The 2014-2015 parking permits are now available for purchase in the Office of Safety and Security. They will be sold between 8 a.m.–4 p.m., Monday through Friday. The price remains $50 for the academic year. Employees will once more be able to use payroll deduction to pay for their permits. 

The wellness nurse will be in Ridgway University Center lobby Wednesday on Aug. 6, from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. Please stop by for any health care questions you may have. The nurse can check your blood pressure or calculate your body mass index and body fat percentage. For those in the current Healthy Behaviors Challenge, a visit to the nurse earns bonus points. 

Please join us Thursday, Aughst 7 for a farewell reception honoring Jessica Zellers, coordinator of health education and wellness. The event will be held in the Lobby area within the Student Life Suite in Ridgway University Center on Thursday, August 7 from 1:30 - 3:00 pm. After working at UE for nine years, Jessica has accepted a position with Vincennes University.

Students, faculty, administrators, and staff who sport the UE State of Indiana license plate in 2014 (new and renewal plates) will receive a $25 discount off the UE parking permit fee for 2014-15. The registration process for the plates is now handled through the state. If you want to purchase or renew a UE plate, visit www.in.gov/bmv/2744.htm. If you already have your 2014 UE plate, bring your State of Indiana vehicle registration to the Office of Safety and Security when you purchase your parking permit for the new academic year. If you have not registered your vehicle yet, you will need to pay the full parking permit fee and then bring your registration to the Office of Safety and Security to get a credit for $25. If you have any questions, contact alumni@evansville.edu.

The Office of Development office mailed the President’s Club parking decals last week. However, campus President’s Club members are welcome to stop by the Igleheart Building to pick up their decals anytime.

If you have been considering becoming a President’s Club member, this is a great time of year to do it! To become a member of UE’s premier leadership giving society, a gift of $1000 or more is required. You may also make a payroll deduction pledge in that amount, to be spread out through May 2015. Gifts may be designated to virtually any University account, or to one of our unrestricted Annual Fund accounts (Alumni Scholarship Fund, Harlaxton Annual Fund, Purple Aces Scholarship Fund, or Friends for Educational Excellence).

For more information, please contact Scott Gilreath, Director of Annual Giving (sg157@evansville.edu or x2429) or Beth Speer, Director of Stewardship and Special Events (bs67@evansville.edu or x1013)

The TIAA-CREF representative will be on the UE campus on Wednesday, August 20, for individual counseling sessions. To schedule an appointment, call TIAA-CREF at 1-800-732-8353 or 317-706-6200. The sessions are held in the Clifford Rare Books Room of the University Libraries (room 158). 

Each February at Founders Day, the Alumni Association presents four awards to individual alumni who’ve made great achievements in their careers and in service to others and UE. The Alumni Awards Committee of the UE Alumni Association Board of Directors is now seeking nominations for the following awards:

Distinguished Alumnus Award
Young Alumnus Award
Samuel Orr Honorary Alumnus Award
Edie Bates Volunteer Service Award

Find out more about these awards, view a list of past recipients and link to the nomination form, visit http://www.evansville.edu/alumni/alumniAwards.cfm.

Nomination deadline is August 25. 

Assistant Professor of Education Matthew Knoester has just published an article in the Journal of International Social Studies entitled “Education for Democracy at the University Level,” in which he discusses an FYS course he taught at UE entitled “Perspectives on Democracy.” Knoester has also just signed a book contract with Teachers College Press to co-edit a volume on the topic of whole-school thematic units within the K-8 curriculum. 

Assistant Professor Lisa Kretz's article “Emotional Responsibility and Teaching Ethics: Student Empowerment” was accepted for publication in the journal Ethics and Education.

Abstract: “This class is so [insert expletive] depressing.” I overheard a student communicating this to a friend upon exiting one of my ethics courses and I wondered how my classes could generate a sense of empowerment rather than depression, a sense of hope rather than despair. Drawing from David Hume’s and Martin Hoffman’s work on the psychology of empathy and sympathy I contend that dominant Western philosophical pedagogy is inadequate for facilitating morally empowered students. Moreover, I stipulate that adequate analysis of the role emotion should play in pedagogy requires tending to the politics of emotional expression and how oppression functions. I argue that ethical educators have a moral responsibility to facilitate not only critical moral thinking but critical moral agency. Part of ethical education should involve the provision of tools for effective citizen engagement and reasoning alone is insufficient for this goal. The role of emotion in ethical decision making and action remains devalued and under-analyzed. Approaches that fail to adequately recognize the role of emotion in ethical education are to the detriment of effective ethical pedagogy. I recommend a number of methods for remedying this omission so as to provide tools for moral action.