The University of Evansville's 157th Commencement ceremony will take place this Saturday, May 9, at the Ford Center in downtown Evansville. The ceremony starts at 1:30 p.m. and our annual Baccalaureate service will be held at 10:00 a.m. Saturday in Neu Chapel.

The event will feature the Senior Keynote address, the conferring of honorary degrees, presentation of the University of Evansville Alumni Association’s Outstanding Teacher of the Year award, as well as the Outstanding Senior Service Awards.

Graduates, if you have family and friends who will be unable to attend, please let them know that they can watch a live stream here: http://www.evansville.edu/live/

A video of the Commencement ceremony will be posted on this page next week.

Additionally, you can follow along and post on social media using #UEGrad15.

Angie Dawson, assistant director of Financial Aid, was presented with the Administrator Excellence Award on May 6.

During the 8 months that Financial Aid was without a director, Angie stepped up to the role of acting director to keep the office functioning.  While everyone in the Office of Financial Aid took on additional work, Angie took on new responsibilities in addition to acting director such as NCAA compliance.  She not only learned and performed the job well, but excelled at it.  Angie has a passion for helping students and consistently goes the extra mile to help them. 

Congratulations, Angie.  And thank you for your outstanding leadership of the Financial Aid team.

The UE Summer Golf League will start Thursday, May 14. This is a great opportunity to enjoy the summer heat with your colleagues across campus and perfect your game. Tee time is 3 pm at various Evansville golf courses. Interested in joining us? Email Meg Atwater-Singer at ma35@evansville.edu. 

Associate Professor of Scenic Design Eric Renschler has been named the new Chair of the Department of Theatre at the University of Evansville.

A 1983 graduate of UE, Renschler returned to the faculty of his alma mater in 2006, after spending the previous 20 years working professionally in New York City.

His Broadway designs include scenery for As Long As You Both Shall Laugh, including a national tour and PBS special, and Mamaloshen. As an associate designer, Renschler was involved with over forty Broadway productions and tours including The Color Purple, Doubt, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Footloose, Proof, Wonderful Town, The Redwood Curtain and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. His work as an associate scenic designer has taken him around the world for installations of the hit musical Chicago, including London, Paris, Moscow, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Mexico City, Berlin and Vienna.

Renschler’s Off-Broadway credits include designs at the New York Shakespeare Festival, Circle Repertory Company, Pan-Asian Repertory Theatre, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, and The Juilliard School. He also worked on over 30 productions with the New York City Center’s series Encores! Great American Musicals in Concert.

In 2011–2012, The Institute for Global Enterprise named Renschler a University of Evansville Global Scholar. He used the award to expand his experience in the international design arena with a yearlong comparative study of national design aesthetics as exhibited through theatrical scenography. Renschler visited Prague to study the impact of globalization on the national cultural identity as exhibited at the 2011 Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space.

Renschler holds an MFA in Theatre Design from the University of Michigan and is a member of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) and United Scenic Artists (USA).

“My time as a student at UE was essential in preparing me for success in the professional theatre. I look forward to working with the finest theatre faculty in the country to ensure that tradition continues,” says Renschler.

Renschler replaces Professor John David Lutz, who has been on the UE faculty for 50 years and served as Department Chair since 1983. Lutz will take a sabbatical in the fall and return to teaching in the spring of 2016

In addition to Renschler being named chair, two new positions within the UE Department of Theatre have been created. Professor R. Scott Lank has been named the Artistic Director and Head of Acting and Sharla Cowden has been named the Managing Director and Head of Theatre Management.

Lank, a 1978 graduate of UE, has taught acting for 28 years and coached many of UE’s most notable alumni working professionally today on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regional theatre, as well as in film, and television. Lank has an MFA in Directing from the University of Nebraska and has directed over 50 productions at UE, two of which were invited to perform at the Kennedy Center, in Washington, DC, Anatomy of Gray and A Plague of Angels. Lank is a member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC) and is the current Chair of the Standards and Best Practices in the Field of Actor Training Committee for The Actors Center in New York City.

Cowden has an MFA in Theatre Management from Wayne State University in Detroit, Mich., and has been the Department of Theatre’s Marketing Director and Head of Theatre Management for 15 years. Under her leadership, the UE Theatre Management program is recognized as one of the top undergraduate arts administration programs in the nation and boasts alumni working in leadership positions on Broadway, regional theatres, and arts organizations across the country.

Renschler, Lank, and Cowden will serve as the UE Theatre’s executive team, collaborating with a nationally recognized theatre faculty, to oversee the department’s mission of educating future professionals.

A small medallion with a religious inscription was found in the parking lot of Schroeder Hall. To reclaim, contact Dr. Edwin Lacy in the Department of Music, or email to el2@evansville.edu. 

The UE Office of Financial Aid wishes to alert all students and parents who currently have a PIN for use with certain U.S. Department of Education websites (for example, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), that users of these federal websites will be prompted to convert their existing PIN to the new FSA ID -- a username and password. Your FSA ID confirms your identity when you access your financial aid information and/or electronically sign Federal Student Aid documents, such as a Master Promissory Notes for federal loans.

After May 10, anyone who accesses these sites will be prompted to create the new FSA ID when logging in to fafsa.gov, the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS®) at www.nslds.ed.gov, StudentLoans.gov, and StudentAid.gov.

Online instructions will lead the user through the set-up process. 

There will be no regular check runs the week of May 18. The standard deadline of Monday at 5 pm will be upheld the week of May 11. Therefore, you will need to submit proper documentation to Accounting & Audit for any checks requiring payment the week of May 11th or May 18th no later than Monday, May 11 at 5 pm. 

Libraries will be closed on this Thursday and Friday, May 7 and 8. Closing is due to scheduled work in the facility in preparation for Renovation Project to begin following Spring Final Exams. 

Project to renovate the Libraries will begin immediately following Spring Final Exams. Duration of the project is expected to continue through summer. Students, faculty, and staff will have ready access to library services through the Libraries' website at www.evansville.edu/libraries/ or by telephone at 812.488.2462.

Physical access to the Library including books, print journals, microforms, etc. will be extremely limited. Library hours will be Monday through Friday between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. No weekend hours will be maintained. Entry doors to Bower-Suhrheinrich Library will be locked. Entry for service will be through Clifford Library entrance. You are encouraged to request service in advance utilizing the Libraries' website or by contacting us by email and telephone.

Refer questions to x2376 or x2462. 

Students who have received Federal Direct Loans while attending UE and plan to graduate, withdraw, or transfer are required to attend a Loan Repayment Counseling Session. The Office of Financial Aid will hold the last session of the semester on Fri., May 8th @ 11:30 a.m. in Ridgway Center, Eykamp 251. 

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) University of Evansville Student Chapter has received the Certificate of Commendation for its outstanding activities for this past year. The student chapter's accomplishments were awarded due to the enthusiasm and hard work of its student officers and chapter members.

The following members served as student officers in 2014.
Josh Hood (president)
Alejandro Mojica (vice president)
Forrest Plumlee and Abby Browder (secretary)
Hannah Okray and Levi Leffert (treasurer)
Jaclyn Altstadt (historian)

The UE ASCEstudent chapter participated in a variety of activities, from community service projects and professional meetings to social events. Our chapter is among the sixteen schools out of 292 student chapters (from both national and international schools) to receive this prestigious honor from ASCE. 

Atefeh Yazdanparast, assistant professor of marketing, has had a paper titled "The mirror effect: How objective self-awareness and emotions motivate cosmetic procedure decision making," accepted for presentation and publication in the proceedings of the 2015 American Marketing Association Conference. The research examines the interplay between the state of public objective self-awareness, access to relevant standards, and the consequent impact on self-standard discrepancies, emotions, and motivations to take action. The findings contribute to objective self-awareness and self-discrepancy theories and have implications for consumer welfare and public policies. 

University Organist Emeritus and Professor of Music Emeritus Douglas Reed performed “A Celebration of American Organ Music” at Christ Church Cathedral, St. Louis, on May 3, 2015.  Offered by the Cathedral’s Shepley Program of Music and Art and the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission, the concert included music by William Albright, William Bolcom, Fanny Dillon, Charles Ives, and Alexander Schreiner. 

Many organizations, University offices and individuals donated to UE VETS Spare Change for Bowling Tournament held March 28, 2015 at River City Recreation. There were $1,120 in proceeds generated for charity. The winning team selected Operation Smile to be the recipient of half of the donations with UE VETS donating the other half to the Wounded Warrior Project. Thank you, UE community for your support! 

One of the biggest fundraisers for the University of Evansville Athletics Department is coming up quick as the annual Purple Aces Club Golf Classic is less than two weeks away.

Set for Thursday, May 21, the event will be held at Quail Crossing Golf Club in Boonville. Registration and lunch will take place from 11 a.m. until 12:15 p.m. before golf gets underway at 12:30.

A post-event reception will start following the round of golf at approximately 5:30 p.m. and also includes an award ceremony. The fee for individual players is $125 while a foursome is $500.

Several sponsorship opportunities are available. Hole sponsors cost $150 while a cart sponsor is $750. Closest to the Pin and Longest Drive sponsorships are also available for $250 apiece.

To register, please contact Dwight Merilatt at 812-488-2287 or dm160@evansville.edu. The deadline for registration is Monday, May 18. 

University of Evansville senior Kevin Kaczmarski was named to the 30-player USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award Watch List, in an announcement by USA Baseball Thursday afternoon. The Golden Spikes Award is presented to the top amateur baseball player in the country each year.

The UE outfielder leads all Division I baseball players in batting average (.468), on-base percentage (.535) and triples per game (0.18). Kaczmarski is also fourth in the country in slugging percentage (.734), fifth in triples (seven), 11th in hits (74), and 14th in RBIs per game (1.18).

A Cary, Ill. native, Kaczmarski leads the Purple Aces in batting average (.468), hits (74), doubles (16), triples (seven), runs batted in (46), total bases (116), slugging percentage (.734), on-base percentage (.545), and stolen bases (13).

Kaczmarski is currently on a 20 game hit streak, the longest of his career. He also has 25 multi-hit games this season and has only gone hitless in four of the 39 games played.

A two time Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week, Kaczmarski was also named NCBWA National Hitter of the Week (Apr. 28).

Kaczmarski and the Purple Aces visit Wichita State this weekend for a road series beginning on Friday, May 8 at 3:00 p.m.

USA Baseball will release the semifinalists for the Golden Spikes Award on Friday, May 22. The semifinalists list will be sent to a voting body consisting of past USA Baseball National Team coaches and press officers, members of the media that follow the amateur game closely, select professional baseball personnel, current USA Baseball staff and the 37 previous winners of the award, representing a group of more than 200 voters.

Fan voting will once again be a part of the Golden Spikes Award in 2015. Friday, May 22, marks the day when amateur baseball fans across the country will be able to vote for their favorite semifinalists at GoldenSpikesAward.com. As part of this selection process, all voters will be asked to choose three players from the list. On Tuesday, June 2, USA Baseball will announce the finalists, and voting will once again commence that same day.

The 2015 Golden Spikes Award winner will be named on Tuesday, June 23, at a presentation in Los Angeles. The finalists and their families will be honored at the Rod Dedeaux Foundation Dinner that evening at the Jonathan Club in downtown Los Angeles.

Last year, University of Kentucky’s two-way star, A.J. Reed, took home the prestigious award, joining a group of recent winners that includes Kris Bryant (2013), Mike Zunino (2012), Trevor Bauer (2011), Bryce Harper (2010), Stephen Strasburg (2009) and Buster Posey (2008).

GoldenSpikesAward.com – created in 2008 and powered by MLB Advanced Media -- is the online home for the award. The website features content devoted exclusively to the GSA, including news, the weekly Golden Spikes Award spotlight, voting history and past winner photo galleries.

The anticipated timeline for the 2015 Golden Spikes Award announcements is:
• Friday, May 29: 2015 USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award semifinalists voting ends
• Tuesday, June 2: 2015 USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award finalists voting begins
• Friday, June 12: 2015 USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award finalists voting ends
• Tuesday, June 23: 2015 USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award trophy presentation
 

– Purple Aces golfer Will Knights completed the best season of his career at the University of Evansville. His stroke average was the lowest in his career while his high GPA helped him to earn a nod as an Honorable Mention Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete.

Knights, a native of New Lenox, Ill., stands at a 3.84 GPA as a Marketing major at UE.

He recently finished what was his top season on the golf course with the Purple Aces. In his third season with the program, Knights averaged a 75.96. He performed even better in the spring of 2015, finishing with a 75.64 average.

Knights finished the season with a pair of top ten finishes, including a tie for fifth place at the Bradley Invitational. His lowest round of the season (a 1-under 71) came in the final round of that event.

2015 Missouri Valley Conference Men’s Golf Scholar-Athlete Team

FIRST TEAM, School Yr. GPA Major Hometown
Grant Bennett, Wichita State So. 3.44 Sport Management Prosper, Texas
Lyle Burns, Bradley Jr. 3.42 Business Mgmt. / Admin. Mahomet, Ill.
Alec Heinen, Wichita State Jr. 3.81 Accounting Edmond, Okla.
Mark Karlsen, Missouri State Sr. 3.97 Business Alleroed, Denmark
Drew Novara, Southern Illinois Jr. 3.86 Exercise Science Murphysboro, Ill.
Wade Thompson, Southern Illinois Sr. 3.69 Accounting Mt. Carmel, Ill.

Honorable Mention Yr. GPA Major Hometown
Bobby Jacobs, Bradley So. 4.00 Civil Engineering Valparaiso, Ind.
Will Knights, Evansville Jr. 3.84 Marketing New Lenox, Ill.
Devin Leland, Drake Sr. 3.88 Cell/Molecular Biology, Biochemistry Huxley, Iowa
Danny Masrin, Bradley Sr. 3.47 Business Mgmt. / Admin. Palatine, Ill.
Glenn Walls, UNI Sr. 3.22 Management: Business Admin. and Finance International Falls, Minn.
Dane Worley, Drake Sr. 3.62 Finance Cedar Rapids, Iowa

The University of Evansville baseball team (27-19, 8-10) is on the road this weekend to visit the Wichita State Shockers (19-29, 6-9) for a three game series.

The series opener, originally scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Friday, May 8, has been moved to 3:00 p.m. due to inclement weather in the forecast.

Game two of the series will still begin at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 9 and the weekend concludes on Sunday, May 10 at 1:00 p.m.

All three games will be played at Eck Stadium in Wichita, Kan.

For all of the latest information on Evansville baseball, log on to GoPurpleAces.com or follow the team’s Twitter account @UEAcesBaseball. 

University of Evansville softball players Danielle Freeman and Morgan Lambert earned postseason awards from the Missouri Valley Conference on Wednesday evening.

Freeman earned a spot on the All-MVC Second Team while Lambert was named to the All-Defensive squad.

“Danielle is a tremendous athlete who came straight from the pool to have an immediate impact on the diamond. The offensive she had was amazing from a power standpoint,” UE head coach Mat Mundell said. “Morgan did a tremendous job for us at first base. She has great hands that dramatically improved our team defense.”

In just 35 games of action, Freeman made a huge impact on the team. She completed swimming season as a First Team All-Conference performer and jumped on the softball field in early March. In her time with the Aces softball squad, she hit a team-high 13 home runs while leading the team with 28 RBIs. Her 13 homers tied for second in the conference.

Her .339 batting average also led the team. The accomplishment is an amazing feat as she managed to gain All-Conference recognition as part of two different Division I sports.

Lambert saw time in 51 games while making 46 starts primarily at first base. With defense being such an integral part of playing the position, Lambert performed admirably. Her fielding percentage of .980 led the way for the Aces. In 229 put outs, she made just five errors in the entire season. That translates to just one in every ten games.

She showed power during the season, hitting three home runs while knocking in 11 RBIs. She also scored 11 runs. 

The University of Evansville baseball team (27-19, 8-10) is on the road this weekend to visit the Wichita State Shockers (19-29, 6-9) for a three game series

All three games will be played at Eck Stadium in Wichita, Kan.

PITCHING MATCHUP
Friday, May 8 at 6:30 p.m. CDT
UE LHP Brodie Harkness (6-3, 4.37 ERA) vs. WSU RHP Issac Anderson (4-6, 4.42 ERA)

Saturday, May 9 at 2:00 p.m. CDT
UE RHP Matt Rodgers (4-0, 3.66 ERA) vs. WSU LHP Jeb Bargfeldt (2-3, 4.03 ERA)

Sunday, May 10 at 1:00 p.m. CDT
UE RHP Connor Strain (3-5, 6.52 ERA) vs. WSU RHP Chase Williams (1-4, 8.71 ERA)

Just because the spring semester at the University of Evansville is complete does not mean that the action stops for its student-athletes. That is truly evident with Purple Aces volleyball player Genesis Miranda.

After finishing one of the strongest freshman campaigns in program history, Miranda will get even more experience beginning next week for the Puerto Rico National Team. Miranda will be one of four Junior National Players who will be playing in a tournament that will take place in Canada.

She joins Patricia Montero (Kansas), Wilma Rivera (Penn State) and Pilar Victoria (Arkansas) as current college athletics in the United State to be playing.

“I was so excited to get the call to play,” Miranda said. “That is what I wanted because I have been working so hard to get better and want to show how my passing and blocking have improved. I also want to put some practice into growing the mental part of my game.”

Miranda will leave for Puerto Rico on Thursday before the team heads to Canada over the weekend where they will train before playing their first game against Canada on May 12. The team is set to play five games on the trip.

With the team being very young, Miranda is set to have a major role as an outside hitter and should receive a large amount of playing time. Keep track of GoPurpleAces.com for exclusive updates from Miranda on the trip.