In order to process the December 24th payroll before the holiday break, the Accounting & Audit/Payroll Department is requesting the following:

• All students and staff please submit timecards by Saturday, December 12th for the 12/6/20-12/19/20 pay period. Please note that this is a full week early so that your pay is not delayed.
• Supervisors are asked to approve timecards before noon on Monday, December 14th.
• Any supplemental pay request forms should be submitted to payroll before Friday, December 11th.

Thank you, and please contact Dawn Bury at EXT 2159 or db287@evansville.edu if you have questions.

The University is providing free voluntary COVID-19 testing for students and employees on December 4, and 7-9.

The Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) provided University of Evansville the Abbot BinaxNOW rapid-result COVID-19 testing kits. These tests, which are much less invasive than standard deep nasal swabs, only swab the inside tip of the nostril. The results of the test will be available approximately 15 – 30 minutes after testing through the NAVICA mobile app.

Testing information:

Who can get a rapid-result test:

• Students who are symptom free, have not tested positive in the last 90 days for COVID-19.

Who should not get a rapid-result test:

• Students experiencing symptoms should NOT participate in the rapid-result testing program. Symptomatic students should pursue a standard PCR COVID-19 test at a local medical facility.
• Students who have tested positive in the last 90 days will not be allowed to receive this antigen rapid-result test, as they are expected to have antibodies that will result in a positive test.

For more information and to Register online at https://www.evansville.edu/coronavirus/rapid-result-test.cfm

The holiday season is finally upon us! In previous years, UE has held a Christmas on Campus event that includes carriage rides, a tree-lighting ceremony, Vespers service, a visit from Purple Santa, and more. Health and safety guidelines prevented us from having our on-campus event, but we still wanted to find a way to celebrate with our students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Let’s welcome the spirit of the season with The Holiday Hub!

The Holiday Hub is an online page that incorporates many of the well-loved elements from our annual event, along with materials for the virtual environment we have come to know so well. We invite you to check out all of the fun and festive content, which includes video messages, coloring pages, a Vespers message, and more. There may even be a visit from Purple Santa!

We hope you have a wonderful holiday season while you are home for the holidays.
 

Department of Music Features Small Ensembles

As part of our ongoing streaming concerts series for the fall, the Department of Music features various small student ensembles this Tuesday, December 8 at 7:30 p.m. The concert will open with the UE Purple Quintet and close with the UE Orange Quintet, (both brass groups.) Additional featured student performing groups include the Flute Ensemble, String Ensemble, Percussion Ensemble, and the UE Horn Choir. Visit the following link on or after Tuesday evening to enjoy a variety of musical combinations: https://www.evansville.edu/majors/music/calendar.cfm

UE University Choir Featured on Campus Holiday Hub

One of the highlights each year for the University Choir is performing at UE's annual Candlelight Vespers. Although we are saddened to not be able to hold Candlelight Vespers this year, UE has created the online "Holiday Hub" for the entire campus community. In addition to a Vespers message, the Holiday Hub features recordings of the University Choir performing advent and Christmas anthems from previous Vespers services, as well as congregational favorites such as 'O Come, All Ye Faithful" and "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!" Visit the Holiday Hub at: https://www.evansville.edu/theholidayhub/. You can also go directly to the choral highlights at: https://soundcloud.com/user-521414197/sets/choral-highlights-from-ue-candlelight-vespers

The UE Student Health Center will be closed for winter session starting Thursday, December 10 - January 18. Normal business hours will resume on Tuesday, January 19 at 8am. Please call security at 812-488-2051 for your emergent needs or email healthcenter@evansville.edu for non-urgent matters.

Employee Medical Clinic hours are unchanged during winter session. Please call 888-492-8722 for all employee clinic assistance.

The Ohio River and You

Why you should care and what you can do.

What’s runoff?

When water flows, it picks up dirt, dust, and debris with it. On a roadway, those pollutants could include sediment, metal, rubber, oil, fertilizers, antifreeze, cigarette butts, pesticides, etc. The Ohio River, which supplies six states their daily water, is in dire need of assistance to help combat runoff and keep the water clear!

What can you do?

Try carpooling or using bikes as your mode of transport. Do not over-fertilize your yard or use an environmentally-friendly fertilizer. Make sure your car is not leaking any sort of fluid before you drive it. Try and limit your one-use items and find more sustainable options, but most importantly…

DO NOT LITTER!

There is still time to register for Winter Intersession courses. The online courses run December 10, 2020 to January 15, 2021, and students may take up to two courses. For registration and payment deadlines and information, visit the Registrar area.

On November 3, 2020, UE insurance partner announced a few changes to the UE international insurance program including the following:

• Europ Assistance, UE’s international travel assistance partner has changed its name to Generali Global Assistance (Generali). However, services remain the same.
• The new GardaWorld program now provides expanded information offerings (country briefings, alerts, medical network, and additional security information) and a mobile phone app that can be downloaded for real-timed information and alerts.

For more information, please visit the Risk Management and Travel websites located on UE MyPortal.

Nick Harmon, assistant professor of physics, received a National Science Foundation (NSF) award for the proposal "Investigating Spin Currents from Nuclear Field Gradients". The $117,000 award over three years will be used to fund research in the field of 'spintronics' where the tiny magnetic nature of electrons (called spin) is used in addition to its charge for practical devices. Specifically, Dr. Harmon and UE physics students will investigate, using theoretical and computational methods, how nuclear spins can cause electron spins to flow which is a necessity for most spintronic applications. Students on this project will also have the opportunity to visit an experimental group (Prof. Paul Crowell) at the U. of Minnesota where experiments, similar to what are described in the proposal, are performed.

Aside from research, another aspect of the grant is to mainstream concepts from quantum mechanics using spin as an example. This will be done by bringing research examples into the classroom, creating curriculum where students outside the traditional physics program will confront these topics, and addressing issue regarding quantum science in world affairs to the UE/Evansville community.

Associate Professor and Chairperson Todd Matteson has three of his works chosen for FILLED UP: A Ceramic Cup Show.

The cup, one of ceramics more iconic images, has been used as a metaphor, a sculptural element, a sculptural foundation and a functional daily piece of dinnerware.

The exhibition is in historic New Harmony, IN, at the NHGCA, December 5, 2020-January 29, 2021. Whether you choose to fill your cups with beverages, food, pencils, or ideology, this exhibition will feature over 100 handmade creations from artists across the country. This exhibition is made possible in part by the Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana, Lenny and Anne Dowhie Trusts, and the Indiana Arts Commission, which receives support from the State of Indiana and the National Endowment for the Arts. Paul Andrew Wandless, artist, author, educator and curator, was the juror.

Motivational Factors Underlying Aversive Pavlovian-Instrumental Transfer by Dr. Campese and colleagues was published in the November issue of Learning & Memory as the featured cover piece.

With non-conference season underway for the 2020-21 college basketball season, the Missouri Valley Conference portion of the schedule is set to begin in less than a month.  In an effort to provide the ten league institutions with the safest environment to conduct their seasons, the MVC has announced a new format for this season.

In order to limit travel as much as possible, the traditional home-and-home schedule will be changed this season to a back-to-back format.  Each conference school will play four teams at home and four on the road with the travel partner having one game played at each location.  The majority of these series will take place on Saturday and Sunday with a few exceptions.

With the attendance limitations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Purple Aces fans can follow the team through the UE Athletics App and the ESPN3 and ESPN+ platforms.  The app will be your exclusive home for the digital game program, which will be released for all home games.  It also features game updates, exclusive offers and breaking news.  The ESPN app is your home for most UE conference contests.  It gives you the best seat in the house to follow Evansville all season long.

One of the aforementioned exceptions takes place in the opening week of the conference season when the Aces open up with a pair of games at Southern Illinois.  In order to avoid the possibility of teams having to travel on Christmas Day, these contests will be held on Sunday, December 27 and Monday the 28th.

UE’s first home series is set for January 2 and 3 when UNI comes to town.  That series will be held on a Saturday and Sunday, as will be the case with each one until the final weekend of the year.  Evansville remains home on Jan. 9/10 with contests against Illinois State.

The weekend of Jan. 16/17 pits the Aces at Bradley before the first travel partner game will see UE head to Terre Haute for a game on Wednesday, Jan. 20 at Indiana State.  The weekend of January 23 will be held open in the case of any postponements. 

Valparaiso will be at the Ford Center for games on Jan. 30 and 31 before the UE squad takes to the road for consecutive weekends.  The Aces will be at Loyola on February 6/7 before continuing on to Drake for contests on the 13th and 14th.

Evansville’s final three games are set to be played at home, beginning with a Wednesday, Feb. 17 game versus Indiana State.  Following another open weekend, the Aces welcome Missouri State in the regular season finale.  Those games are slated for Friday, Feb. 26 and Saturday the 27th.  The 2021 State Farm MVC Tournament will take place from March 4-7 at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis.

Dr. Payal Patel-Dovlatabadi, associate professor of public health, has contributed to the Indiana Clinical and Translational Science Institute's COVID-19 Expert Review and Emerging Literature.  

In her review, Dr. Patel-Dovlatabadi discusses the impact that the pandemic has on mental health. Specifically, she focuses on the prevalence of mental health issues in healthcare workers and college students.

You can read the full article here. The review was published on Monday, December 7.