The Office of Admission is hosting Davidson Academic Scholar Day and Physician Assistant Direct Entry Day this Friday, January 22. There will be almost 250 families on campus for these events. For this reason, the Sesquicentennial Oval will be closed on Friday until 9:00 a.m. After 9:00 a.m., the oval will open for general parking. The visitors will join the UE community for lunch in Café Court between 11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m., so seating will be very tight in the dining area. Please give our visitors a warm welcome.

The Sesquicentennial Oval will be closed for Davidson Academic Scholar Day visitors until 9:00 a.m. on Friday, January 22. After that time, the oval will open for general parking. Please give the Davidson Academic Scholar Day visitors a warm welcome.

Join Venturing Crew for our annual trip to Shawnee National Forest from Saturday, January 30, to Sunday, January 31! We will leave around 8:00 a.m. on Saturday and return around 1:00 p.m. on Sunday (plenty of time to make it to the UE vs. Wichita State game!).

Enjoy a day hike and explore the frozen wilderness of Shawnee. We will be staying in a cabin with electricity but no heating, so dress for the weather and prepare to enjoy camping, delicious food, and fun activities!

Participants will also have a chance to explore Garden of the Gods and all of its rocky features.

Sign up by Friday, January 22, at 4:00 p.m. To reserve your place, deliver your payment of $25 to Calvin Wertman in the Residence Life Center on the second floor of Ridgway University Center.

You MUST be a member of Venturing Crew to participate. If you would like to become a crew member, contact Alex Schmitt at as564@evansville.edu.

We hope you will join us for a great weekend!
 

Please join us for the Lunch and Lead Speaker Series luncheon on January 28, from noon - 1:00 p.m., in Eykamp Hall, Room 252, Ridgway University Center. The speaker will be UE alumnus Andrew Epperson, partner and director of web services at Lieberman Technologies LLC. His topic will be “Employment in a Digital Age.”

Lunch will be provided for those who RSVP by noon on Monday, January 25. RSVP to ds120@evansville.edu

This event is in collaboration with the Student-Alumni Mentoring Program and the Office of Student Engagement.

All are welcome to join the Newman Club on Monday, January 25, at 5:00 p.m. for its weekly Monday Night Dinner and Discussion. This week we welcome Kimberly Baker who will be discussing the role of women in the Church over the course of history.

Baker is assistant professor of church history at Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology. Her area of specialty is the theology and spirituality of the early church. She received her PhD in theology from Notre Dame, and her particular research focus is Augustine’s preaching on the life of the Church. Baker's interest in theology first developed during her two-year post-college service experience as a campus minister in Cote d'Ivoire, West Africa. More recently, she has been involved in cross-cultural mission and learning experiences in Haiti and Calcutta, India. She is co-chair of the planning committee for a leadership conference, “Women of the Church: Strength of the Past. Hope for Tomorrow,” planned for October 7-9, in Ferdinand, Indiana.

Chicken and gnocchi soup is on the menu this week, and we hope that you will join us for this evening of discussion and friends!

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

Welcome back, students! We will be having the first I-House of the semester tonight at 7:00 p.m.! The topic will be the country of Syria, and the presenter is Ahmad Ismail. He is a biology major, and his favorite part about UE is that he has met so many different people. So stop on by and hear what he has to say about Syria! Make sure to mark it on your calendar.

The Honors Program is hosting Nerd Wars trivia night on Tuesday, February 16, at 7:00 p.m., in Eykamp Hall, Ridgway University Center. Teams of five, consisting of students, faculty, administrators, and staff, will battle in a competition of wit while enjoying pizza, popcorn, and soda. The winning student team and the winning faculty/administrator/staff team will receive $25 MasterCard/VISA gift cards.

Registration materials can be picked up in the Powell Honors Lounge or from Jayme Williams in Room 238, Koch Center for Engineering and Science. You can also register online by clicking here.

The entry fee is $5 per person.

Those who are unable to compose a team of five may still register and will be matched to make a team.

The registration deadline is Wednesday, January 27. Any questions can be emailed to Stephen at sl192@evansville.edu or Paige at ph89@evansville.edu.

Please join Scholars for Syria for an opportunity to learn more about the Syrian conflict and its related refugee crisis at a free lecture presented by Dr. Bashar Mourad on Thursday, January 21, at 7:00 p.m. at Aldersgate United Methodist Church. The event is free and open to the public.

After the lecture, brief presentations will be made by Road to Mafraq and UE's Scholars for Syria. Light dessert and coffee will be served.

Mourad was born and raised in Syria, graduated from medical school in Damascus University in 1986, and came to the United States in 1989. He trained in internal medicine in Chicago and in nephrology (kidney disease) in Houston at Baylor College of Medicine. He is a member of the Islamic Center of Evansville. Mourad is currently in private practice with Ohio Valley Nephrology in Owensboro. He has lived in this area with his wife Azza and children since 1997.

Road to Mafraq is a not-for-profit organization working to increase access to education and health care for children affected by conflict in the Middle East.

Scholars for Syria is an initiative founded by students and faculty at the University of Evansville. UE currently has 22 Syrian undergraduate students, one of the largest university percentages in the US. Starting in February, this group will be hosting a series of lecture/panel seminars informing the community about Syria: its history, politics, civil war, religion, and refugee crisis. The goal is to educate the community on how to understand the current conflict, help alleviate the suffering of refugees, and better support our UE Syrian students and their families both here and abroad.

For information on Scholars for Syria, call Gail Vignola at 732-239-4139.

There will be an information session on Thursday, January 21, at 6:00 p.m. in Room 250, Schroeder School of Business Building, regarding Gilman Scholarships and other scholarships for study abroad. You must be Pell Grant eligible to apply for the Gilman Scholarship. Questions? Contact bp66@evansville.edu.

The first PT Club meeting of the semester will be today at noon in Room 104, Graves Hall. If you are a new member or haven’t paid your dues for the entire year yet, please bring your $5 to the meeting.

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.

A free Collegiate Career Expo is planned for Thursday, February 18 in Indianapolis, Indiana, with 130 employers expected to attend. The event is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. (Eastern Time) at the Downtown Indianapolis Marriott. The University of Evansville will provide bus transportation. There is a $10 deposit required that will be refundable upon attendance. Reserve your seat now (https://www.evansville.edu/careercenter/busReservationForm.cfm).

Fair registration is through UE JobLink (https://evansville-csm.symplicity.com/). Click the Jobs Tab -> CSM Jobs -> Posting #722253.

Find a list of registered employers here: http://cccc-in.org/event-2060555.

Need assistance with your job, internship, co-op, or graduate school search? Please contact the Center for Career Development: career@evansville.edu or 812-488-1083.
 

There will be no 9:30 p.m. Wednesday Mass tonight due to the weather. We hope that you will join us for Mass on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. in Neu Chapel! 

All individuals who wish to request and use a ladder on campus must be ladder certified by Risk Management. Ladder training will take place tonight at 9:00 p.m. in Room 162 (Harkness Hall), Schroeder School of Business Building. 

Please complete this registration to finalize your participation.

Participants will need to bring a pen or pencil to the training. Participants will watch a video and take a quiz. In order to get certified, participants must pass the quiz with 70 percent of the questions correct.

Feel free to share this link with any UE community member that you feel would benefit from this training.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Calvin Wertman at cw81@evansville.edu.

Since 1996 the Department of Theatre has been offering an exciting and unique opportunity to students from UE and other campuses to gain first-hand insight into Britain and its theatre. At the same time they satisfied one of their required electives by enrolling in Theatre 110 An Introduction to the Theatre. 

Be one of them in 2016.  See as many as seven plays in five weeks, from London's glittering West End, to Shakespeare's Stratford, to professional theatres within a short drive from Harlaxton. You will get to visit the towns and cities, meet the artists, and see a varied selection of plays, both modern and classic.

You will also enjoy the thrill of living for five weeks in spectacular Harlaxton Manor nestled in the English countryside while finding your own travel adventures.

What former students have to say:

• It was an amazing experience and a great sample of the variety of theatre.
• My favorite part was being able to see many parts of England and experience the culture of the towns and cities.
• The theatres were gracious enough to give us tours. I loved being able to see the props and all the work that goes on behind the scenes.
• Overall the plays I saw made me aware of how alive the theatre really is.
• This class has helped me to learn how to reflect on a performance and to share my opinions in a nonjudgmental environment.
• The single most defining experience of the class was the sense of community within our class.

If interested, e-mail Joseph Flauto, professor emeritus of theatre, at jf33@evansville.edu.

Applications to become an RA for the Fall 2016 and Spring 2017 semesters are available in the Office of Residence Life and online.

Information sessions will be held in Room 172, Schroeder School of Business Building, at 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 20, Thursday, January 21, and Tuesday, January 26. Contact Betsy Whited at ew156@evansville.edu with any questions you have!

Rami Malek ’03 received the Critics Choice award for Best Actor in a Dramatic Series on Sunday night. Malek appears in the USA Network series, Mr. Robot. The show also earned a Critics Choice award, being named Best Drama Series. 

The College of Engineering and Computer Science received Professional Engineer exam results from the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. The PE exam passing rate for UE civil engineering alumni was 90 percent (9/10) on the October 2015 PE exam, while the national average was 66%.

Over the past 10 years, UE civil engineering alumni have exceeded the national passing rate on the PE exam by about 20%.

Passing the PE exam is a requirement for professional licensure as an engineer in all 50 states. Professional licensure protects the public by enforcing standards that restrict practice to qualified individuals who have met specific qualifications in education, work experience, and exams. In the United States, licensure for the engineering profession is regulated by state law.

The book Ecology, Ethics and Hope (Rowman & Littlefield) was recently published and is now available in paperback. This collection includes a chapter by Lisa Kretz, assistant professor of philosophy, titled "Singing Hope's Praises: A Defense of the Virtue of Hope for Environmental Action."

Choudhury (“Spike”) Yusuf and David Pollock ’78 recently had a paper accepted for publication in the Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Conference on Endothelin. Yusuf is a sophomore and a biology major at UE. Pollock is a professor in the Division of Nephrology in the Department of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Their research paper “Ovarian Hormones Modulate Endothelin A and B Receptor Expression” was based on data obtained by Yusuf last summer in Pollock’s laboratory at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Pollock is a world-renowned scientist whose research program addresses questions related to mechanisms of endothelin control of renal hemodynamics and excretory function.

Shooting over 50% for the fourth game in a row, the University of Evansville Men’s Basketball team defeated Loyola, 74-66, in Missouri Valley Conference action on Tuesday night at the Ford Center.

In front of a national audience on the CBS Sports Network, 5-time MVC Player of the Week Egidijus Mockevicius posted his second-consecutive 20-rebound effort while scoring 23 points to lead everyone.  D.J. Balentine was also stellar for the Purple Aces (17-3, 6-1 MVC).  It was lucky sevens for the senior as he hit seven field goals, seven free throws, and registered seven assists.

Jaylon Brown was held scoreless in the first half, but hit four out of five attempts in the second to finish with 11 points.  Adam Wing rounded out the double figure scorers with 10.  He hit a pair of triples.

Tyson Smith was the top scorer for Loyola (8-11, 1-6 MVC), tallying 15 points.  He hit four shots, including a pair of triples.  Milton Doyle hit seven buckets on his way to 14 points while Donte Ingram notched 13 points and a team-best seven rebounds.

Loyola had the upper hand early on, scoring the first two buckets of the game before taking a 6-2 lead.  Evansville found its groove and took its first lead of the game at 7-6 on a Balentine trey.  After the Ramblers tied it up at 10-10, Adam Wing took matters into his own hands, hitting a pair of long jumpers, one being a three, to give the Aces a 15-10 lead.

After Loyola punched back again to tie it up at 17-17, the Aces took the lead for good, reeling off the next 10 points as Blake Simmons hit an and-one to spearhead the run.  A turning point on the night came when LUC cut the gap to just a pair at 29-27.  With a chance to tie or take the lead, the Ramblers were called for an offensive foul and a technical in a fast sequence.  Those events resulted in three UE points before Wing capped off the first-half scoring with a three near the buzzer to send the Aces to the locker room up 35-27.

In the first three minutes of the second half, Evansville added to its lead, scoring the first eight points to go up 43-27.  The largest lead of the night came with 7:42 left as an old-fashioned 3-point play by Jaylon Brown put the Aces up by 19 at 60-41. 

The feisty Loyola team never gave up, despite trailing by 16 with just 67 ticks remaining.  In the last three minutes, the Ramblers hit seven shots in a row, getting within six with eight seconds left.  Balentine ended the game, hitting all four free throws in the final 15 seconds.

Evansville treks to the road for its next two games, beginning with a ride up north to Terre Haute to face Indiana State on Sunday afternoon.  Game time is 3:00 p.m. CT.  Fans can still register to the pregame pep rally. 

On January 24, a pep rally will be held prior to the University of Evansville Men’s Basketball game at Indiana State as the Purple Aces go for the season sweep against the Sycamores. Open to the first 200 fans to register with the UE alumni office, the cost is $20 and includes a game ticket, pep rally buffet, and drinks (lemonade and tea). There will also be a cash bar. Just a three minute walk to the Hulman Center, the pregame event will be held at the Indiana Theater, which is located at 683 Ohio Street in Terre Haute. It will run from 1:00 p.m. until 3:30 p.m. ET with a program starting at 2:45 p.m. The game against the Sycamores is set to begin at 4:00 p.m. ET. Fans can register at the link above by January 20. For more information, contact alumni@evansville.edu or call 812-488-2586.