Individualized Major in Health and Human Sciences, Jessica Cavin,

Wins the Political Science Honor Society Essay Contest

Infectious Vitality
By: Jessica Cavin

In spite of unpleasant debt, infamous budget cuts, and a relatively small student body, Mercer University has at its disposal the kind of intellectual and creative resources that could potentially and significantly enhance the city of Macon. Why then, does Macon continue to suffer under the burden of problems whose solutions lie in the minds and experiences of Mercer students and staff? There are undoubtedly many different and equally valid answers to that question. For one thing, the problems of cities like Macon tend to be large and complex, requiring efforts that will last much longer than a semester-long service-learning course, a year-long FYS-X class, or even a four-year stay. For another thing, municipal problems tend to be tied up in bureaucratic deliberation that produces far too much talk and far too little action. That phenomenon is reflected in the seemingly eternal question that continues to ask how Mercer students should become involved in the life of Macon, when in fact Mercer should have become deeply involved long ago.

It may be, too, that the feeling exists for Mercer students that Macon is not home and thus not deserving of their extra time and efforts, most of which are already consumed by classes and activities on campus. The fault in such an attitude is that, for good or ill, Mercer affects the life of Macon by its physical presence near the heart of the city and by the daily exchanges its students and faculty make with Macon’s citizens. Conversely, Macon affects the lives of those who call Mercer home for any amount of time, as it becomes the background against which they are educated or employed (and Maconites similarly live against the background of Mercer University). There exists an unavoidable relationship between Macon and Mercer—each acting as the setting for the other, and that relationship demands that better communication and more cooperation be established between the set designers and the actors if a story worth telling is to unfold on this middle Georgia stage.

Tales of mutual benefit in the relationships between universities and the cities which house them are not all fairy tales—true stories of such partnerships are daily being written and told in other parts of the nation and state. In a recent conversation comparing the very different responses seen by the city of Macon and the city of Athens to their recycling programs, I made the statement of Athens that “They have UGA...that helps.” The ability of Athens-Clarke County to establish and maintain such a successful recycling program is at least partly due to the role of UGA students and faculty, particularly their enthusiasm for and their participation in its green efforts. My comment attempted to excuse the city of Macon by acknowledging some seeming disadvantage, but it was quickly met with the fact that “Well, Macon has Mercer.” But does Macon have Mercer? Perhaps more importantly, does Mercer even have Mercer?

Macon and Mercer are both filled with important and beautiful people and places, history and possibility, but both seem either unaware of the existence of their potential or determined to conserve rather than use it. The Mercer body is saturated with faculty who have much-needed expertise in areas like air pollution, urban sprawl, local governance, and neighborhood renovation and with students who are becoming increasingly interested in and passionate about those issues. Macon’s citizenship includes people whose families have been in Macon almost since its establishment as a city—people who have a clear view of Macon’s future because of their understanding of its past. Mercer and Macon both are home, at least temporarily, to many students and young people with the energy and innovation that downtown Macon and the rest of the city crave. Mercer and Macon, together and individually, contain the financial, creative, and intellectual resources needed to revitalize their communities and their city. Too often, though, they act like the servant who buried his talents in the ground in fear that they might be lost or stolen, forgetting that the best thing about talents is that they are inexhaustible, only increasing in strength as they are shared.

With so many stored talents, Mercer and its students can, and indeed should, contribute more intentionally to the civic life of Macon, but first, the Mercer community must contribute more intentionally to its own life. As the following quotation reveals, Lao Tzu understood that it would be impossible to establish peace in the world without establishing peace in the heart, and likewise, Mercer cannot expect to create a sense of civic vitality in Macon without first creating that vitality on its own campus, among the members of its own community.
If there is to be peace in the world,
There must be peace in the nations.
If there is to be peace in the nations,
There must be peace in the cities.
If there is to be peace in the cities,
There must be peace between neighbors.
If there is to be peace between neighbors,
There must be peace in the home.
If there is to be peace in the home,
There must be peace in the heart.
-- Lao Tzu (570-490 B.C.)

Unattended athletic events, too many empty seats at music recitals, forgotten lectures and forgone guest presentations—these things are indicative, not of a group of people ready to help revitalize their surroundings, but a group that is in desperate need of a bit of self-revitalization. If we can glean meaning from the words of Lao Tzu, we will realize that if Mercer is going to be involved in establishing civic vitality in Macon, it must be involved in establishing civic vitality in itself.

Although it may be similar to the proverbial blind leading the blind, there is something to be said for the ability of Mercer and Macon to help each other discover what is at the heart of their common occupation of this place and time in history. Ready or not, Mercer and its students write history each and every day—in fact, have now written 175 years of history—and the same is true of Macon. What they are writing—what kind of tales are being recorded by and about them—and how closely the stories of Mercer and Macon will be intertwined is yet to be determined. As current Mercer students and staff, though, the pen is in our hands—we are the playwrights, determining how we will create our own roles in the story. Will we ultimately write a tragedy of great potential undiscovered—potential that remained forever only potential? Or will we write of the growth of an infectious sense of vitality on Mercer’s campus that inevitably spread to the city of Macon, turning even the most tragic lines of the past into stanzas of romance and comedy? I, for one, prefer romances.

Alpha Kappa Delta Honor Society

On Friday, April 11, 2008 at 3:00 p.m., the Mercer community will come together to recognize and

celebrate student scholarship and leadership. All of Mercer's undergraduate schoools will award

academic honors to their outsanding students in a special Honors ceremony. The Sociology Department

will recognize the academic and service performance of the following sociology majors:

The following students are eligible for initiation into the Mercer University Chapter of our

discipline's distinguished International Honor Society, Alpha Kappa Delta (AKD) at the 4th annual

Sociology Research Conference on April 7, 2008:

>> The Harrison and Williams online Artifact Collections are now available to view online. view <<

>> The Diaries of William Fielding Ogburn. Read the thought inspiring foreword now.<<

>> View the Spring 2004 Cultural Archaeology 354 slide show with Professor Watson here <<

>>2003-2004 Student Research Highlights here<<

Lewis Coser, 89, Sociologist Who Focused on Intellectuals, By Douglas Martin, The New York Times. Read

Robert K. Merton, Versatile Sociologist and Father of the Focus Group, dies at 92 more

Seymour Martin Lipset, eminent political sociologist, dies at 84.

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