MACON, Ga. — Bill Underwood, interim president of Baylor University in Waco, Texas, was elected president of Mercer University Dec. 2, promising to retain the Macon, Ga., school’s historic Baptist identity despite a recent break with the Georgia Baptist Convention.
“I’m a Baptist,” Underwood, the longtime Baylor law professor, told Associated Baptist Press (ABP). “And I am committed to Mercer retaining its Baptist identity with or without Georgia Baptist Convention.”
Mercer trustees elected him unanimously during a regularly scheduled meeting in Greensboro, Ga. Underwood, who has no previous ties to the 7,000-student university, was introduced to the media in a news conference. He told ABP he will try to restore formal ties with the Georgia convention.
Underwood will become president July 1, when Kirby Godsey, 68, retires after 27 years at Mercer’s helm.
Underwood, 49, comes to Mercer at a crucial time of transition for historically Baptist universities, including Mercer. In recent years, conflict between several Baptist universities and their Baptist constituents has led to severing or reducing historic ties.
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