The UE community was saddened to learn of the death of Susan Kelley Jordan, an alumna of the University. Jordan died after pushing schoolchildren out of the way of a bus that jumped a curb at the Indianapolis elementary school where she was the principal. The bus struck and killed Jordan, but the children survived with only two receiving injuries.

Jordan, who had served as principal at Amy Beverland Elementary School for 22 years, was described at a news conference as a legend by Lawrence Township Schools superintendent Shawn A. Smith.

The school district canceled all classes Wednesday. About 1,000 people gathered for a vigil Wednesday at St. Simon the Apostle Catholic Church to honor Jordan. Gov. Mike Pence ordered flags at state facilities in Marion County to be flown at half-staff, and UE has also lowered its flags to half-staff in her honor.

Services for Jordan will be held at St. Luke's United Methodist Church at 100 W. 86th Street, in Indianapolis, with a viewing Friday from 2:00 – 8:00 p.m. and a funeral Saturday at 3:00 p.m.

Jordan earned her bachelor’s degree in education from UE in 1968 and her master’s degree in education from the University in 1971.

More information on Jordan can be found here and also here.

The University of Evansville Leadership Academy will be hosting a blood drive on February 2, in Eykamp Hall, Ridgway University Center, noon - 6:00 p.m. You can sign up today at the tables in Ridgway University Center. 

The UE Bookstore is offering 20 percent off all Under Armour merchandise from January 27-30 (Wednesday through Saturday). This includes all T-shirts, sweatshirts, shorts, and more. Stop in and save.

Join us at the Wednesday night Mass on Wednesday, February 3, at 9:30 p.m. as we celebrate the feast day of St. Blaise, bishop and martyr. Father Christian Raab, O.S.B., from St. Meinrad will be here to celebrate with us and to offer the Blessing of the Throats in memory of St. Blaise. Father Christian will also be available for confessions beginning at 9:00 p.m. We hope to see you there!

Please call/text Kristel at 812-760-8610 for more information!
 

All are welcome to join us for Mass on Sunday, January 31, at 1:00 p.m. in Neu Chapel. Father Alex Zenthoefer of Annunciation Parish will be here to celebrate with us, and our very own seminarian, newly ordained Deacon Ambrose, will be here to deliver the homily! We hope to see you there!

Please call/text Kristel at 812-760-8610 for more information!
 

The Office of Diversity Initiatives is sponsoring a free event to kick off Black History Month - a theatrical production featuring Emmy award winning actor, Ron Jones. Jones will playing multiple characters, taking the audience through a multifaceted journey through the ever-changing face of the African American experience. This performance will include interactive video, powerful and historical context, and some of the most memorable music from the last two generations. The event will be at 7:00 p.m., Monday, February 1, in Eykamp Hall, Room 251, Ridgway University Center. You don't want to miss this!

Attention UE students! Save the date of February 27, for the annual L2L leadership conference. The conference sign-in begins at 9:30 a.m., and the conference will take place from 10:00 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Lunch will be provided. 

This year, the speaker will be Dawn J. Fraser. She will talk about how to connect to a group of people.

You can sign up for the conference from February 1 - 12. A $10 deposit is required, but it will be refunded at the end of the conference.

You can sign up for the conference here starting February 1. You can also sign up at a table in Ridgway University Center from February 9 - 11. 

Don’t miss out on the chance to build up your leadership skills.

Join Venturing Crew for a trip to Paoli Peaks for a night of skiing and snowboarding on Friday, February 12! This event will be part of "A Snowballing Weekend" co-hosted by Venturing Crew, RSA, and SAB.

You can sign up for the trip at tables in Ridgway University Center on Wednesday, February 3, and Thursday, February 4, from 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m., and 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. The cost of the trip will be $15 per person. You must pay with cash or check when you sign up.

This trip is open to all current UE students, so be sure to bring your UE student ID to reserve your place.

A limited number of slots will be available during each Ridgway University Center table time, so sign up as soon as possible! Don't miss a great weekend!

Please mark your calendars and make plans to join us as we welcome distinguished Jewish scholar Rabbi Mark Glickman, scholar-in-residence at Temple Adath B’nai Israel. He will be speaking at UE on Saturday, February 6 at 7:00 p.m. in Room 170 (Smythe Lecture Hall), Schroeder School of Business Building. The subject of his lecture - on which he has written a popular book - is "The Sacred Treasure of the Cairo Genizah." The event is co-sponsored by the Department of History and the Office of Religious Life.

Lisa Kretz, assistant professor of philosophy, will be the speaker for the Andiron Lecture on February 3. All the lectures in the series are at 4:00 p.m. in Eykamp Hall, Room 252, Ridgway University Center, preceded by a social hour with beverages at 3:45 p.m. The lectures are free and open to the public

Kretz's topic will be "Emotional Responsibility and Teaching Ethics: Student Empowerment."

After overhearing a student complain that her ethics class was depressing, Kretz wondered how she could change her classes to generate a sense of empowerment rather than depression; a sense of hope rather than despair. Drawing from David Hume’s and Martin Hoffman’s work on the psychology of empathy and sympathy, she contends that dominant Western philosophical pedagogy is inadequate for facilitating morally empowered students.

She also stipulates that adequate analysis of the role emotion should play in pedagogy requires tending to the politics of emotional expression and how oppression functions.

In this lecture, she will argue that ethical educators have a moral responsibility to facilitate not only critical moral thinking but also critical moral agency. She will expound upon the idea that ethical education should involve the provision of tools for effective citizen engagement and that reasoning alone is insufficient for this goal. The role of emotion in ethical decision-making and action remains devalued and under analyzed. Approaches that fail to adequately recognize the role of emotion in ethical education are to the detriment of effective ethical pedagogy. In this lecture, Kretz will recommend a number of methods for remedying this omission so as to provide tools for moral action.

Kretz's main areas of research are ethics (with a special emphasis on environmental and non-human animal ethics), critical pedagogy, student empowerment, the theory-action gap, moral psychology, anti-oppression activism, and most recently, food issues. Her articles have appeared in the Journal of Agricultural & Environmental Ethics, the Journal for Critical Animal Studies, Ethics & the Environment, Ethics and Education, and Teaching Ethics. She has given over 50 presentations to various audiences on her research and has three forthcoming book chapters.

For further information, call Annette Parks at 812-488-1070 or the William L. Ridgway College of Arts and Sciences at 812-488-2589

The IRS has extended the deadline for the distribution of the 1095-C forms to employees that are eligible to participate in the University’s health plans. This form will be used to complete questions regarding health insurance offers and coverage on your 2015 tax return. 

We anticipate the forms to be available around the middle of February. An AceNotes Extra will notify you when the forms are ready to view/print from WebAdvisor.

If any questions, please feel free to contact Gloria Spencer at ext. 2159.

A high school version of last fall’s Changemaker Challenge will be held at UE on March 17. Eleven high schools from Vanderburgh and Warrick Counties will each send one team of up to three members to compete in a social innovation contest intended to encourage local youth to think about ways they can effect positive change in our society. Each member of the winning team will receive a full-tuition scholarship to UE for four years.

High school changemakers, along with their coaches and parents, will be on campus today for the first optional coaching session introducing them to social innovation and self-sustaining initiatives. The Institute for Global Enterprise will be hosting the session with assistance from members of the Social Innovation Club from 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. in Eykamp Hall, Room 251, Ridgway University Center. Please help us welcome these future changemakers, and potential future Aces, to campus.
 

W-2 forms have been processed for all employees and student workers. Employees and student workers who did not provide their consent to electronic W-2s should receive their W-2 in the mail Saturday or Monday. If you have already provided consent to electronic W-2s, you can view/print your W-2 now. Simply log on to WebAdvisor, click on Employees or Students, click on Employee Self Service, click on W-2 Information and then click on 2015 W-2 Statement.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Gloria Spencer at ext. 2159 or gs55@evansville.edu.
 

Applications for the International Orientation Leader position are due Friday, January 29, but you can still pick one up in the Office of Cultural Engagement and International Services (in the Student Life Center on the second floor of Ridgway University Center.

The selection process is for the 2016-17 school year. IOLs develop teamwork and leadership skills, share their college experiences, and help new UE students from all over the world get adjusted to life on campus. We welcome both international students and students from the United States to apply.

Questions can be directed to Megan Sicard at ms331@evansville.edu.
 

There will be no open swimming this Friday evening, January 29, and Saturday, January 30. Open swim hours will resume Sunday, January 31. 

Join us in celebrating 40 Days of Peace with Martin Luther King Jr. with an action and a quote for each day.

Today’s action is to do little things like hold doors open or let folk go in and out first. Little things can make a big difference for someone who is not having a great day.

Today's quote is:

"A smile is the beginning of peace." ~ Mother Teresa 

Road Trip is February 19-21! The Office of Admission needs current UE students who live in residence halls to sign up to host. Please apply to host at acelink.evansville.edu/forms/admission/RoadTripAssistance.cfm, by e-mailing Ashley Ross at aj53@evansville.edu or Jonathan Kelly at jk115@evansville.edu, or stopping by the Office of Admission in Room 104, Olmsted Administration Hall.

Applications to join the team and become an RA are due today at 5:00 p.m. in the Office of Residence Life!

If you have not yet picked up an application to become an RA for the Fall 2016 or Spring 2017 semesters, they are available in the Office of Residence Life and online at www.evansville.edu/residencelife/raProgram.cfm.

Contact Betsy Whited at ew156 with any questions you have! 

Katie Aldred '09, assistant professor of biology, recently had a first-author research article accepted to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. PNAS is one of the world's most-cited and comprehensive multidisciplinary scientific journals and publishes only the highest quality scientific research. The article, titled "Fluoroquinolone interactions with Mycobacterium tuberculosis gyrase: Enhancing drug activity against wild-type and resistant gyrase," identified a derivative of moxifloxacin, a commonly prescribed quinolone antibacterial, that maintains activity against mutant enzymes that commonly cause drug resistance in tuberculosis infections.

Atefeh Yazdanparast, assistant professor of marketing, has had a research paper accepted for presentation and publication at the 2016 American Marketing Association Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. The paper is titled "The Self-Affirming Role of Self-Conscious Emotions in Cosmetic Surgery Decisions." It follows an experimental approach to test the roles of pride and shame, two self-conscious emotions, in regulating consumers' decisions related to body image satisfaction. 

Students can pick up their tickets for the Wichita State game in Carson Center today, Friday, January 29, in Carson Center. You must present your student ID to get one ticket. If you are planning on sitting with a group or a specific person, make sure you pick up your tickets together because this game will have assigned seating. One person may pick up all of the tickets for a group as long as they have one student ID for every ticket they are picking up. The first 400 students to pick up tickets are guaranteed a non-obstructed view seat in the student section. If you have any questions please call 812-488-ACES.

One of the most exciting games in recent memory took place at SIU Arena as the University of Evansville Men’s Basketball team staged a late comeback in regulation before earning an 85-78 overtime win over Southern Illinois on Thursday evening.

Trailing by seven inside of four minutes remaining, Evansville (18-4, 7-2 MVC) fought its way back. Mislav Brzoja, who set his career mark with 25 points, nailed a three to tie it up in the final minute. After Southern Illinois (18-4, 7-2 MVC) hit a triple with six seconds left, UE had one last chance to send it to overtime. The Aces called two time outs to set up a last-second play. D.J. Balentine made it count, nailing a triple with a second left to send it to overtime. In the extra session, the Aces outscored the Salukis, 14-7, to take the win.

“This was a great game, both teams deserved to win,” head coach Marty Simmons said. “What makes tonight feel good is that SIU is a really good team, and this is such a hard place to play. Winning in this league is extremely difficult.”

Balentine matched Brzoja’s team-high of 25 tallies. He drilled two buzzer beaters in the game, including the most important one that sent the game to OT."

“To come out with a win is great for us,” Balentine said. “We knew that we had two timeouts left, and we were able to set up that last play. I did not have much room on that play, but we do it every day in practice, and I knew it was good when I let it go.”

Jaylon Brown finished with 15 points for UE while Egidijus Mockevicius had 10 points and a game-high 8 rebounds. The Aces shot 55.4% on the night while holding SIU to 44.8%. The Salukis finished with a 39-26 edge in rebounding.

Anthony Beane hit 10 shots to scored 30 points while Sean O’Brien finished with 16.

For the second game in a row, the Aces got off to a slow start as the Salukis opened up a 7-2 advantage in the opening minutes. Evansville came back to score the next four points before SIU scored seven in a row, including a trey by Anthony Beane, to go up 14-6. Their lead reached double figures for the first time at 18-7 before Mislav Brzoja countered on the next possession with a triple.

Midway through the half, SIU took their largest lead of 13 points at 27-14. Evansville was able finish the half on an 18-8 run to trail by just three points at the half. D.J. Balentine capped off the period with a triple, marking his 11th point of the half. His bucket at the buzzer sent UE to the locker room down 35-32.

Egidijus Mockevicius dunked it on the first possession of the second half before a Balentine triple tied it up at 37-37. A 13-5 run saw the Salukis go back up by 8 with just over 14 minutes left at 50-42 before UE scored 11 in a row to take its first lead of the game. Back-to-back 3-point possessions by Brzoja started the run before Jaylon Brown capped it off with a triple.

Southern Illinois would retake the lead and push that advantage to seven points at 66-59 with 3:31 remaining. Evansville cut the gap to one, converting on three baskets in a row to make it a 66-65 contest under the 2-minute mark.

Down 68-65 with under a minute remaining, Brzoja got the job done once again, nailing another triple but on the ensuing play, Leo Vincent hit a three to put SIU back on top. An interesting sequence took place in the last six seconds. Purple Aces head coach Marty Simmons called consecutive time outs as the Aces inbounded the ball to get it on UE’s side of the floor.

In the last time out, Simmons set up Balentine for what would be the game-tying trey as the game went to overtime tied at 71-71.

Adam Wing opened the extra session with a long two. After Sean O’Brien put the Salukis back on top with a three, Brzoja tied his career mark with 21 points as his triple gave the Aces a 76-74 lead. The lead pushed to five points with under two minutes left as Brzoja hit a free throw to make it a 79-74 game. SIU got within one at 79-78 on a Beane triple before Balentine hit a huge layup to make it an 81-78 game with under a minute left.

Following an SIU miss, Jaylon Brown was fouled with the Aces clinging to the 3-point edge and calmly hit both free throws to go up 83-78. Balentine added two free throws for the final score of 85-78.

“This team has great character,” Brzoja said. “We never gave up. This was a great team win.”

Evansville has now won three in a row in Carbondale, marking the first time doing so since 1996-98.
 

The University of Evansville swimming and diving teams are home for one final weekend this season as the men and women will be in action at Wyttenbach Pool.

Evansville’s men take on Ball State at 4:00 p.m. Friday, while both squads will be in action versus Valparaiso on Saturday, beginning at 1:00 p.m. Saturday will mark Senior Day for both squads.

In their only action this spring, the Aces swam at Saint Louis on January 16. Cory Barnes and Miguel Marcano swept the top two spots in the 1-meter dive as Barnes won with a score of 256.58 while Marcano was credited with a 213.83 to take second. Courtney Coverdale took top honors in the women's 1-meter as her score of 269.40 was almost 40 points better than her nearest competition.

Building off her efforts over the break, Charlotte Lechner came home victorious in the 100 fly. Lechner finished in 1:01.25, just over a half second ahead of second place. Also earning a win was Michaela Kent, who paced the competition in the 100 backstroke. She recorded a time of 1:00.15, 0.97 ahead of the runner-up.

Kent contributed to a second place finish in the 200 medley relay. Joining her were Amy Smith, Kristen Myers, and Mackenzie Harris as they swam a 1:51.71. Myers came in second in an exciting race in the 50 free. Her 25.14 put her in second, just 0.05 behind the winner of SLU. She followed that up with a 27.05 in the 50 fly, good for her second runner-up finish of the day. Harris registered a second place of her own as a 55.21 put her second in the 100 free.

Ethan O'Rourke had a strong day for the men. Teaming up with Troy Burger, Matt Duke, and Matt Childress, the four took second in the 200 medley with a 1:37.93. O'Rourke also did well in the 50-yard backstroke, earning a second with his time of 25.02. He wrapped up the day with another second place outing in the 100 back, posting a 53.06. In the 100 fly, Prescott Marcy recorded another runner-up for the men, completing the race in 53.43.

In the final team results, the Billiken women finished with a 182-92 win while Saint Louis finished with a 205-76 win on the men's side. 

The University of Evansville Women’s Basketball team hope its return to the Ford Center will be just as successful as its last home game, as the Purple Aces are set to host Illinois State tonight and Indiana State on Sunday morning.

The Aces (2-16, 1-5 Missouri Valley) are coming off a three-game road swing that ended with a close loss to Wichita State last Sunday. However, the last time UE stepped off the floor at the Ford Center, it was following a 62-46 victory over Bradley earlier this month.

The game against Bradley ranks as one of the top performances by the Aces this season as both Sara Dickey and Sasha Robinson led the assault on the Braves. Dickey, who currently ranks fourth on UE’s all-time scoring list, had 23 points in the contest, and Robinson registered her first double-double of the season, scoring 10 points and pulling down 14 rebounds.

Kenyia Johnson, who filled up the stat sheet on the Bradley game with eight points, five assists, and five rebounds, carried over her effectiveness into the road schedule, highlighted by an 8-for-9 showing with 18 points and five assists in the loss at Wichita.

Meanwhile, Illinois State (4-14, 2-5 MVC) enters the weekend after racking up its second conference victory of the season, beating Bradley 54-49. The Redbirds’ only other conference win was a 70-49 decision over Wichita State. The Aces have won four consecutive games over the Redbirds, which includes a 55-51 victory in the first round of last season’s Valley tournament.

Indiana State, which will take on Southern Illinois on Friday, is riding back-to-back victories over Loyola and Bradley, and the Sycamores will be looking to build on their 8-10 record, which includes a 4-3 mark in Valley play. Indiana State took home both meetings against UE last season.

Tipoff tonight is set for 7:00 p.m.

First year head coach Jayson Wiseman and the University of Evansville Women’s Tennis team kicks off their spring season this weekend. The Aces start things off with a bang as it will be a busy and eventful weekend to start the season. On Friday, they will get things started when they travel to Murray State to take on the Racers at 10:00 a.m. CST. Upon completion of their match with the Racers, the Aces will then travel to Clarksville, Tennessee, to take on the Austin Peay Governors at 6:00 p.m. CST. UE will wrap up the weekend on Sunday when they head to SIU Edwardsville for a 2:00 p.m. CST affair with the Cougars.

The Aces are led by lone senior Marina Moreno, who is coming off a 2014-15 season that boasted an overall record of 14-14 in singles play. Moreno also was able to go 17-12 in doubles play. Moreno and the Aces look to improve off their 11-9 overall record in 2015. They also look to improve upon their 3-4 mark in conference play.

UE also features juniors Andjela Brguljan, Elizabeth Mendes, and new transfer Katie Delgado, who joins the Aces from Tyler Junior College in Tyler, Texas. Evansville sophomores include Kennedy Craig and Leah Helpingstine. Craig saw significant action as a freshman when she compiled a singles record of 20-10 and a doubles record of 12-11. The last two players on the roster for the Aces are freshmen Doreen Crasta and Marine Darzyan. Both Crasta and Darzyan are coming off solid fall campaigns for the Aces.

UE will spend almost the first month of their season on the road. After this weekend the Aces will be in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on February 12, to take on Chattanooga. The first home action for the Aces will be on February 27, when they take on both UT Martin and Eastern Illinois.

A total of 547 swimming and diving teams representing 354 colleges and universities have been named College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) Scholar All-America Teams. The awards are in recognition of teams that achieved a grade point average of 3.0 or higher during the Fall 2015 semester. That is up 40 teams from the previous fall semester.

The University of Evansville teams each earned the honor with their stellar work in the classroom. The Aces women paced the Missouri Valley Conference while ranking 25th in the nation with a GPA of 3.50. Just as impressive were the efforts of the men, who saw a great increase in their team GPA and finished 19th in the country with a 3.29.

“In beginning of the year we talked about how each individual’s GPA made up the team’s overall GPA at the end of the semester. We used the example of a relay and how no one wants to be the person that causes a relay to lose,” Aces head coach Rickey Perkins said. “They really took this example to heart and strived for individual success in the classroom so that the team’s academic success could be seen nationally. I am very proud of the way this team has come together and how each one of them strived to be the very best student-athlete and teammate possible.”

The announcement comes on the heels of last week’s NCAA Convention where the topic of time demands on student-athletes was at the forefront. In an era when many are calling for more limitations on athletic commitments, how do swimmers and divers do it?

CSCAA executive director Joel Shinofield was effusive in his praise, “We really are fortunate to work with the best of the best. In reality, some would argue that swimmers and divers have some of the most demanding practice schedules, but we find that in most cases their athletic drive and academic goals simply reinforce one another.”

“College swimming is a complete preparation for life, where our athletes see the results of goal-setting, perseverance, and personal accountability,” said USA Swimming National Team director Frank Busch. “These values that make swimmers successful in the pool are also what make them stand out in the classroom and become high achievers in their careers after college.” This is evident in that over 70% of collegiate swimming and diving teams reported that they have at least one alumnus working in the c-suite.”

Over 70 percent of all Division I swimming and diving teams achieved GPAs of 3.00 or higher, including 21 women’s and 19 men’s teams in the current CSCAA/TYR Top 25.

Donations will be accepted to assist former University of Evansville student-athlete Beth Csukas at Sunday’s Men’s Basketball game against Wichita State.

Csukas, who is a firefighter with the Evansville Fire Department, was injured in a car accident in mid-January. To assist her mounting medical costs, members of the fire department along with the staffs of the Purple Aces softball and women’s soccer teams, will be accepting donations in the main lobby of the Ford Center on Sunday.

All proceeds raised on Sunday will go directly to Csukas.

Csukas came to UE in the late 1990s and was a two-sport star, playing on the Aces’ softball and women’s soccer squads.