Complimentary white and red Christmas poinsettias are available in Neu Chapel. Feel free to take one home with you and/or share one with a friend.

Neu Chapel is open all this week, first come, first served.

(Please note that poinsettias are toxic to cats and dogs and can prove fatal to small animals of all kinds.)

Merry Christmas!

For the third straight week, the University of Evansville basketball team has had a student-athlete named Missouri Valley Conference Newcomer of the Week with freshman guard Kayla Casteel earning the honor after a pair of impressive performances.

On the week, Casteel averaged 13.5 points while shooting 53.3% (8-15) from the field, 58.3% (7-12) from beyond the arc, and going a perfect 4-4 from the free-throw line after entering the week without a point in her collegiate career. The freshman also showed poise in her first appearances with increased minutes, committing just two turnovers in 42 minutes of action.

In the Aces' 96-59 victory over Oakland City on Thursday night, Casteel came off the bench to score 14 points in 23 minutes of action, swishing four three-pointers. On the road against UIC on Saturday afternoon, the Indianapolis native continued her strong week as the freshman tallied 13 points on 3-5 shooting from beyond the arc in a 96-77 road loss.

Casteel's 27 point week is the best among Aces' freshman this season and second-best among players coming off the bench this year.

The honor is the fourth this season for the Aces after graduate guard Hannah Noe earned the recognition three times previously this season.

The Aces conclude their pre-holiday slate today when Evansville travels to take on SEMO at 1:00 p.m. in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

Campus members are invited to nominate someone to receive the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Mays Legacy Award on January 15, during the William and Dr. Rose May lectureship.

The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Legacy Award recognizes and affirms those who have made significant and tangible contributions in the areas of race relations, justice, and human rights. The award is presented annually at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Annual Lectureship to a UE alumni or campus member selected by the University of Evansville Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Committee. The purpose of the award is to recognize and affirm those who have made significant contributions in the areas of race relations, justice, and/or human rights.

Award Criteria:
1. The nominee has been personally or corporately involved in making tangible, visible, and meaningful contributions to the advancement of race relations, justice, and/or human rights causes.
2. The nominee must be an alumni, or current or past University of Evansville campus member, or a community member who has contributed to the University of Evansville and its mission for diversity and inclusion.

Selection Process:
1. The MLK Jr. Committee reviews all nominations and decides the winner for the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Mays Legacy Award. The MLK Jr. Committee shall notify the winner in January and invite the winner to attend the Lectureship and reception. The President of the University of Evansville and/or the Chair of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. or other committee members will present the award at the Lectureship.

The deadline for submitting nominations is January 8. Nominations may be made by submitting the information to LaNeeca Williams at lw161@evansville.edu.

Submitted by LaNeeca Williams lw161@evansville.edu

The Fitness Center will be open January 2-5 from 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.; closed on January 6 and January 7; and open on January 8 from 6:30 a.m.-10:00 p.m. 

Submitted by Lori Adams la87@evansville.edu

After 22 years of dedicated service to the University of Evansville, Sherri Chambliss will be retiring January 5. Sherri has impacted the lives of hundreds of UE PT and PA students and families who will forever be grateful for her service. Stop by and see Sherri and wish her well! 

Official transcripts for current students will not be available from December 7-20.

Submitted by Teresa Haller th227@evansville.edu 

Austin Kraus, a 2017 mechanical engineering graduate, received the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Arthur L. Williston Award at the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE). The event took place November 3-9 in Tampa, Florida. The Williston Medal is awarded to the best paper in an area of engineering-related civic service in a national writing competition. Austin becomes the fifth mechanical engineering student from UE to win the national award over the past 13 years.

University of Evansville assistant professor of creative writing Lisa Nikolidakis received the University’s 2017 Exemplary Teacher Award during UE’s winter commencement exercise on Thursday, December 14. Sixty students received degrees during the ceremony. The Exemplary Teacher Award is given by the University to an exceptional member of the faculty in acknowledgment of his or her teaching excellence.

Nikolidakis earned her PhD in English from Florida State University, and her MA and BA degrees in English from Rutgers.

Her work has been published in the Los Angeles Review, Brevity, Passages North, Nimrod, The Greensboro Review, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. Her essay “Family Traditions” was selected for inclusion in Best American Essays 2016. Her work has been runner-up or honorable mention for numerous prizes, including the Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction, the Gulf Coast Prize, the Lamar York Prize for Fiction, the Robert and Adele Schiff Award for Prose, the Calvino Prize, the Frank Mosher Short Fiction Prize. She has won the A Room Of Her Own’s Orlando Prize and The Briar Cliff Review’s Nonfiction Prize.

She has served as co-director of membership services for VIDA: Women in Literary Arts and nonfiction editor for The Southeast Review. At UE, Nikolidakis organized and hosts the #readingseries and Collision: A Writer’s Series.