The Andiron Lecture that was to take place TODAY - Wednesday, March 5 - has been cancelled due to inclement weather in the state where the speaker resides.

Health Center employee, Janet Turner, has been named the March 2014 IMPACT Employee of the Month. Janet is well known for her positive attitude towards her work, her co-workers, and UE students. One nomination noted that Janet has a servant's heart for our students at UE. She is ever ready to help them when they visit the health center. Janet truly cares about all the students she meets at UE. For years, Janet has taken students under her wings when they need a mom away from home. She contributes so much to the university and the students going above and beyond that which is expected of her. Janet Turner is an excellent example of what a UE employee of the month should exemplify.

Ash Wednesday will be observed today with a brief service in Neu Chapel beginning at noon.

Also, receive "Ashes to Go” in Ridgway University Center for those who are unable to attend the service in Neu Chapel, 1:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.

UE alum and Methodist minister, Mitchell Gieselman will be presiding over the service along with Student Chaplain, Michael Osei. All are welcome.

In the Christian church, Ash Wednesday begins the season of Lent, a 40-day period of discipline and study prior to the Festival of the Resurrection, Easter. You are invited to be imposed upon, remembering your mortality, but believing the Gospel. Repent!

Catholic Mass with the imposition of ashes will take place in Neu Chapel on Wednesday at 5:00 p.m. Bishop Charles Thompson of the Diocese of Evansville will be the celebrant, and UE students will fill the other liturgical ministries. Contact Mike Roesch at mr201 with any questions.

The UE Bookstore will be having a PRE Spring Break sale March 3-7. All UE clothing and gift items will be 20% OFF the original price. Items already on clearance or discounted are excluded from additional discount. Stop in and browse and pick up something for Spring Break.

The TIAA-CREF representative will be on the UE campus on Tuesday March 18 and Thursday March 20 for individual counseling sessions. To schedule an appointment, call TIAA-CREF at 1-800-732-8353 or 317-706-6200. The sessions are held in the Clifford Rare Books Room of the University Libraries. If you have any questions, call Carol McCraney at 488-2943.

Pick up the March issue of Crescent Magazine on Thursday at 18 campus locations. And StudPubbers will be passing out the issue and this month's giveaway from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Ridgway University Center lobby.

Writing Center Bootcamp is today from 5-5:45 p.m. in the Writing Center. Paraphrasing, summarizing and the argument - how do you build an argument? Learn an approach for coming up with ideas, relating them to the thesis, and organizing them logically. We will also demonstrate the techniques of summary and paraphrasing to help effectively incorporate outside sources into your papers.

If you'll be in St. Louis cheering on the Aces in the MVC tourney, be sure to attend the pre-game event at Top Shelf in the Scottrade Center at 5 p.m. on Thursday, March 6. Get in the spirit with other Aces fans. Light refreshments will be served. Sponsored by Mackey Mitchell and Associates and the UE Alumni Association.

Join us for a Special Coffee Hour featuring Professor of English William Baer sponsored by the Department of Creative Writing on Thursday, March 6, at 4:00 p.m. in the Melvin Peterson Gallery.

In his first reading ever,  Baer will read from his newest work.

The recipient of a Guggenheim, a Fulbright, and a creative writing grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Baer is the author of 16 books, including five collections of poetry, the first receiving the T.S. Eliot Poetry Prize and the fourth receiving the X.J. Kennedy Poetry Award. His work has appeared in over three hundred literary journals including: The American Scholar, The Hudson Review, The Iowa Review, The Kenyon Review, London Magazine, Ploughshares, Poetry, and The Southern Review.

Baer’s various plays have been produced at more than twenty-five American theaters, including the Metropolitan Playhouse of New York, Chicago Dramatists, and The 13th Street Theatre in Greenwich Village. His most recent play, Three Generations of Imbeciles, received the New Works of Merit National Playwriting Award and was chosen for the regionals of the 2013 Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.

Baer currently teaches in the Department of Creative Writing at the University of Evansville and has served as the Melvin M. Peterson Endowed Chair in Literature and Writing.

The University of Evansville Undergraduate Mathematics Competition is scheduled for Saturday March 22, 9:30 a.m.-noon in Room 307, Koch Center. The event will begin with refreshments at 9:30 a.m., followed by orientation for the competition which will start at 10:00 a.m. This event is sponsored by Kappa Mu Epsilon, the National Mathematics Honor Society, and is open to all undergraduate students at UE.

Solutions of the problems will be graded on the basis of correctness, completeness, and clarity of exposition. Questions must be answered without using any computer, calculator, or table. The first, second, and third place winners will receive monetary awards, and will be guests of KME at the annual initiation and banquet on Wednesday, April 16, at 6 p. m. Every participant will receive a certificate and is invited to be a guest of Kappa Mu Epsilon for an off-campus lunch after the competition.

If you would like to participate in this competition please contact Dr. Mohammad K. Azarian, professor of mathematics, at ma3@evansville.edu by 5 p.m. on Friday, March 7.

If you have any question, please contact Dr. Azarian.

Indiana’s newest telephone area code – 930 – is being introduced this year. It will “overlay” the entire 812 area code that has been largely unchanged since 1947.

In preparation, please update any speed dials you have that are currently 7 digits to 10 digits. You will  also want to update any contacts you have. 

The new area code is needed because of the dwindling supply of available telephone numbers in the 812 area code. Without 930, the supply of available numbers for southern and south-central Indiana would run out in 2015.

On March 1, 2014, Indiana began preparations for overlaying the new ‘930’ area code in southern Indiana.  

How it is going to work:
Beginning on September 6, 2014, consumers in the 812/930 area will be required to dial ten digits (area code + number) for local calls, rather than the seven-digit dialing that’s now in place.

• A six-month transition period started March 1, 2014 and will allow consumers to call local numbers either with seven or ten digits, to provide plenty of time to adjust to the changes.

• All consumers with 812 numbers will keep their current numbers. This applies to both landline and wireless phones, meaning wireless phones will not need to be reprogrammed with new numbers. It also means businesses, not-for-profit entities, etc. will save substantial sums of money that would have otherwise been needed for new stationery, advertising, etc.

• Calls that are currently local will remain local, and local calling areas will not change.

• Calls to three-digit services such as 211, 811 and 911 will still work the same way.

For more information visit http://www.in.gov/oucc/2718.htm.
 

There will be no I-House this week. We will resume following Spring Break with I-House: Thailand. See you March 19!

Space is still available on the Harlaxton Summer 2014 program. Applications will be accepted through March 21. Forms and course info available in Office of Study Abroad SB 261.

Confirmed courses:

• BIOL 399; EXSS 488;
• HSA 406/506/499/599;
• NURS 395; SOC 105;
• SOC 386

For more information, send e-mail to bp66@evansville.edu.

The priority deadline for Harlaxton Spring 2015 applications has been extended to Friday, March 7. Applications will be accepted after that date on a space-available basis. Application forms and course information available in SB 261. For more info, send e-mail to bp66@evansville.edu.

Don't forget! Nominations for Student Government President, Vice President, Student Elected Trustee, and Academic Fund Board Chairperson are due Friday, March 7th by 5:00 PM. Applications can be turned in to the Center for Student Engagement. Email questions to Shaun Sizemore at ss485.

Due to the snow-day, the 20-minute,Prioritization Prayer Service has been rescheduled for Monday, March 17 at noon in Neu Chapel. Prayers will be offered for students, faculty, administrators, and staff as the Prioritization process continues in the reading of copious reports by members of our UE family. During the service, each division on campus will be named and prayed for, understanding that we are all in this process together. From its founding, UE has been a close-knit community and has always been a place of support and good cheer. The Prioritization Prayer Service will affirm that history and give a nod to our future together.

If you are unable to attend because of a prior commitment or day-to-day responsibilities, please feel free to send a prayer request to Tammy Gieselman, University Chaplain, tg85@evansville.edu. All prayer requests will be held in confidence unless otherwise noted as a public prayer request.

There will be no I-House this week. We will resume next week with I-House: Thailand. See you then!

All University of Evansville full-time undergraduate students who will be juniors or seniors in 2014-15 may apply. An essay of about 300 words must accompany the application, along with two to five faculty recommendation letters.

It was the desire of the donor, Margery Florence Kahn, that her scholarship be awarded to "dedicated and conscientious students who exhibit a true passion for their chosen fields of study, and who, in the opinion of the members of the University of Evansville faculty, are likely to bring the same enthusiasm into the performance of their jobs or the practice of the professions which they will pursue following graduation."

Applications are available from the Office of Financial Aid (Olmsted Hall 116). Completed applications and recommendation letters should be returned to the Office of Financial Aid by April 1.

You may also request application materials by emailing financialaid@evansville.edu.

Questions may be directed to the Office of Financial Aid via email or by phone at (812) 488-2364 or, (800) 424-8634.

Thanks to all seniors who attended Commencement Central last week. Crowds were good at both sessions. Congratuations to Jade Albin, the lucky winner of the iPad mini. Graduating seniors who did not attend should stop by the Office of the Registrar and also the University Bookstore to make sure they are ready for graduation day. Good luck to all seniors!

Scam calls are being received on campus again. Most recently the incoming phone numbers are 614-906-7706 (Ohio)and 347-329-4437(N.Y., New Jersey). Both of these numbers have been linked to scams.

If you receive calls from unfamiliar callers asking for information, please ask them questions such as what company the they represent, where they are located, and do not disclose information. Offer to forward them to the Office of Administrative Services. If it is a scam call, usually, the caller will hang up.

Please report scam calls to the Office of Administrative Services at extension 2940 or kw83.

The Center for Career Development is hosting an internship selfie project. Send us a selfie of you at your internship or job, and be entered to win prizes. Pictures can be sent via email to career@evansville.edu, tagged on Facebook at UE Center for Career Development, tagged on Instagram @uecareers or on Twitter @UEcareers .

Returning students - are you interested in living in the residence halls next year? Come find out how you can select your room for next year. Information meetings about the residence hall selection process for returning students will take place on on March 4, 5, and 6 at 4:00 pm, 8:30 pm, and 9:30 pm each night (on Marcn 4 and 5 we are in Eykamp 252, Ridgway University Center and on March 6 we will be in Eykamp 252, Ridgway University Center).

Students who will be abroad for Fall 2014 do not need to attend.

Students who entered as of Fall 2013 have a 2 year residency requirement.

More information about the housing selection process can be found on the residence life section of the university website at http://www.evansville.edu/residencelife/whereWillYouLive.cfm

The University of Evansville African American Alumni Association (UEAAA) is pleased to announce the application process for the Zerah Priestly Carter University of Evansville African American Scholarship is now open. Alumni members raised the necessary funds to make this an endowed scholarship and named it in honor of Ms. Zerah Priestly Carter ’38, the first African American graduate of the University. The deadline to return all materials to the Office of Alumni and Parent Relations is Friday, March 14. This scholarship will be awarded each year to deserving African American UE student (s). The 2014 scholarship funds are in addition to other financial aid/scholarships awarded to the recipient! Interested and qualified students are encouraged to apply at this time.

Go to the UEAAA Website (http://www.evansville.edu/alumni/ueaaaCarter.cfm) to see the criteria for the scholarship or to download an application.

Questions? Contact H. Angela Williams at 812-488-2900 or aw162@evansville.edu.

Nominations are now being accepted for consideration of The Howard S. Rosenblatt “Dean of Students Leadership Awards”.  These awards will be presented at the 21st Annual Leadership Awards Reception scheduled for April 24. 

Awards are presented in the following categories:

• Student Organization Advisor of the Year
• Student Organization of the Year
• Student Leader of the Year

Over 80% of UE students participate in at least one student organization or program.  These organizations are successful because of the commitment of the student leaders and the advisors who give freely of their time and support.  The recipients of these awards are selected based on their commitment to the University of Evansville as well as the development and success of their efforts within their chosen student organization.

The deadline for nominations is March 28.  Please click http://acelink.evansville.edu/areas/studentaffairs/files/DOSAwardsNominationApplication.pdf to download a nomination form or stop by Room 230 in the Ridgway University Center to pick up a nomination form from the Dean of Students Office. 

If you have any questions, please contact the Vice President of Student Affairs/Dean of Students at extension 2500 or by e-mail at km306@evansville.edu. 

Thank you in advance for celebrating our student leaders’ achievements.

UE Libraries will observe the following schedule of hours during the Spring Break recess beginning on March 8.

* Friday, March 7:  7:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
* Saturday, March 8:  CLOSED
* Sunday, March 9: CLOSED
* Monday, March 10:  7:30 a.m. -5:00 p.m.
* Tuesday, March 11:  7:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
* Wednesday, March 12:  7:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
* Thursday, March 13:  7:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
* Friday, March 14:  7:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
* Saturday, March 15:  CLOSED
* Sunday, March 16:  3:00 p.m.-1:00 a.m.

Regular hours resume on Monday, March 17.

File the 2014-15 FAFSA by March 10 at www.fafsa.gov

Returning students should file the 2014-15 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to apply for federal, state and University financial aid, including all federal student loans. UE's FAFSA school code is 001795.

Filing by March 10 is essential for Indiana residents, and highly recommended for all. Questions regarding the FAFSA should be directed to the Office of Financial Aid (Olmsted Hall, Room 116) at (812) 488-2364, (800) 424-8634 or financialaid@evansville.edu.

IRS Data Retrieval Tool: The IRS Data Retrieval Tool transfers parent and/or student IRS tax information to the FAFSA. Federal income tax returns for 2013 must have been filed electronically for 2-3 weeks to be available for this process. The IRS data retrieval function can be used for the initial FAFSA or to correct a submitted FAFSA which had been filed using estimated tax information.

Thanks to all for making the Phi Alpha Delta Dessert Sale a success!! We were able to raise over $500 for Holly's House of Evansville, IN. Be on the lookout for more Phi Alpha Delta fundraisers!

Just a day after becoming the sixth University of Evansville men’s basketball player to earn All-MVC First Team honors, D.J. Balentine was recognized once again, being named to the Missouri Valley Conference Most-Improved Team.

As a freshman, Balentine posted an admirable 8.1 points per game while hitting 53 triples and 18 free throws. His sophomore campaign was not just one of the greatest improvements in the conference, but also the country.

The Kokomo, Ind. product has been in the top ten in the nation for the entire season with his scoring average currently standing at 22.3 points per game. His scoring went up an average of 14.2 PPG. He has also been one of the top five 3-point shooters in the league, hitting a total of 70 while entering Arch Madness at an even 40%.

His efforts from the charity stripe have shown the most improvement of anyone in the country. After going 18-of-27 in his entire freshman campaign, Balentine eclipsed that total in one game, tying the Aces’ single game mark by hitting 20 in a home victory over Illinois State.

For the season, he has downed 201 free throws, a tally that is fifth in the country.

2014 MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MOST-IMPROVED TEAM
Student-Athlete, School Yr. Pos. Ht. Hometown (High School)
*Fred VanVleet, Wichita State So. G 5-11 Rockford (Ill.) Auburn High
D.J. Balentine, Evansville So. G 6-2 Kokomo (Ind.) High
Anthony Beane, Southern Illinois So. G 6-2 Normal (Ill.) High
Matt Bohannon, UNI So. G 6-4 Marion (Iowa) Linn-Mar High
Nate Buss, UNI Jr. F 6-9 Charles City (Iowa) High
Aaron Hawley, Drake Sr. G/F 6-8 Rogers (Ark.) High
Khristian Smith, Indiana State So. G/F 6-6 Indianapolis (Ind.) Pike High
 

Led by All-MVC First Teamer D.J. Balentine, the University of Evansville men’s basketball team travels to St. Louis for its 20th berth in Arch Madness at the Scottrade Center.

The Purple Aces, who finished the regular season with a 13-18 mark, are slated to face Drake in the opening round on Thursday evening beginning at 6 p.m. The game will be televised live on the MVC TV Network along with ESPN3.com.

Monday saw UE receive strong recognition on the All-Conference squads. Following Balentine’s first-team award, Egidijus Mockevicius was named to the All-Defensive Team as well as All-Conference Honorable Mention. Mockevicius led the Valley in shooting and rebounding while finishing second in blocked shots.

Blake Simmons, the top scoring true freshman in the conference, was selected to the All-Freshman Team. He became the seventh player to be named to the squad in head coach Marty Simmons’ seven years with the Aces.

Last season, the Purple Aces finished the regular season on a four game win streak; a
75-72 win at Loyola saw the Aces head to St. Louis on the right track once again, winning its last two games. Leading by as many as 18 points versus the Ramblers, the Aces let Loyola get within one in the final minute before hanging on for the win.

Balentine led everyone with 23 points while Duane Gibson had his best effort in three months, posting 22 on a 9-13 day from the floor; as a team, Evansville shot 56.6% (30-35); that was its top MVC shooting game since Jan. 5, 2013 when UE shot 57.7% at home against SIU. For his efforts in UE’s two wins, the Kokomo, Ind. native was named this week’s College Sports Madness High-Major Player of the Week.

He enters Thursday’s matchup just 18 points shy of becoming the 46th player in program history to reach the 1,000 point mark. He was also the only player to make the First Team whose team was not amongst the top three seeds in the tournament.

Picked to finish tenth in the MVC prior to the season, Drake came in eighth place following a 15-15 overall mark and a 6-12 league record. Always known for their long range shooting, the Bulldogs led the Valley in 3-point shooting, hitting 39.2% of their attempts; they make an average of 7.7 per game. They hold the third-best rebounding margin in the league (+1.3) and that has been helped by 24.3 defensive boards per contest, also No. 4 in the MVC.

Richard Carter is the No. 4 scorer in the league with 16.3 PPG; he has kept that rolling in league play, averaging 14.8 points; he also leads the squad in assists with 110. Jordan Daniels has established himself as one of the top forces from outside in the MVC, hitting 47.9% of his triples, second in the conference. Led by Daniels’ long range efforts, the Bulldogs have three of the top ten 3-point shooters in the MVC; teammate Aaron Hawley is third at 46.1% while Chris Caird checks in at 8th at 38.3%; in league games, Hawley is second, shooting 50%.

The Aces and Bulldogs split the season series in 2014 with Drake earning a 94-66 win in the MVC opener in Des Moines while Evansville took a 61-48 win in its home finale. With its victory last week, Evansville retook the series lead at 21-20; the squads have met twice in St. Louis with the Bulldogs coming out on top both times; the latest matchup came in 2007 in the 8-9 game with Drake taking a 101-96 overtime victory.