T. Scott Henne has been appointed dean of admission at the University of Evansville where he will lead the team in attracting top quality undergraduate students.

Henne is currently director of freshman recruitment at Valparaiso University in northwestern Indiana. Under his leadership, Valparaiso has experienced record freshman classes over the past three years in number, academics, and diversity. At UE, Henne will provide leadership in identifying and recruiting the undergraduate freshman class and transfer students.

“I’m delighted to join the admission team at the University of Evansville – a top 10 U.S. News & World Report-ranked university in the Midwest, but there are a lot more great things to tell about UE than that,” Henne said.

“Admission’s job is to ensure that prospective students understand UE in its totality. We must make connections, build relationships, and present the UE story to allow them to decide if they want to be a part of that story.”

Henne said college admission has evolved in his almost 11 years in the profession. He said more than ever, family members and others are helping students with their college decision. “Every year is different as we work with new student populations. We don’t just work with students, but also with families and other influencers. So, admission’s role is to help bring all the pieces into consideration so that the student and the family can put the story together.”

Among the considerations for students and their families are cost and return on investment. UE offers a wide range of financial aid options to ensure that a UE education is affordable. More than 90 percent of UE students receive some form of aid. Students are also assured that upon graduation, they have the tools they need to successfully enter the job market or move toward a higher degree, through enhanced efforts of UE’s Center for Career Development. Prospective students at UE are offered a free, career-focused evaluation, which is something very few other institutions offer.

“It is those types of distinctions that make the University of Evansville a wise choice for students and, quite frankly, are appealing to me as the person responsible for the team encouraging students to attend the institution. Between the career solutions, attention to international engagement, and opportunities to work in interdisciplinary teams, the University of Evansville does set itself apart from other similar-sized institutions. With more than 10 years’ experience at another private institution within the state, I am very familiar with all UE has to offer and am confident I can hit the ground running,” Henne said.

“Scott’s Indiana ties are very important in what we do. Fifty-three percent of our students come from within the state, so obviously that is a vital source of students for us, and Scott’s experience with them is invaluable,” said Shane Davidson, EdD, the University’s vice president for enrollment services. Davidson said something else that Henne brings to the table is his incredible understanding of the balance of technology and personal touch in the recruitment process.

“Today the website is often a prospective student’s first tool in determining whether he or she wants to even visit a campus, so the electronic functions of our recruitment efforts are so important. But it also takes personal relationships to help students determine whether a college is a good fit. Scott brings the best mix of both of those areas.”

Henne begins his role on August 21 and says the community – both on campus and off – should expect to meet him soon thereafter. He is a firm believer in the value of partnerships. He understands that UE is vital to the Evansville community and vice versa. He intends to keep himself and his team focused on what is relevant to people. “It is important to interact with city leaders and others so we can best represent UE and Evansville to students. Recruitment is everyone’s task on campus and beyond. Our job in admission is to coordinate that and to make sure we don’t get so caught up in tasks that we find ourselves in a bubble. My team and I will get out there and see what’s going on.”

Henne is a native of Richville, Michigan. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in international relations from Grand Valley State University and a Master of Science in Education from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.

It is an exciting time at the University of Evansville as we explore the many ways we IMPACT the lives of our students and the community – near and far. Each of us has the opportunity to shape how we demonstrate our UE mission to the world. Among other things, you can share ideas for new projects or new ways to do existing ones, offer constructive criticism, compliment the work of a co-worker, etc. A new process has been implemented to make it easy for you to do that. It’s called Meaningful Connections and we promise, this is not your grandma’s suggestion box! Just follow these easy steps: 1) Go to https://webadvisor.evansville.edu. 2) Select either Students or Employees menu option. 3) Under “Meaningful Connections”, select Make an IMPACT – Share Your Ideas 4) Select the category for your impact (they are self explanatory and if all else fails, choose “other”). 5) Give a description of your suggestion, compliment, or opportunity for improvement (you can even include electronic artwork, pictures, or documents). 6) You will receive a Thank You splash screen acknowledging your Meaningful Connection was successfully entered into the system and it will be forwarded to the appropriate Vice President for review and follow up.

Save the date for the next Institute Speaker Series guest John Kao on Tuesday, September 17. Kao has been called “Mr. Creativity” and “a serial innovator” by The Economist and is a leading authority on innovation, organization transformation, and emerging technologies. He received his MBA from Harvard and his MD from Yale. He is also a Tony-winning producer of film and stage, and spent the summer of 1969 playing keyboards for Frank Zappa.  Kao will be at the Scottish Rite Cathedral in Indianapolis at noon (ET) for a luncheon presentation, and then travel to Evansville for a 7:00 p.m. event at the Victory Theatre. Contact Jen at jr88@evansville.edu for tickets and reservations for the luncheon event. The evening presentation is free and open to the public. Registration links will become available as the date nears. For more information, contact Cindy at ck116@evansville.edu or visit www.evansville.edu/globalenterprise. This event is sponsored by the Institute for Global Enterprise.

Attention faculty and staff - the incoming class of 2013 will soon be here. As is our tradition, we are looking for faculty and staff to greet our parents and students who will be moving in to the Residence Halls on Saturday, August 24. There are three time slots to choose from at our buildings. Everything you will need will be provided for you. Please sign up on the registration site at: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnCbGkp17DcAdGF6UWl4S0dKWV9Qd21FMkRCUHBRcWc#gid=0 by August 9.

For additional information or questions, please contact Geoff Edwards at ge21@evansville.edu

The Fall booklist has been posted to the UE Bookstore website and you will notice some changes. Enhancements include easier rental purchasing, more in-store rental options, and overall conveniences making shopping easy and fast. Also note that this fall a credit card is needed for collateral for all rentals. The card is NOT charged unless the rental book is stolen or not returned at the end of the semester. The textbook section at the store is also open for purchasing books as well. If you have any questions please contact the UE Bookstore.

The Fitness Center will be closed July 29 through August 2 for refinishing of the gym floors. It will reopen on August 5 at 8:00 am.

For the fourth time in the five years of the GCAA Team Academic Award, the Purple Aces men’s golf team earned the honor thanks to its hard work in the classroom.

To qualify, teams must post a team GPA of at least 3.0 for the year and the Aces did more than that, finishing with a final GPA of 3.474.  Four golfers finished with at least a 3.8 while each golfer achieved at least a 3.0 in the spring semester.

Quinn Vilneff led the way for UE with a GPA of 3.866 for the year.  His efforts resulted in becoming only the second University of Evansville student-athlete to earn the Missouri Valley Conference Elite 18 Award.  Parker Hensley tallied a 3.840 while Sam Cobb had a 3.830 and Will Knights had a 3.822 for the year.

Brown (Division I), Post (Division II), Greensboro College (Division III), Embry Riddle - AZ (NAIA), Scottsdale CC (NJCAA DI) and South Mountain CC (NJCAA DII) have been named Academic National Champions for their respective divisions announced the GCAA.

Brown posted the highest overall team GPA for all divisions with a 3.74. A total of 143 teams submitted GPAs of 3.00 or higher to earn All-Academic Team recognition - a new high in the five years of the award.

To be eligible for GCAA All-Academic Team honors a college or university must submit the GPAs for each player on its official squad list for the academic year.

“Farmers Insurance is proud to honor and support the GCAA and their 2013 recipients of the 2013 Team Academic Awards,” said Chuck Browning, Head of Sponsorship and Corporate Giving for Farmers Insurance. “A key philanthropic pillar of Farmers Insurance is Education, thus this award is a perfect fit for us and gives us a chance to extend our support of golf throughout the year. It is also an extension of our University Day platform at the Farmers Insurance Open, which we continue to see great success on each year.”

Farmers Insurance Group of Companies is a leading U.S. insurer group of automobiles, homes and small businesses and also provides a wide range of other insurance and financial services products. Farmers Insurance is proud to serve more than 10 million households with more than 20 million individual policies across all 50 states through the efforts of over 50,000 exclusive and independent agents and nearly 24,000 employees.

The Farmers Exchanges are three reciprocal insurers (Farmers Insurance Exchange, Fire Insurance Exchange and Truck Insurance Exchange), including their subsidiaries and affiliates, owned by their policyholders. Farmers Group, Inc., along with its subsidiaries, manages the non-claims insurance operations of the Farmers Exchanges. Farmers Group, Inc. is wholly owned by the Zurich Insurance Group. For more information about Farmers, visit its Web site at www.farmers.com or atwww.Facebook.com/FarmersInsurance.