The Lutheran Church of our Redeemer will be having a large funeral event on the morning of Wednesday, November 21. They ask that the University community please refrain from parking there for the day.

The Department of Mathematics at the University of Evansville has launched a new bachelor’s degree in actuarial science.  The program prepares students for a career as an actuary, a top-ranked profession offering high salaries in a low-stress environment.  In addition to specialized courses focused on actuarial science, the program includes course work in mathematics, statistics and data science, computer science, economics, finance, and accounting. Students may enroll in the program beginning in Fall 2019.

“Actuaries are experts at modeling and managing risk,” said Mark Gruenwald, PhD, professor of mathematics and director of actuarial science. “They are highly trained professionals with strong analytical skills and specialized knowledge of math, statistics, and business. Their work provides financial security for insurance companies, multinational corporations, and the government. Not surprisingly, there is a growing demand for individuals with this rare combination of talent and expertise.”

Advancement as an actuary depends on progress in completing a series of challenging exams, the first one to three of which are typically taken before graduation. The new program provides preparation for five of the 10 actuarial exams required to achieve the highest status within the profession, Fellow of the Society of Actuaries

The new program was designed in consultation with graduates of the former program and replaces the existing actuarial track within the applied mathematics program.

“We are proud of the successes of our graduates,” said David Dwyer, PhD, chair of the mathematics department. “Our alumni can be found at the highest levels of the actuarial profession in insurance companies and consulting firms across the country and even abroad. Their input was instrumental in helping us to design a first-class program to prepare our students for the changing demands of the actuarial profession. The changes to our program were so significant that we created an entirely new degree dedicated to actuarial science.”

The new actuarial program adds an advanced course in long-term actuarial modeling along with three new required classes in data science.

“Our alumni tell us that actuaries are increasingly exploiting cutting-edge techniques from the field of data science. One example is machine learning, a form of artificial intelligence,” said Gruenwald. “A few years ago, we established one of the few undergraduate programs in data science. Now we can leverage our data science courses to better serve our actuarial students. In fact, we will encourage all actuarial science majors to complete a minor in statistics and data science, and we anticipate that some will choose to complete a double major in actuarial science and statistics and data science.”

The new program provides course work that exceeds the stated requirements of the Society of Actuaries (SOA) for achieving Advanced Curriculum status.

For more information, to enroll in the actuarial or statistics and data science programs at UE, or to arrange a personal visit with professors Dwyer or Gruenwald, contact the Office of Admission at 833-BeAnAce or email math@evansville.edu.

The University of Evansville will celebrate the holidays with Christmas on Campus on Friday, November 30. The celebration will include photos with Purple Santa, reindeer games, carriage rides, trackless train rides, cookies and hot chocolate, Candlelight Advent Vespers, and the ceremonial lighting of the University’s Christmas tree.

Candlelight Advent Vespers is free and open to the public. The public is welcome to any and all of the other events for only $5 per family. Visit UE's Christmas on Campus webpage at www.evansville.edu/aceschristmas/ to fill out the online registration form and save time during the event.

The complete schedule for Christmas on Campus is as follows:

5:00 p.m.
Check-in
Lobby, Olmsted Administration Hall

5:00 - 6:45 p.m.
Photos with Purple Santa
Ridgway University Center

Christmas Crafts
Ridgway University Center

5:00 - 10:00 p.m.
Reindeer Games and Trackless Train Rides
East Terrace Lawn

Christmas Shopping at UE Bookstore
Stop in for giveaways and 20 percent off the original price of all clothing and gift items to all shoppers during the night!

7:00 p.m.
Candlelight Advent Vespers
Neu Chapel

8:00 - 10:00 p.m.
Carriage Rides
Sesquicentennial Oval

Cookies and Hot Chocolate
Lobby, Olmsted Administration Hall

Roasted Nuts and Kettle Corn
East Terrace Lawn

8:05 p.m.
Lighting of the Christmas Tree and Caroling
Outside Graves Hall

Yolanda Obaze, University of Evansville assistant professor of supply chain management, will be the speaker for the Andiron Lecture on November 28. The lecture will begin at 4:00 p.m. in Eykamp Hall, Room 252, Ridgway University Center. There will be a social gathering with beverages at 3:45 p.m. This event is free and open to the public.

Obaze will be discussing "Co-creation of Value Using Logistics and Supply Chain Relationships." A maturing stream of logistics and supply chain literature has focused on supply chain relationships to understand how these relationships can impede or create a sustainable competitive advantage. Concurrently, researchers seek to understand how traditional supply chain management practices can be adopted into complex networks of various organizations that have a plethora of motives, missions and values. Obaze’s current research looks into complex supply chain relationship management and practices – in particular, how supply chain relationships that enable economic and social networks can be complex and yet achieve sustainable goals. 

Obaze earned her BA from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Kaduna Nigeria, and her MBA (strategic management and marketing) and PhD degrees from the University of North Texas, Denton, Texas. Her research interests include service systems, complexities and marketing theories, operations and supply chain management, logistics systems, and humanitarian logistics and supply chain management. She is an active member of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, Production and Operations Management, South West Decision Sciences Institute, Decision Sciences Institute, and Association of Collegiate Marketing Educators.

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

The Black Student Union (BSU) will be continuing our discussion on inclusion on campus started by last year's "Now You See Me." We interviewed around 100 students and asked them when they felt included on campus in order to provide ways to help campus be inclusive from the student perspective. Please come out to the atrium in the Schroeder School of Business Building on Tuesday, November 27 from 6:00-8:00 p.m. to help BSU foster a more inclusive campus for all students through an interactive discussion.

Submitted by DaLisa McCallum dm254@evansville.edu

The 1st Annual UE Student Research and Honors Symposium is scheduled for April 3 from 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. The event showcases the scholarly activities of students of diverse disciplines across UE’s campus, including the graduating seniors of UE’s Honors Program. Students are invited to apply to participate by submitting an abstract for their papers, posters, and other exhibits. Those students who graduate in December are also welcome to participate. More details and information on how to submit your abstract will follow soon.

Submitted by Johnna Denning-Smith jd184@evansville.edu

Please join us in celebrating Debbie Kassenbrock's 25 years of service to UE and our students! The event is planned for November 30 from 3:00-5:00 p.m. in the Melvin Peterson Gallery.

For questions, contact Stacey Shanks at ext. 2606.

Submitted by Stacey Shanks ss581@evansville.edu

The University of Evansville Department of Art and the University of Evansville Friends of Art are pleased to announce their Holiday Art and Craft Sale. The sale will be held in the Melvin Peterson Gallery on Thursday, November 29 from 9:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m. This a perfect opportunity to find unusual holiday gifts made by local artists, crafts people and our very own UE Family! Friends of Art volunteers and gallery staff will be on site to handle the sales.

Submitted by Brooksie Smith bs267@evansville.edu

The UE Jazz Ensemble I will present the concert, Basically Basie, on Tuesday, November 27 at 7:30 p.m. in Wheeler Concert Hall. The concert is free and open to the public and will feature music solely from the Basie library.

Tickets are available for both preferred seating and a post-concert reception. The fee to attend the reception is $25.

You may contact the Department of Music office at 812-488-2754 or at www.uealumnionline.com/basie for more information.

All proceeds benefit the UE Department of Music. Come out to hear this nostalgic music and support the talented UE musicians.

Submitted by Timothy Zifer tz3@evansville.edu 

UE students, staff, administrators and faculty are invited to participate in the Rotary Club of Evansville's 5th Annual 2018 Rotary Santa Run. The event will take place at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, December 1 at the Buffalo Trace Council Center.

The Rotary Santa Run is a perfect way to run into the holiday season. The holidays will be here before you know it! The proceeds from this year’s event benefit the United Methodist Youth Home, to assist with the build of a new home for the at-risk girl’s residential program, which will allow them to open and operate the semi-independent living program in the current residential group home. 

Santa suits for the first 800 registrants are included.

In addition, a “spirited costume contest” will be held for children ages 1-9, teenagers from 10 to 18 and adults from 19 +.  Teams and families are encouraged to participate in this festive contest.  Prizes will be awarded.

5K Timed Run and 1-mile Family Fun Walk

Cost $ 25

Special discount rate of $5 with code: 5offcollege2018

Register online at:  www.SantaRunEvv.com.

Good from November 19–26.

Submitted by Cathy Renner cr107@evansville.edu 

The Student Health Clinic will be closed Wednesday, November 21 through Sunday, November 25. The Student Health Center will reopen on Monday, November 26 at 8:00 a.m. In the event that you need medical assistance, please contact Campus Security at 812-488-2051 or dial 911 or go to the nearest hospital.

Submitted by Tara Ulrich tu19@evansville.edu

The Liberty Baptist Church family has invited the UE community to enjoy a free Thanksgiving dinner and fellowship at Liberty Baptist Church on Thursday, November 22 from noon-3:00 p.m. The church is located at Church 701 Oak Street and M.L. King Blvd. (It’s the red brick church on the corner) Everyone is welcome to attend!

Submitted by Marisa Knox mk52@evansville.edu 

Any current student needing their official transcript must submit an order no later than 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 6. Orders placed after 5:00 p.m. will not be processed until after grades are “official.”

Orders must be placed through www.evansville.edu/transcripts.

If you have questions, please contact the registrar’s office for assistance.

Submitted by Teresa Haller th227@evansville.edu

Residence hall students - do you need a place to stay this winter? The residence life office has limited winter housing available. Only students participating in official University functions or with approved reasons will be considered for winter housing.

Winter housing is located on the fourth floor of Morton Residence Hall. Students will not have access to their permanent rooms during winter break. Approvals are subject to room availability. Students are charged a flat fee of $400 for winter housing.

Students seeking winter housing must submit a Winter Housing Request Form by noon on Reading and Study Day, available through this link - www.surveymonkey.com/r/WinterHousing.

Students who live in Village housing can stay in their apartment or house at no additional cost but we do ask that you let us know when you will be on campus by filling out this form - www.surveymonkey.com/r/villagewinterhousing.

Submitted by Brian Conner bc32@evansville.edu

Two ES 103 courses (Fundamentals of Environmental Science) are now open for this coming spring semester 2019. This is a gen ed course for non-science majors. The course introduces problems related to societal, economic, and political environmental impacts. Courses will be offered MWF at 1:00 p.m. or TuTh at 1:15 p.m. Further questions can be directed to Professor Noah Gordon at ng62@evansville.edu.

Submitted by Noah Gordon ng62@evansville.edu

Please consider donating new gloves, mittens, socks, hats, or scarves for community children grades K-12 this season. These items can be placed on the tree in the Graves Hall lobby from now until December 14. The Center for Family, School and Community Partnerships will then distribute them to EVSC schools. Thank you.

Submitted by Karen Doss kd56@evansville.edu 

With the Thanksgiving holiday just around the corner, it is important to enter your work hours into Web Advisor by Saturday night at midnight, November 24. Supervisors will have until noon on Monday, November 26 to approve all time cards. If you have any questions, please contact Gloria Spencer at ext. 2159 or email gs55@evansville.edu.

The Fitness Center will be open on Thanksgiving week:

• Monday and Tuesday, November 19 and 20: 6:30 a.m.-10:00 p.m.
• Wednesday, November 22: 8:00 a.m.-noon
• Thursday through Sunday, November 22-25: Closed

Submitted by Lori Adams la87@evansville.edu

UE has partnered with Aurora to give back to families in need with the Adopt-a-Family event. You can sign up as a group or as an individual. There are individuals and families still left to be sponsored. Families consist anywhere between 2-5 people. Each individual asks for 3 items with prices generally ranging from $20-$60 dollars total. Some items may cost over $60 and others may be well under $20. The deadline to sign up is November 26. There are only a small number of families who still need to be adopted, so if you want to participate you need to sign up fast! To sign up or for more information, you can email Karyssa Vasquez at kv54@evansville.edu. This is a great cause and a good way to help give back to the community!

The Honorary Degree Committee looks forward to receiving your recommendations for honorary degrees to be conferred at the May 2019 Commencement. We need your help in selecting accomplished individuals to receive one of our university’s highest honors. Nominations may be made on the basis of individual service to the University or individual achievement that exemplifies the University’s mission. Recently selected persons have excelled in a variety of areas - law, medicine, education, business, literature, politics, and entertainment. The committee will forward nominations to President Pietruszkiewicz so he can make his recommendations to the faculty for their approval. Please email the following information to Robert Dion, committee chairperson, at rd35@evansville.edu, by Monday, November 26: Your name, the name of your nominee, the rationale for your nomination, biographical information on the nominee, and contact information for the nominee. Thank you in advance for your ideas.

Submitted by Robert Dion rd35@evansville.edu

There will be no Catholic Mass on Campus this Sunday due to Thanksgiving Break. 

Submitted by Sam Wallisch sw265@evansville.edu

If you are seeking financial aid to help pay for Winter Intersession courses at UE, please submit the Winter Intersession Application to the Office of Financial Aid by November 21. Our office will help you examine your options for aid, which in most cases is limited to loans.

Submitted by Amy Sowders as560@evansville.edu

There will be no Catholic Mass in Neu Chapel this week. 

Submitted by Sam Wallisch sw265@evansville.edu

Associate professor of archaeology Jennie Ebeling presented at the annual meetings of the American Schools of Oriental Research and the Society of Biblical Literature and for the Biblical Archaeology Society's Bible and Archaeology Fest in Denver the past week. For ASOR, she co-authored a paper on the basalt artifact industry at Jezreel with Jezreel field director Ian Cipin, presented "Circles on Plans: New Insights into Iron Age Ovens" in a session honoring a colleague at Emory University, and presented a poster on her analysis of stone artifacts from Hazor with colleagues from the University of Haifa, Israel. For SBL, she was invited to present in the session "Women's Economic Roles in the Biblical World" and for BAS she gave a popular lecture on the history of women in biblical archaeology.

Richard Maass, assistant professor of political science, presented research from his forthcoming book, Annexation: How Democracy and Xenophobia Limited U.S. Territorial Expansion, at the annual conference of the International Studies Association-Midwest this past Friday in St. Louis. 

Twelve Missouri Valley Conference volleyball student-athletes have been named to the 2018 MVC Scholar-Athlete First-Team by a vote of the league’s volleyball sports information directors, with approval from head coaches. An additional 10 student-athletes have earned honorable mention, the league office announced today.

Included on the First Team was Purple Aces junior Rachel Tam. The exercise science major has posted a 3.76 GPA in her time at UE. Tam posted 4.21 kills per set in 2018, ranking second in the MVC. She had a total of 492 kills and set her career mark with 29 against Western Illinois.

This year’s first-team includes seven players that have received previous MVC volleyball scholar-athlete recognition, including five repeat first-team honorees, including Bradley’s Erica Haslag, Illinois State’s Ali Line and Courtney Pence, Missouri State’s Emily Butters and Valparaiso’s Allison Ketcham. Illinois State’s Ali Line and Missouri State’s Emily Butters are three-time first team honorees. One member of the first team boasts a perfect 4.00 GPA, in Illinois State’s Ali Line.

Four Valley first team scholar-athletes – Bradley’s Haslag, Illinois State’s Line and Valparaiso’s Ketcham and Rylee Cookerly – were also members of their respective CoSida Academic All-District Teams.

Forty-two student-athletes were nominated for the Valley’s scholar-athlete team. The criterion for the honor parallels the CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) standards for Google Cloud Academic All-America voting. Nominees must be starters or important reserves with at least a 3.20 cumulative GPA (on a 4.00 scale). Also, students must have participated in at least 75-percent of the regular-season matches. Student-athletes must have reached sophomore status in both athletic and academic standing at their institution (true freshmen and redshirt freshmen were not eligible).

Fresh off of her best weekend of the season, University of Evansville volleyball player Alondra Vazquez was named the Missouri Valley Conference Freshman of the Week in an announcement by the league on Monday.

Vazquez had an excellent weekend as the Purple Aces made history with their second-ever win over UNI. In Friday’s win over the Panthers, Vazquez recorded 25 kills and 25 digs, both career highs. She added two aces, two block assists and an assists. In the efficient effort, she hit .279 in the 5-set win. 

Evansville took Drake to five sets on Saturday and Vazquez added 14 more kills and 19 assists. She notched two block assists and one solo block. For the weekend, Vazquez led UE in kills and digs with 3.90 and 4.40, respectively.

In her first season at UE, Vazquez completed the year with 3.08 digs per set, which ranked second on the team. On the offensive side, she ranked third for the Aces with 2.56 kills per game. She had a total of 21 service aces, 18 blocks and 19 assists in 2018.