ATLANTA — During Mercer University’s spring Board of Trustees meeting on April 25, President William D. Underwood, a tenured professor in the School of Law, announced that in 2026 he will return to full-time teaching, where he began his academic career 35 years ago.
“I could feel Mercer’s soul the first time I visited campus. Being responsible for the stewardship of this special place — for preserving it for future generations — has been the professional honor of a lifetime,” Underwood said. “I am grateful to the talented and supportive board members who entrusted me with this responsibility. I am thankful for the strong and stable senior team members who have been by my side. And I am especially grateful for the students, faculty and staff who have inspired me. Now I look forward to achieving my long-held ambition of stepping back up to the classroom.”
Underwood, who assumed office as Mercer’s 18th president on July 1, 2006, will continue to lead the University until the Board of Trustees appoints his successor.
Board Chair Thomas P. (Tom) Bishop said a committee will be appointed in the coming days to begin a national search for Mercer’s 19th president. The University has had only three presidents in the last 65 years.
“President Underwood’s work transformed Mercer into a national research university and a global force for bettering the lives of those we serve,” Bishop said. “His efforts updated and expanded all our campuses in ways that helped the University and their surrounding communities. That vision for growing Mercer also helped advance the redevelopment of downtown Macon, most recently with the announcement of the new medical school campus project on Riverside Drive. We are so fortunate for President Underwood’s tenure.”
Underwood has led the University during a period of dynamic growth and development. Enrollment has increased by over 30% to more than 9,200 students, the endowment has grown from less than $200 million to more than $500 million, Mercer has been reclassified as a doctoral research university with high research activity (R2), Mercer On Mission has become a signature program impacting thousands of lives around the world, the School of Medicine has added four-year campuses in Savannah and Columbus, the University has been admitted to the Georgia Research Alliance, and in 2015 Mercer was awarded a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. In 2013, the Mercer Bears resumed competition in intercollegiate football after a 72-year hiatus, and the University was admitted to the historic Southern Conference in 2014.
“Student learning and teaching are at the core of President Underwood’s leadership ethos of this university. His ongoing engagement with students — his embracing their aspirations, listening to their challenges, and seeking to create an environment that enables their thriving — has informed his presidential decision-making,” said Cathy Callaway Adams, chair of the Board of Trustees Executive Committee and former chair of the board. “From construction projects to new curriculum offerings to athletics to gathering spaces to music and arts opportunities to study abroad and more, President Underwood has established University strategy and measured success by its impact to students and how effectively Mercer is equipping them to lead lives of service and purpose. We are grateful his impact will continue with his return to his first love of classroom teaching.”
Prior to becoming Mercer’s 18th president, Underwood served at Baylor University as interim president and held the prestigious Leon Jaworski Chair at the Baylor School of Law. In 2004, he was named a Master Teacher at Baylor — at the time one of only 21 in the institution’s history to be so designated — in recognition of extraordinary classroom teaching over an extended period.
Meeting on the Cecil B. Day Graduate and Professional Campus in Atlanta, the board also received and approved changes to the University bylaws and articles of incorporation that were recommended by a special trustee committee regarding denominational membership requirements for trustees and the president.
The revisions to the bylaws and articles of incorporation, which were supported by Underwood and unanimously approved by the board, relax previous requirements that the president and at least half of the 45-member Board of Trustees be Baptist.
“I asked the board to study this issue, because of the fact formal denominational affiliations have undergone significant shifts over the last 20 years since the sections of the bylaws and articles of incorporation that speak to these requirements were last revised,” Underwood said. “The number of people in this country who formally identify as Baptists has dropped by millions since I took office in 2006. Finding highly qualified board members who hold membership in Baptist churches has become a greater challenge, and as the board begins the search for my successor, it will likely face a similar challenge in identifying qualified presidential candidates who identify as Baptist.”
The modified bylaws and articles of incorporation adjust the focus from formal Baptist affiliation to a demonstrated commitment to historic Baptist values, including freedom of mind and spirit, the equal worth of all individuals, and service to humankind.
With the changes, board membership will include a substantial number, rather than majority, of individuals who identify as Baptist. Likewise, the University president will be required to identify as Christian, but not necessarily Baptist. Instead, candidates for both offices will be considered based on their commitment to the aforementioned historic Baptist values.
The bylaws and articles of incorporation retain the requirement that at least one member of each new trustee class be a member of the Baptist clergy.
In other action, the board approved a record $320 million operating budget for 2025-26, exclusive of more than $45 million in federal research grants. It is a 3.54% increase over the current $309 million operating budget.
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 2025-26. There will be no tuition increases in programs offered through the School of Medicine and College of Pharmacy. Most programs in the College of Nursing will also forego tuition increases next year. Law students will see a 2.5% increase. Tuition increases for most other programs range from 1% to 3%.
