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PAGE 8-THE MERCER CLUSTERPEBRUARY IS, 1983
Celebrating Our Sescjuicentennial • 150 Years of Excellence • 1833-1983
Senate Approves
Toby - Tot Weekend
January 12, 1962
The Mercer Student Senate Tuesday
night. January 9 approved preliminary
plans for this year’s annual Toby and Tot
Week-End. February 2-4.
Toby and Tot Week-End is held each
year to select the boy and girl Mercer
student which exemplify the Mercer
spirit. This year’s activities include a pep
rally, a student-faculty basketball game,
parade in downtown Macon, and Toby
and Tot Dance.
In a special meeting Tuesday evening
the Student Sen at> met with representa
tives of the foetal organization, class
representatives and Alpha Phi Omega
service fraternity to discuss and approve
plans for Toby and Tot activities.
The deadline for nominations of Toby
and Tot is January 26. Each fraternity
selects one girl for Tot. and each sorority
selects one boy for Toby. Nominations
will be announced January 30 in Chapel
and voted on that day by the student
body.
Friday. February 2, a pep rally will be
held in front of the gym for the North
Georgia game that night. This year each
class is to make a display designed to
stimulate school spirit, and these
displays will be judged during the pep
rally. During halftime the winners to the
Toby and Tot election will be announced.
Saturday. February 3, a parade will be
held in downtown Macon. Each
fraternity and sorority will enter a float
in this parade which will include several
bands and cars carrying the basketball
team, coaches, and the new Toby and
Tot. After the parade, a student-faculty
basketball game will be held. The faculty-
team will include Ray Brewster, Joe
Hendricks, Bobby Wilder and others. At
the University of Chattanooga game that
night the winners of the float and display
judging will be announced, and the Toby
and Tot Dance will be held after the
game.
Sunday morning, February 4. Toby
and Tot Week-End will close with each
fraternity and sorority attending an
assigned Macon church and sitting
together in a reserved section.
University’s Accomplishments
And Grbwth Assessed
**lit Celebration of Excellence’' is the
theme which is being used for Mercer's
Sesquicentennial observance throughout
the year of 1983. Many special events
are planned during the 150th birthday
year.
The fact that Mercer, with an
enrollment in excess of 5.000 students, is
the only private university in the
southeast which combines professional
training in medicine, law. pharmacy and
business with two undergraduate
schools is being emphasized. Mercer
now has five schools, on four campuses
located in Macon and Atlanta.
Throughout the anniversary year.
Mercer will focus on the contrast
between the University's meager begin
ning* at its founding in Penfield. Ga. in
1833. and the present status of the
University. Founded in Greene County
by Georgia Baptists as a manual labor
school for boys, the school had 39
students enrolled. The total assets of the
fledgling school included a 450-acre red
clay farm and two hewed, log cabins.
valued at SI ,935. The school remained in
Penfield until 1871 when the college
moved to Macon.
‘‘Mercer's 150th birthday celebration
has given us q reason to assess the
University's accomplishments and
growth,” said Mercer President R.
Kirby Godsey, "and while we are justly
proud of the University, we also
recognize keenly the demands upon our
stewardship for the future.”
The annual economic impact of the
University is now 5245 million. The total
value of the University's property is
$113.7 million, and endowm^pt fof the
University now stands at 131,642,437.
The 1982-83 budget for the University is
almost $85 million.
With its growth, the University has
become more complex. The most recent
member of the Mercer family, the School
of Medicine, admitted its charter class of
students in August 1982. in type for the
Medical School to be fully operational
before the sesquicentennial year. The
School of Medicine received provisional
accreditation from the Liaison Commit
tee on Medical Education in June 1982.
The school ft believed by many
authorities to be the last which will be
accredited during this century in this
country.
The College of Liberal Arts in Macon.
Founded in 1833, is the oldest and
largest of the university’s schools. With
an enrollment of 2,436 students, the
college offers instruction in the
humanities, natural sciences, and social
studies in 19 departments. Commuter
tuition at special rates is available for
graduates of high schools in seven
Middle Georgia counties who enrolled
for the first time after May 31, 1970.
Graduates of Macon Junior College who
enrolled *f0Y the first time after May,
1970, or Macon Junior College who
enrolled for the first time after August
31. 1973, and students who are 30 or
over. 7*
The Walter F. George School of Law.
founded in Macon in 1873, has an
enrollment of 493. The school, located in
the former Insurance Company of North
America building since 1978 atop
Coleman Hill, is known for its
prestigious site. The building, acquired
by a gift-purchase agreement, is
adjacent to the Woodruff Mansion,
formerly Overlook, which is presently
being restored, with dedication cere
monies set for early May.
The School y of Medicine's present
chapter class of 24 students is well
underway, and applications and inter
views for the 36 places in the second
class are now being conducted. The
school was given provisional accredits
lion last June, preceding the convocation
for the charter class. The school’s
mission is the training of primary care
physicians for service in rural and
medically underserved Georgia.
In addition. Mercer has two schools in
Atlanta: the Southern School of
Pharmacy with an enrollment of 323, and
the College of Arts and Sciences with
1808 students enrolled.
Billion Dollar Reduction In Loan Rates
“The Reagan Administration’s suc
cessful battle to bring down inflation and
interest rates has produced a billion
dollar cost reduction in running the
Department of Education’s largest stu
dent loan program oVer the past 15
s months.” U.S. Secretary of Education
T.H. BeU said today.
The decreased program cost resulted
from a decline in the special allowance -
or interest - rates the Depart*.-ml pays
to private lenders under the Guaranteed
Student Loan (GSL) and PLUS Auxiliary
Loan programs. These rates dropped
from 12.5 percent for the quarter ending
September 30. 1981 to 4.75 percent for
the quarter ending December 31.1982.
If these allowances had stayed at the
September 1981 level, the Department
estimates that $1.2 billion in additional
Federal funds would have been required
to meet GSL and PLUS program coots.
Special allowances are payments
made to banks to encourage them to lend
money to college students by ensuring a
rate of return comparable to current
market interest rates.
These allowances are based on the
difference between the GSL interest rate
of 7 percent or 9 percent (for loans made
after January. 19811 and current market
interest rates. Special allowances are
paid by the Federal government until the
student or parent pays off the loan.
These payments, along with the
in-school interest subsidies - a Federal
subsidy paid to the lender while the
studeiu borrower is in school - are the
major components of the GSL-PLUS
budget.
Rates for special allowances are
determined by a formula based on the
average of the bond equivalent rates of
91-day Treasury bills auctioned during
the calendar quarter.
The Guaranteed Student Loan and
PLUS programs are designed to assist
students who would probably not be able
to attend college, or a college of their
choice, without some type of financial
assistance. Because any student or
family who demonstrates need is eligible
to receive a GSL. it has become the
largest of 'all the Federal student aid
programs with a 1982 appropriation of
approximately $3 billion. Loan volume -
money available to students - for the
1982-83 academic year is ah estimated
$6.1 billion!
The new lower special allowance rates
were published in the Federal Register
last week.