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The Mercer Cluster
“Part Of The Neva That * Fit To Print’
Volume LV
Mercer University, Micon, Georgia
September 28, 1973
No. 1
Med. School Underway;
Smith Appointed Dean
Dr. Nat Smith hai bee* w
proposed Medical School,
development.
med Dean aad Medkal Ed oca tor for the
He has already began implementing its
Appointment of Dr. Nat Smith,
associate dean and profesoor of
medicine at the University of
Illinois College of Medicine, as
dean of Mercer University's
proposed medical school was
announced August 22. by Dr
Rufus C. Harris, Mercer
president.
Dr. Smith, a native of South
Carolina, received his medical
degree from the Medical College
of Georgia in Augusta He is a
graduate of Erskine College in
Due West, S.C He joined the
University of Ih v>is College of
Medicine August > 1957. and has
held various acade >ic and ad
ministrative position* u’ere. His
appointment to the Merct * post is
effective October 1, 1373.
The proposed new school as
described by Mercer is designed
to train primary care and first
contact physicians and to em
phasize the clinical specialty of
family practice, with an in
novative approach to team health
care training.
A unique program which will
provide health care for thousands
of Middle Georgians in a 27-
county area as well as early
exposure for student' to the
practice of medicine will be set
up by the school through a senes
of “health a'cess stations”
utilizing a b urn approach •
The sta' ons will be situated at
variab'e distances from the
school but within a one-hour
<frive, or a radius of a minimum
of 50 miles This includes all or
parts of 27 counties, excluding
Bibb
Health access stations will be
established within areas in which
a need for additional health
facilities is demonstrated by
appropriate study and after
consultation with practicing
physicians in the area as well as
with the affected community
residents Medically indigent
patients and, where there is not
other source of medical care,
paying patients will be accepted.
The staff of each station will
oitsisl of a team made up of at
t^tlnued On Page H
INSIGHT-Barry Schochet
Watergate Lawyer
Scheduled To Speak
Barry Schochet, counsel to Sen.
Herman Talmadge on the
Watergate committee, will speak
twice today,September 28. In his
first speaking engagements since
joining the committee, the 26
year old North Carolina native
will address the college of liberal
arts in Willingham Chapel at 10
a.m. and students at the Walter
F. George School of Law at 11
a.m. 0‘
Since last spring, Schochet, a
1972 graduate of Emory
University Law School, has been
in Washington as one of a dozen
lawyers for the Senate Select
Committee on Presidential
Campaign Activities. After his
graduation from law sc' ool he
served in the trial section of an
Atlanta law firm.
Schochet works on the com
mittee directly under Samuel
Dash, the chief committee
counsel, who by virtue of that
title also is chief couhsel for the
Democratic majority on the
committee. On the seven-
member committee, Senator
Talmadge is the second ranking
Democrat.
The youthful attorney was
hired by Sen. Sam J. Ervin. Jr.,
committee chairman, and Dash,
who in the Watergate hearings is
always seen to Ervin’s im
mediate left. In the first phase of
the hearings Schochet's primary
duty was to see that Senator
Talmadge was kept informed,
that questions he asked witnesses
were in proper form, and that
fresh questions were in ready
supply.
Hendricks Named
Presidential Aide
Dr. JMeph M. Headricks, aewly
appointed presidential assistant.
Photo By Ash Williams.
On June 29. Dr Rufus C. Harris
announced in a series of ad
ministrative changes, the ap
pointment of Dr Joseph Millard
Hendricks as the general
assistant to the president
Dr. Hendricks, who had been
dean of students at Mercer since
June of 1970, assumed the pi*st on
July 1.
Other administrative changes
announced by Dr. Harris in
Mitchell Makes
The Figures Dance
Mercer University’s
enrollment in the College of
Liberal Arts this fall has reach'd
a record high, with an increase of
approximately 130 students over
Waverly: It’s Time For A Change
With a plea for Mercer to
reconsider her role as an
educational institution in the face
of the present economic, political
and sociological crisis. Dean
Thomas Mac Trimble opened the
first session of the 1973 Waverly
conference and set the mood for
the entire three day session. His
keynote address which was
followed by an address by Cluster
editor Jan Suffolk urged faculty
and students as well to begin
thinking in more realistic and
humane terms as to the nature of
the educational experience which
Mercer provides for the in
dividual.
The conference, which is an
open forum situation for student
By Jao Suffolk
and faculty conversation is
sponsored by the SGA and is held
during the first three days after
graduation in June. This year’s
conference was held in Waverly,
Georgia at which approximately
37 faculty members, students,
and administrators participated.
In their attempts to reassess
the priorities of the university,
many areas were touched upon
which had a more direct in
fluence upon the present Mercer
situation. In the area of
academics, it was felt that the
many off-campus opportunities
for volunteer service needed to be
centralized under a single
directorship so as to assure not
only greater* continuity and
communication but to also assist
in community relationships.
It was also suggested that
serious revisions and upgrading
needed to be implemented for the
Black Studies program. The
abolition of the senior com
prehensive examination and
a greater student voice in the
hiring and tenure policies for
faculty menders were also seen
as near necessities by the
members of the Waverly con
ference.
The appropriation of university
funds came under serious
question by several members at
the conference and if, was felt that
budgetary decision making at the
Continued On °age 7
last year's total.
Around 625 freshmen arrived
on campus Sunday. September
16, and underwent a four-day
orientation period. Representing
26 states and four foreign
countries, the freshmen were
guided through their opening
days by more than fifty upper
classmen who acted as orien
tation assistants.
Enrollment in the three upper
classes brought the total number
of students in the College of
Liberal Arts to more than 1900.
Last fall’s enrollment was ap
proximately 1800. In addition.
Mercer University in Atlanta has
a record enrollment of close to
625 students for the fall quarter,
about a 25 percent increase over
last year’s enrollment of 450.
The Walter F. George School of
Law has approximately 250
students enrolled this fall, and
Mercer’s Southern School of
Pharmacy in Atlanta has around
290 students bringing the total
enrollment to approximately
3060. Mercer remains one of the
few universities in which
enrollment is on the rise.
eluded the appointment of J.
Gerald Stone, presently director
of intercollegiate athletics and
student activities, to succeed Dr.
Hendricks as dean of students.
Stone will continue as director of
intercollegiate athletics.
H. Julian Gordy, now the
assistant director of student
activities and director of the
audio-visual program at Mercer,
will become director of student
activities. Brady Seigler has
been named director of the audio
visual program replacing Mr.
Gordy.
Dr Hendricks served as dean
of men at the university for nine
years before being named dean of
students and was director of
religious activities for two years
prior to his appointment as dean
of men in 1961.
A 1955 graduate of Mercer, Dr.
Hendricks earned the Bacheor of
Divinity degree at Southern
Baptist Theological Seminary,
Louisville, Ky.. in 1958 and did
postgraduate work at Emory
University for one year before
returning to his alma mater. In
June of 1972, he was conferred an
honorary Doctor of Laws degree
by Atlanta Law School.
During his undergraduate days
at Mercer. Dr Hendricks was
president of the Student
Government Association and was
awarded the Algernon Sydney
Sullivan plaque, the highest non
scholastic honor a Mercer
student can receive
A native of Talbot County. Dr.
Hendricks served as president of
the Georgia Council on Human
Relations from 1964 to 1967 and
was president of the Macon
Council on Human Relations for
two years prior to that He is
married to the former Elizabeth
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