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PACE 1-THE CLUSTER, HAY 1. ISM Editorials Departing Remarks From Dr. Lee Heller Dear Mercer Faculty. Students. gotten around by now—for those and Staff: ioterested enough to pay 1 guess you aught caO this my aaesDoo—that my ksivc of absence king good-bye. from Mercer has become perrru- Small communities being what nent 1 base accepted a position at they are. the word has probably a small liberal arts college. in Kroger Refuses MU Students Checks Dear Edaor: Ii ao my mcBPoo that a local grocery store t luogcr m Baomsfirld Plaza) has begun refusing to accept checks from Mercer students While the policy, winch is staaed clearly on signs posted by each register for everyone m the community to see. states that checks will be accepted only for the amount of the pur- rcsponsible for auich of the revenue of local stores, and if we are to be discriminated against. I suggest that we take our business to stores who appreciate « watch to m and teO your SGA i vour problems and teii your friends not to shop there. We oust not ac cept such treats’eaL It n unfair to those students vbo are < told that checks from them at all My concern stems from the fad tint this store proclaims to have a •ptahty service program, but n ap parently does not pianto extend ns policy to Mercer students Every tune that 1 go to that particular store. 1 am amazed by ihe number of Mercer sadems who axe abo [ Acre We be accepted tious about (he r money Everyone bo* nces a check c Motafly. espec.ifly college s who do not hive an a tl .-ncourageyout Amherst. Massachusetts—a place in some ways very different from Mercer, but in others very like n. Becmnc 1 am not in Macon tins year. I am not in a position to say the goodbyes that I would other wise be able to say; but 1 do not. want to go gently into the good night of a new job. as if my years at Mercer could be abandoned without a look buck. Nor do I want to leave |ima ^ the rha* >vp<< to be spoken, about Mercer's pee sent and its future h was a privilege for me to have die nppnmwir) to ttadi in the Col- lege of Liberal Am of Mercer University for two yen. From the moment I arrived. I was invited to join a comnmiy of lively. inquir ing intellectuals deeply committed to the wort of liberal am exfoca- tton; to teadt in innovative iaara- drsrTpliitary programs like Great Books and Sauer CUpsaooe: topar- ttctpme in enthusiastic but friendly me a lot about bow to have my students educate me in good teaching. And I will always remember tbe students of my Great Books and Literary Criticism courses, who bravely ate deep dish Chicago-style stuffed vegetarian paras with (almost) mcompiaints. while bang stated at by two large drooling dogs, despite what must have been profound and terrifying programs, and especially Dean Greer, who from tbe first showed interest in and cncoungemcm for my leaching and my scholarship, and went out of ha way to find funds to support the development of both. It is bard to be an active scholar in a job which calls for so much teaching—but Dean Greer did her utmost to help me pursue my research and professional theory and pedagory ; and to help of tbe not important people at Amanda S' Cooksey Mercer Ambassadors *.*■* *«? iwm rti i ■ to ae. fresh out of graduate school, to have tbe kind of welcome offered by tbe Mercer community. It was I ao sec around I don’t think I will ever be abk to confront a fire extinguisher again without thinking of Tun Trimble, who drenched me and my Great Books class in resalianoo for tbe merest sprinkling. (And 1 still haven't paid him buck for that— yet.) And I will probably never again witness a group of freshmen in togas mangling Sophocles and Homer. Tbe capacity which Mercer undents and faculty have to play in their work is one of the ex- traorrljnary elements of tbe college, one which I am not likely to find elsewhere, and which 1 will miss aost. 1>iU oust tbe support of a varie ty of very bright. very hard- members of the English depart ment. tbe faculty involved in tbe various imrrdisciptinary studies What distresses me most, as I leave Mercer for a new school, is the knowledge that the University continues to be crippled by the per sistent presence of an administra tion which has done so much harm to the financial and spiritual well being of the school in the past few years. Don’t let tbe Bowers Thai Be kid you—the financial and ethical mismanagement of tbe University has gone a long way towards driv ing away younger teachers, and preventing Mercer from keeping up with changes at other academic in stitutions Even before last year's revelations of gross financial misfeasance. Mercer was below the manual average in faculty salaries The current budget ctysu only cx accrabutes those disparities More important, though, is the