Godsey announces end of tenure as Mercer president for 2006

Mercer University President and CEO R. Kirby Godsey announced Dec.2 that he has asked the board of trustees to begin the search for the university's next president. The request came during the board's regular fall meeting as Godsey revealed his plans to step down as president on June 30, 2006.

Godsey came to Mercer in 1977 to serve as dean of the College of Liberal Arts and the executive vice president. On July 1, 1979, he was named the university's 17th president. He became the longest-serving president in Mercer's history last summer and reached a similar milestone among Georgia's current university presidents a few years ago.

Longtime Mercer trustee and Augusta attorney David Hudson will head the search committee for the new president. The national search will begin next spring.

When Godsey became president in 1979, Mercer had an enrollment of 3,800 students, an endowment of $16.5 million, and a budget of $21.3 million. Today, 25 years later, Mercer is Georgia's second largest private university, with an enrollment of 7,300 students - an increase of nearly 95 percent; an endowment of more than $176 million - an increase of more than $159 million, with another $100 million in pledges; and a budget of $173.8 million, an increase of $152.5 million.

Construction has been a major accomplishment. More than 50 buildings have been constructed or restored, along with a major campus improvement program that included a five-year, $100-million campus improvement program. The university's largest facility - the $40 million, 230,000 square-foot University Center - was completed this year on the Macon campus.