Mercer University’s Board of Trustees, meeting on the Cecil B. Day Graduate and Professional Campus in Atlanta, today adopted a record $302.7 million operating budget for 2023-24, exclusive of more than $50 million in federal research grants, and approved two new undergraduate degree programs.  

Continuing more than a decade of below-market annual tuition increases, trustees voted to limit the tuition increase for Macon undergraduate programs to 3% for 2023-24. The School of Medicine and the College of Nursing will have no tuition increases in their undergraduate and graduate programs for 2023-24. Law students will see a 2% increase next year. Tuition increases for most other programs range from 0% to 3%. 

Trustees approved a new Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology that will be offered by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in Macon beginning in the fall. The new major will provide solid grounding in methodological and theoretical approaches to understanding human cultural diversity and will complement other programs in the College.  

The Board also approved a new Bachelor of Science in Education in Computer Science Education that will be offered by the College of Education on the Macon campus. This new program will prepare K-12 educators in the curricular, instructional and assessment practices in computer science education. Senate Bill 108 that was recently passed in the General Assembly, and the Governor’s Office, have together implemented an initiative to support computer science education in Georgia by requiring computer science in middle and high schools across the state. The new degree program will help meet the demand for additional computer science teachers.  

At the conclusion of the meeting, the Board unanimously adopted a resolution, introduced by Trustee David Hudson, honoring Mercer Life Trustee Jimmy Carter. The resolution read, “The Trustees of Mercer University, meeting this 14^th day of April 2023, hereby express our profound admiration and gratitude to our fellow Trustee President Jimmy Carter. His lifetime epitomizes the Mercer vision to change the world to be better. It is our prayer that God’s mercy and blessings continue to be with President Carter, Rosalynn and their family during these days and forever.”