The event began Thursday with a keynote lecture entitled “A Retrospective on the Southern Intellectual History Circle, 1988-2013.” Dr. Michael O’Brien, who is a professor of American Intellectual history at Cambridge University, gave the speech at the Woodruff House at 5 p.m. Each event hosted as part of the Southern Intellectual History Circle was free and open to the public for all those who desired to attend.
After the opening event on Thursday, the Southern Intellectual History Circle continued its events on Friday with three panel presentations in the Presidents Dining Room located in Mercer’s University Center.
Speakers at the first panel included Chair Dr. David Moltke-Hansen; Dr. Jane Dailey, a history professor at the University of Chicago; Dr. Susan Donaldson, an English and American Studies professor at The College of William and Mary; Dr. Michael Kreyling, an English Professor at Vanderbilt University; and Dr. Steven Stowe, an emeritus professor of history at Indiana University.
Their speeches were mainly response to the opening address on Thursday, and their panel ran from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Two more panels followed the first on Friday, each located in the President’s Dining Room. The second took place from 11:15 a.m. to 1:15 a.m. and the third taking place from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.
Each panel featured a different set of professors who spoke on a variety of topics relating to Southern History. Some examples are the talks given by Dr. Jonathan Wells of Temple University titled “Charles Dickens, Slavery, and the American South”; and the talk given by Dr. Patricia Sullivan titled “What Happened to the Civil Rights Movement?”
Dr. Sullivan’s talk tracked the history of the Civil Rights Movement over the years it developed and what happened to it in later years. Her speech identified 1966 as the “critical year” of the Civil Rights Movement, saying it was “a time when a new set of forces would converge, produce a turning point towards reaction” and that “The evidence was written in Congressional debates, changing political record, and shifts in policy at the federal level and was reflected in cities across the country.”
Dr. Trudier Harris, an English professor from the University of Alabama, gave the final talk on Friday. The title of the talk was “From Realistic Scoundrel to Magically Real Hero: Martin Luther King in Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop.” She said in her paper “This paper is from the last chapter of my book on Martin Luther King heroism in African-American literature.”
She started her talk by saying “Since his death in 1968, Martin the King Junior has mostly been treated with reverence in African American literary works in which he is depicted, or in which his philosophy is invoked.”
Dr. Harris discusses the portrayal of King in a play titled “The Mountaintop” by Katori Hall. Dr. Harris describes the book’s portrayal of king as one in which “all of King’s weaknesses and human frailties get revealed.”
Dr. Harris describes the play as a “well executed exercise in jumbling the fires of rumor about a historical figure, then quenching those fires with King’s martyrdom.” According to Dr. Harris, the play portrays Martin Luther King as a flawed human being, who over the course of the play becomes the heroic figure more common portrayals represent.
The final, held on Saturday, featured a gallery talk given by Dr. Davis, English professor at Mercer University. The subject of his talk was “Hard Times on the Georgia Chain Gang: Photographs of John Spivak.”
The photographs were a collection focusing on the state of the South’s prisons, and the treatment of prisoners. The photos depicted brutal conditions that prisoners where once forced to live in. Dr. Davis’s talk was a relatively short speech that finished off the Southern Intellectual History Circle.
(03/06/13 5:04pm)
Mercer University has hired a new dean for its Eugene W. Stetson School of Business and Economics. The new dean is Dr. Susan Gilbert, a former faculty member and administrator of Rutgers and Emory Universities. She will become the new dean of the school of Business on April 1.
Mercer Provost D. Scott Davis announced the appointment of the new dean on Feb. 13. Dr. Gilbert has also been the Dean of the school of Business and Technology of Thomas Edison State University in Trenton, N.J. since 2010.
When asked how they conducted the search for the new dean, Dr. Davis said, “A search committee was formed that included the faculty across SSBE, the Dean of CLA, and external stakeholders including the Chair of the SSBE Board of Visitors, the Regional Vice President of BB&T, and the Publisher of the Atlanta Business Chronicle. The committee completed an initial screening of candidates.”
According to Dr. Davis, after the committee completed the first screening, “They then conducted phone interviews with a pared down list and from those interviews invited candidates to campus for an onsite interview.”
Members of the search committee included Dr. J Michael Weber, associate professor at University’s Atlanta campus; Ed Baker, publisher of the Atlanta Business Chronicle; Robert F Hatchet Jr.; Dr. Linda L. Brennan; Dr. Lake Lambert, dean of Mercer’s college of Liberal Arts; David Lanier, regional president of BB&T; and Dr. Julie A. Petherbridge.
Dr. Davis described the applicants who expressed interest in the job as a “very diverse group of candidates.” Dr. Davis claimed that the applicants included “current and former deans, associates deans, department chairs, and a number of people who had demonstrated success in the business community.”
When asked why they chose Dr. Gilbert, Dr. Davis responded by saying, “She has developed nationally ranked programs, both at Emory and Rutgers. She understands recruitment of students in a competitive market. She has overseen programs with a presence in numerous locations. She has improved every program where she has worked.”
According to a Mercer press release, while Dr. Gilbert was the dean of the school of Business and Technology at Thomas Edison State University, she helped the school achieve a 14 percent increase in enrollment rates. She also won numerous teaching awards during the 20 years she was a member of the faculty and associate dean at Emory’s Goizueta School of Business. She chaired the President’s Commission on the Status of Women at Emory from 2001 to 2005.
When asked how he felt about the choice of Dr. Gilbert, Dr. Davis responded that he was enthusiastic about hiring Dr. Gilbert. He also said that he believes that, “Dr. Gilbert will take advantage of her broad contact network to develop and recruit very strong faculty and students” when she arrives.
Dr. Gilbert graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Ph.D. in economics. She obtained her undergraduate degree from the University of Birmingham.
(02/20/13 3:21pm)
One of the best ways that college students and graduates can appear more competitive to prospective employers is by gaining work experience through internships.
There are paid and unpaid internships, and the type of internship you get depends on the company offering it. An internship is similar to working a part time job, but with an internship, you can focus on a specific field or skill set.
According to Steve Brown, director of Career Services at Mercer University, one of the things that separate an internship from a part time job is that “an internship should be under the direction of a professional in a project, an industry or a field that the person is interested in, and it should be an experience that has specific goals.”
While some internships offer a salary, many are purely for experience rather than money. Brown mentioned that while paid internships provide more immediate financial benefits, they do not necessarily provide better work experience. “If somebody is in a paid internship, that’s certainly to their benefit financially, but I don’t know that it necessarily gives them an edge in the job market.”
Brown explained how internships help someone get a job, saying that it gives a person more experience and makes him or her look more appealing to employers. “How employers see this and even graduate schools, is that the person has taken the initiative to take on that relationship with a professional, learn from that professional and work under the guidance of that [professional],” said Brown.
An important part of internship work is that it is not supposed to be “superficial;” the work is supposed to be a specific project, or set of projects in a certain field.
Brown described the work interns do as project based, rather than having a set of activities to do every day. “There are some ongoing day to day activities, but there’s also a specific project, or more than one project, that is expected to be accomplished in that time of an internship,” said Brown. He did mention that internships offered by some companies would have students step in and finish projects started by other interns.
Brown said the main idea behind an internship is that a student can learn from a professional in a structured environment, allowing them to develop the skills they need for that field. Brown gave an example, saying, “we had a student with one of the major airline companies who did some time study analysis and they used the findings of his research project to implement in how they operated their cue lines for passenger loading.”
Many companies will often have applicants start submitting applications for internship positions months in advance. According to Brown, the time to start submitting applications for summer internship positions is now.
Career Services often holds events to help students make resumes and find jobs or internship positions. Upcoming events include the Spring Career Fair and some workshops about making a resume. More information is available on Mercer’s website.
(02/20/13 3:04pm)
A Mercer Police officer punched a fellow officer in the face Jan. 20 after an argument occurred between the two around 3 a.m.
According to the incident report, Joseph Calloway and his supervisor, Cpl. Wesley Hillard got into a verbal argument about a noise complaint dispatched that morning, resulting in one officer punching the other.
Gary Collins, chief of police at Mercer, described the incident as a “dispute between two grown men that got out of control, which should not have ever reached the level it did.” Collins was away from the office at the time of the incident and returned after receiving a call about the dispute.
The incident took place in a Mercer Police interview room, within their office.
Hillard claims in the report that he attempted to resolve their disagreement verbally and asked Calloway to take a seat. However, according to Hillard in the report, Calloway became angry, rushed toward him and Hillard “feared for his safety” which lead to Hillard punching Calloway.
Calloway claims in the report that a verbal argument occurred when he arrived at the station, which lead to Hillard punching him below his left eye. Both officers stated that the incident began over a noise complaint dispatched over the radio.
Calloway sought medical attention at the emergency room after the altercation occurred. The report stated that he had a large welt and swelling below his left eye where he was punched.
A member of Macon’s police department appeared at the scene of the incident and filed the report later that day. The officer mentioned in the report that Mercer’s police department handled the incident internally.
“The person throwing the punch, unfortunately, he was a supervisor and you can’t do that when you’re in that position,” said Chief Collins. Hillard has resigned since the incident occurred.
Chief Collins also stated that there was disciplinary action taken against Calloway, claiming that both parties were to blame in the incident.
“When you’re a police officer you don’t escalate, you de-escalate, and both of them had input in escalating the incident,” said Chief Collins.
When asked if there had ever been an incident such as this on Mercer’s campus before, Chief Collins said, “I’ve been here thirty years and that’s the first time it’s ever happened in this department.”
(02/06/13 3:15pm)
Mercer University is currently one of the national finalists for the 2013 ArtPlace Grant.
If obtained, Mercer plans to use the funds gained from the grant to renovate the Tattnall Square Presbyterian Church.
According to Lake Lambert, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, “We made the first cut and so now we are in the process of working on our application for the final consideration for the grant.”
Lambert gave some details into what Mercer plans to do with the Tattnall Square Presbyterian Church, saying that Mercer plans to renovate it into an arts center, which would also serve as a new home for Mercer Theater.
Lambert also said that the arts center would be open for a variety of community uses when Mercer Theater is not using it, which according to him is a large part of the year.
“It would be available for open mic nights, poetry readings, film screenings and a variety of other arts uses in town,” Lambert said.
ArtPlace, the organization offering the grant, is composed of a number of different organizations that support the arts. These organizations include the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the Knight Foundation, which has supported numerous projects involving Mercer and Macon in the past.
This is not the first time that Mercer has applied for the grant from ArtPlace. Mercer also applied for the 2012 grant, but did not receive it.
When asked what he thought Mercer’s chances of getting the grant this year were, Lambert said it was hard to tell.
“We think that our application is going to be a lot stronger this year because we have gotten a little further in thinking about the design of the facility and how to renovate the facility,” Lambert said.
He also mentioned, “We’ve been working more closely with community partners to think about the potential community uses for the space in addition to the Mercer Theater uses.”
There are more than 100 finalists applying for the ArtPlace Grant alongside Mercer. There were about 1,200 applications for the grant before ArtPlace selected is finalists.
The selection process for the finalists examines their potential to have a positive impact on their communities with their proposed projects.
The deadline to submit the final application is in February. After the last deadline, Mercer will know in early to mid-summer if ArtPlace has selected the university for the grant.
(02/06/13 3:05pm)
Author Lee Smith is the 2013 winner of the Sidney Lanier Prize for Southern Literature.
Mercer University’s Southern Studies Program awards the Sidney Lanier Prize to honor significant contributions to Southern writing.
The stories Smith writes are often about the southern Appalachian Mountains. Her works include the novels “Oral History, Family Linen,” “Fair and Tender Ladies” and “The Last Girls,” as well as collections of short stories. Her most recent book was “Mrs. Darcy and the Blue Eyed Stranger.”
According to Dr. David Davis, chair of the selection committee and assistant professor in the English department, Smith’s stories “capture the poetic language, the changing landscape, the family traditions, the hardship and humanity of the mountains.”
Dr. Davis also said that Smith is one of the greatest writers in America, and the department is “deeply honored that she will accept the prize.”
This is the second Sidney Lanier Prize the Southern Studies program has awarded to a writer.
Last year, the Southern Studies Program awarded the author Ernest Gaines, who wrote novels such as “A Lesson Before Dying” and “Of Love and Dust” the Sidney Lanier Prize.
Lee Smith will come to Mercer to give a reading of her work that is open to the public.
According to Dr. Davis, “The writer who receives the prize comes to Mercer to give a public reading, so the university and the community benefit from the talents of a major writer.”
The award received its name for the Southern poet Sidney Lanier. Sidney Lanier was a 19th century poet who was born in Macon.
The award received its name from Lanier to recognize Macon’s important contributions to southern writing.
Lanier’s work includes poems such as “The song of the Chattahoochee” and “The Marshes of Glynn.”
According to Dr. Davis, Mercer has the only undergraduate Southern Studies Program in the country.
The Sidney Lanier Prize for Southern Literature is just one part of the Southern Studies Program at Mercer.
Other events held by the Southern Studies Program include the Lamar Lectures, which according to Dr. Davis is “the most prestigious series of lectures on the history and culture of the U.S. South.”
The Southern Studies Program also awards a Lanier Scholarship to prospective Mercer students if they excel in a creative writing competition.
The intent of the scholarship is to attract talented writers to Mercer.
Members of the Selection Committee for the Sidney Lanier Prize include several Mercer professors, scholars, and members of Macon’s community.
Some of the members of the committee include Sharon Colley, associate professor of English at Middle Georgia State College; Sarah Gardner, professor of History at Mercer; Pam Thomasson, former president of Historic Macon; and several others.
Smith’s public reading will be in the Presidents dining room.
The reading will take place on Saturday, April 13 and is open to the public.
(01/23/13 4:26pm)
Last semester, Bob Hoffman, Head Coach of the Men’s Basketball team at Mercer and Rick Cameron, “The Voice of the Bears” began a radio show entitled The Bob Hoffman Radio Show. Hoffman and Cameron join at Margaritas to host a live show every Tuesday night at 6 p.m.
Hoffman and Cameron will host the show every Tuesday from now until the Atlantic Sun Tournament on March 6-9. The format of the show is an open forum question and answer session. Fans are able to submit questions through Twitter, email, or by sending text messages.
Apart from answering questions, Hoffman and Cameron discuss several topics related to the basketball team such the upcoming games of the season and the current state of the team. They also discuss how they are currently preparing for the teams upcoming games. Other topics discussed on the show include locations and times for upcoming games.
The intention of the show is to get more students involved, as well as keep them informed of the upcoming games this season. Coach Hoffman and Cameron also promote the team’s upcoming games on the show.
Coach Hoffman and Cameron’s radio show made its debut last semester on November 6, 2012. “It started the first week of January and now it’s every week until the conference tournament,” said Cameron. The show is the result of a partnership between Mercer Athletics, Clear Channel Broadcasting Inc., and Margaritas.
When asked how successful the show was, Cameron responded with “I think every week its gotten better, we get more inquiries, more questions”. Coach Hoffman said, “I think it’s been great, we’ve got a lot of interest, a lot of questions.”
Coach Hoffman has coached at several colleges before Mercer and each had their own radio or television station. Coach Hoffman said, “I think it’s important to use any media outlet you can to promote your program, to promote what you’re trying to accomplish, gets people to the games. It’s all part of the success.”
Apart from cohosting the Bob Hoffman Radio Show, Cameron also hosts Inside Mercer Basketball. The show is a web series available on Mercer University’s Athletic Department website. Wild Wings Café sponsors the series and serves as a filming location.
The series provides more details into the experiences of Mercer’s Basketball Team. The first episode focuses on some of the team’s past games and Hoffman provides some details into the games, the schools they played at, and where the team goes after the tournament is finished.
According to Cameron, Inside Mercer Basketball is different from the radio show, in that it focuses on specific topics, rather than questions submitted by fans. “Rather than entertaining what somebody might ask as far as a general question, we’ll go ahead and specifically talk about the past two games, interview the player, interview a coach, and look ahead at next week’s games.”
Hoffman officially began coaching for Mercer’s Basketball team in the spring of 2008. Since he began coaching, Mercer’s team has broken several school records. In the 2011-2012 seasons, Mercer gained its most wins in one season and its most points scored.
Cameron, referred to as Mercer’s “Voice of the Bears” is the Senior Assistant Vice President for Marketing Communications at Mercer University. His duties at Mercer University include providing radio play-by-play for the men and women’s basketball teams, the baseball teams, softball, and the upcoming football games.
The Bob Hoffman Radio show is available online through Fox Sports 1670 on iheartradio.com at 6p.m. every Tuesday night. Mercer Basketball fans are allowed to sit in during the broadcasts at Margaritas if they desire to.
(11/28/12 11:00pm)
Tarver Library recently digitized old editions of The Cluster, dating from 1920 to 1970. It is a great resource for discovering the history of Mercer from the eyes if its past students.
On this day in 1945, the Cluster ran a story covering a flu outbreak on Mercer’s campus. The story, entitled “Sickness Prevails” originally ran on pages two and four in the Nov. 28, 1945 issue of the Cluster.
The story details one person’s experience as they called the nurses office repeatedly, seeking advice as more and more sick people came to the writer for help. The writer was in Roberts Hall while this was taking place and was waiting for a doctor to arrive to assist prescribing medicine to deal with the flu outbreak.
One name that is mentioned numerous times in the article is Mrs. Nickerson, a nurse the writer made several calls to while attempting to care for the residents of Roberts Hall that suffered from the outbreak.
The story gives details as to how Mrs. Nickerson eventually came over to Roberts Hall and set up room five as a sick room for the residents. According to the writer, Mrs. Nickerson declared the epidemic “conquered” the Thursday after that day. The article ended with the writer mentioning that they made a call home and the operator connected them to the nurse again, assuming that someone else was sick.
Many of the Cluster’s older stories are now available digitally in the Cluster’s online archives. The archives go back as far as 1920, the year the Cluster began circulation.
The archives are available online for anyone with an interest in them to access. The archives currently go from 1920 to 1970. Current issues of the Cluster are viewable on its main website, and print copies are available around campus. To view other old issues of The Cluster, visit http://mercercluster.galileo.usg.edu/mercercluster/search.
(11/07/12 11:00pm)
Mercer University hosted its first ever Great Books Games on Porter Patch last Saturday, Oct. 27.
The idea stemmed from two professors teaching in the Great Books Program, Dr. Kevin Drace, assistant professor, and Dr. Kathryn Kloepper, assistant professor.
“We were thinking of ways to have a fun event that was outside the classroom that could bring students together,” said Dr. Kloepper.
Some of the inspiration for the activities at the Great Books Games comes from the funeral games featured in Homer’s “The Iliad.” The Great Books Games included athletic activities such as a three-legged race, a chariot race, a rock throwing competition and a tug of war. The Games also included a trivia session that tested each team’s knowledge of the literature they have been studying.
Participation in the Great Books Games was encouraged in all levels of the Great Books Program. The classes that did participate formed teams named after figures from Mythology such as Hephaestus, Yahweh, Poseidon, Athena, and Zeus.
When asked about which students were participating in the event, Dr. Drace replied, “Most of the Great Books 101 classes are involved, and there are also upper level classes involved, as well.”
All Great Books students were invited to participate according to Dr. Kloepper.
Both Dr. Drace and Dr. Kloepper said that they hope that students would have fun and that the games would promote a sense of community amongst them.
According to Dr. Kloepper, students in the Great Books program are in small classes during the rest of their general education and that events such as the Great Books Games are a good way for freshmen to start building relationships with their fellow students.
When asked about what he thought about the Great Books Games, Lake Lambert, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, said he thought it was a great idea.
“I hope that students will increase their excitement for the Great Books program. I hope especially for freshmen it will be another reason they want to continue the Great Books program,” said Dean Lambert
The Great Books program is an alternative general education program offered at the College of Liberal Arts at Mercer University. Great Books differs from the regular core curriculum in that it is a set curriculum were everyone enrolled in it takes the same set of courses, rather than taking different courses from several different areas.
The Great Books program emphasizes studying the great works of literature from Western Civilization starting with older texts such Homer’s “The Iliad” and moving all the way to modern times. There are eight required courses in the Great Books program, starting with the class “Gods and Heroes.” Classes within the program are discussion-based and focused on reading and writing.
Although this is the first time Mercer has organized the Great Books Games, both Dr. Drace and Dr. Kloepper hope that it will become an annual tradition at Mercer University. Given the level of enthusiasm displayed by participants of the Games, it would appear the students do, as well.
(10/24/12 9:00pm)
Dr. Michael Kreyling gave a series of three lectures at Mercer University which started on Oct. 15 and concluded on Oct. 16. The three lectures were hosted by Mercer’s Southern studies program at the Medical School Auditorium.
All three lectures were on the Civil War and are part of the Lamar Memorial Lecture Series. The first of the lectures was titled “Race, Suicide and the Civil War: Semicentennial,” the second was titled “Civil Rights and the Civil War: Centennial” and the third was titled “The Afterlife of the Civil War: Sesquicentennial.”
The first lecture in the series, focused on blood and memory. In the lecture, Dr. Keyling talked about works such as D.W. Griffith’s film “Birth of a Nation” and how it portrayed race. One of the highlights of his lecture was how the film expressed the fear of whites losing superiority.
The second lecture held later in the day began with similar topics, though Dr. Keyling moved the timeframe discussion to the 1950s. One of Dr. Keyling’s main points in this lecture was how to memorialize the Civil War.
Dr. Keyling discussed the death of Albert Woolson, the last authenticated Civil War veteran in 1956. He said that the loss of the last living link to the Civil War might have implied a temporary loss of direction in how to memorialize it. Dr. Keyling emphasized the importance of remembering history saying, “We need to keep the sequence of dates and the passage of time clear.”
Dr. Keyling discussed more movies and books that focused on the Civil War such as the film “Gone with the Wind” and Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Late Encounter with the Enemy.” He drew attention to the differences between the two, saying that the “Gone with the Wind” was a ritual of regional pride and “A Late Encounter with the Enemy” is an example of those who are inclined to see fraud in Civil War memorial.
The final lecture of the series occurred on Oct. 16. Dr. Keyling focused on different ways to memorialize the Civil War.
One of the key points of the lecture was a graphic novel called “Captain Confederacy.” This novel featured a costumed superhero named Captain Confederacy who Dr. Keyling describes as a “strapping blond hunk in tights” who has a Confederate battle flag on him, and has a sidekick called Ms. Dixie.
The government in the novel makes false videos of black-on-white crime so that that Captain Confederacy and Ms. Dixie can save them.
Dr. Keyling argues that the writer of the novel has found a new way to memorialize the Civil War through retelling in an alternate history, rather than a retelling in real history. His final lecture focused on how the country has become accustomed to simulation rather than facts.
As the lecture ended, Dr. Keyling spoke of why the Civil War memorial was important. He said that the Civil War helps shape our identity as a country, that there can be no “us” without a common past. One Dr. Keyling’s final points were that one of the problems with the Civil War is that we cannot agree on what it means.
A number of Mercer students attended the lecture for various classes. One student, Kirkland Dent, said that the lectures helped him understand the South’s view of the Civil War better now.
Dent was attending the lecture for class, but he is also the Audio Video Specialist for IT and helped set up the speaker system in the Medical School Auditorium for the lecture. Dent said that there are several lectures held each semester. Students interested in attending a lecture should listen to announcements about them to get information on times and locations.
(10/24/12 9:00pm)
Career Services recently held a Graduate School workshop on Oct. 16. The purpose of the workshop was to give students information about applying for graduate school.
Steve Brown, Director of Career Services, presented the Graduate School workshop. The presentation at the workshop focused on resources meant to help students who are considering graduate school.
A small group of students met at the Connell Student Center. Brown began his talk by saying that many seniors start to consider the possibility of graduate school around this time of year.
He mentioned that even if a student may not be a senior, they should still not hesitate to speak with Career Services. He said that whether they are considering graduate school or an internship, they are willing to help.
Brown had this to say to students who are considering graduate school, “It’s never too early to be thinking about it and in some cases, it’s never too late it just depends on what you want to do.” Another important thing he said was that students should not feel like they have to choose between graduate school and full time work, they can do both if they desire. “You can treat graduate school as one of your full time job opportunities.”
One piece of advice he gave was to start the application process early if it is possible. He said that filling out an application does not obligate a person go to that school if they are accepted, but that it would to their advantage to start the process early rather than wait until later.
An important idea that Brown discussed at the workshop was the belief that you need to go to graduate school to be competitive in the job market. He said that while graduate school is helpful for finding a job, the unemployment rate has always been lower for college graduates. He also mentioned that employers are saying that they will increase the amount of people they will hire and that graduate school is not the only option.
Another important point raised at the workshop is that students need to ask themselves if they need to go to graduate school for the career path they are considering. Brown said that while certain career paths such as law and medicine require graduate school, other paths might not require it.
Brown followed this statement by saying that sometimes, it is better to have work experience than to go to graduate school. He said that sometimes, going to graduate school could over-qualify someone for a job.
The Graduate School workshop is just one example of the assistance that Career Services provides to students. “We understand that a lot of people come to Mercer with one thing in mind as far as an academic major and a career path they might choose,” said Brown.
Other ways that Career services tries to assist students is by holding workshops to help build resumes and teach students ways to develop connections with the right people. The aim of the workshops Career Services puts together are to get students started on the path of finding a job or finding a path to take after college.
One such example of an event that career services held was the Graduate School Fair in the University Center on Oct. 23 from 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
The Graduate School Fair was similar to the Career Fair held earlier this year.
The focus of the Graduate School Fair was to gather information and network.
On Mercer’s website, the Bearlink section is a listing of internships that are currently active. Any student that desires help finding an internship should look there, as these are opportunities where the recruiters specifically ask for Mercer Students. Students can also go to the career services page on Mercer’s website for information on how to set up appointments for further help.
Sources
http://apps.mercer.edu/calendar/event.asp?ID=24343
Steve R. Brown Director of Career Services
Phone: (478) 301-2863
Email: brown_sr@mercer.edu
www.mercer.edu/mucareer
(09/26/12 9:32pm)
The Mercer Libertarians is a student-run organization focused on trying to raise political awareness and increase political participation amongst Mercer’s student body.
McCabe Olsen, Ethan Trice and Aaron Walden started the group during their sophomore year to offer an alternative to Mercer’s Republican and Democrat groups. Each person currently has a hand in running the group with Olsen as the Secretary Treasurer, Trice as the Vice President and Walden as the President of the group.
Mercer Libertarian’s focus is about promoting better awareness of the country’s current political situation amongst Mercer’s student body. “More college students need to be politically aware,” said Trice. The group also feels that not enough college-age people care about politics.
Some of Mercer Libertarian’s past activities include overseeing voter registration last semester, and trying to get people involved in the primaries. They have also worked with other groups such as Omicron Delta Kappa (ODK), even if there was not too much overlap between the two groups’ activities.
The group is currently planning activities for this coming year. Mercer Libertarians is trying to connect with other on-campus groups at Mercer. Trice, Walden and Olsen are active in other student groups and said they hope to use those connections to increase Mercer Libertarian’s involvement in campus events.
Last semester, the Mercer Libertarians had a subset of their group called the Youth for Ron Paul that they worked with. Members of this subset focused their activities on the upcoming Presidential Election and tried to set up a petition to have Ron Paul come speak on campus.
There are currently about 30 members of Mercer Libertarians. According to Walden, they have 10 main members that attend meetings on a regular basis, with others participating when they are available.
When they meet, members of Mercer Libertarians discuss political events and upcoming elections on both a national and local level. They also discuss their own personal political beliefs and solutions to issues in contemporary politics.
The Mercer Libertarians consider themselves supporters of the Libertarian Party. The Libertarian Party is the third largest political party in the United States.
Created in 1971, the Libertarian Party’s founders believed that America’s politicians had strayed too far from America’s principles of individual liberty, and personal responsibility. They also believed that the Democratic and Republican parties had created the status quo and as a result do not wish to change it.
Some main principles of the Libertarian party are: belief in small government, cutting taxes and that people should be able to choose what they eat, drink or smoke without government intrusion. The Libertarian party also believes that the U.S. Government should defend its citizens and their property.
The Mercer Libertarians are setting up a new Facebook page for their group so that they can increase membership. Anyone interested in joining the group can look it up on Facebook for more information.
(09/12/12 4:00pm)
Mercer’s Local Engagement Against Poverty (LEAP) group held its first Service Day of the semester on Saturday, Sept. 8. LEAP is a service group led by Mercer students that deals with the issues of those living in poverty in Macon’s community. On Service Days, members of LEAP work on various projects such as landscaping and painting to help Macon’s community.
Organizations such as Habitat for Humanity and Rebuilding Macon work with LEAP in deciding which projects they work on. On their first Service Day, three of LEAP’s projects were with Rebuilding Macon.
Service Days usually involve volunteers from LEAP working on a couple of projects. Members of LEAP divide into groups on Service Days, and each group goes to work on a specific project.
Usually, LEAP has two to three groups depending on the number of volunteers signed up for the day. However, due to the large number of volunteers who signed up for the first day, LEAP had four groups of volunteers working at different sites.
Rebecca Hutcheson, a member of LEAP’s board of directors, led one such group. Her group worked on painting the house of a local resident in Macon. Hutcheson mentioned that some projects require multiple Service Days to complete, depending on the amount of work they require.
Hutcheson also mentioned that their work ranges from painting houses, to landscaping, and even something as simple as cleaning up a yard.
Other organizations also work with LEAP to help the community. One example given was LEAP’s work with a local church called Strong Tower, which runs a children’s program on Saturdays. Volunteers from LEAP played with the children in the morning, gave them lunch, and tutored them.
Mercer students from every grade level make the bulk of LEAP’s volunteers. Volunteers can be members of other student organizations such as fraternity’s that choose to sign up for Service Days. Members from other student organizations tend to work together on projects when they sign up for Service Days.
In the past, LEAP has organized events to raise awareness about poverty. One such event was the LEAP Conference, held in the spring of 2011.
Mercer Service Scholars organized the LEAP Conference as a way to bring awareness to Mercer students of the problems surrounding those who live below the poverty line.
The conference included a poverty simulation, a staged production of the book “Nickeled and Dimed: Not Getting By in America” by Barbara Ehrenreich which details the life of someone living on minimum wage, and a speech by Dr. David Gushee, Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer. According to LEAP’s Director of Marketing, Bailee Kitchens, the Conference marked when LEAP’s activities really started to pick up.
A group of five directors and one head director led LEAP in its projects. Groups such as Mercer Service Scholars, Quadworks, the Student Government Association, Division of Student Affairs, and other groups act as sponsors or help assist LEAP.
Any student wishing to find more information on when LEAP’s upcoming Service Days are scheduled and how they can sign up should look up LEAP on Mercer’s homepage, or go to LEAP’s page on Facebook.