Trustees of Mercer University will begin the search for a new president, as William Underwood has announced he plans to return to his position as a tenured professor in the School of Law in 2026.
Underwood has led the Baptist-affiliated university since 2006.
Over the past two decades the Macon, Ga., school has increased enrollment by more than 30% to more than 9,200 students. The university’s endowment has grown from less than $200 million to more than $500 million, Mercer was reclassified as a doctoral research university with high research activity (R2), the School of Medicine added four-year campuses in Savannah and Columbus, the university was admitted to the Georgia Research Alliance, and the Mercer Bears resumed competition in intercollegiate football after a 72-year hiatus.
Bill Underwood
Mercer has one of the most diverse student bodies of any private school in America and has grown its student-focused missions efforts, including Mercer On Mission.
“President Underwood’s work transformed Mercer into a national research university and a global force for bettering the lives of those we serve,” said board Chair Thomas P. Bishop. “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.”
Underwood followed the 27-year tenure of President Kirby Godsey, who steered the university away from encroaching fundamentalism in the “conservative resurgence” of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Mercer is one of a handful of schools that took control of its own governance rather than allowing state Baptist conventions to control trustee selection. That put Mercer in a class with Wake Forest University, Furman University, Belmont University and Baylor University.
Underwood came to Mercer’s president from Baylor, where he served as interim president and held the Leon Jaworski Chair at the Baylor School of Law. In 2004, he was named a Master Teacher at Baylor.
He earned a law degree at the University of Illinois and an undergraduate degree from Oklahoma Baptist University.
“I could feel Mercer’s soul the first time I visited campus,” he said. “Being responsible for the stewardship of this special place — for preserving it for future generations — has been the professional honor of a lifetime.”