One never can tell where a member of the UIS community may make an appearance in Springfield. This weekend, Dr. Holly Kent, a professor of history at UIS, wore traditional mourning dress from the Civil War period and participated in the Civil War Fashion Show at the Springfield Art Association.
Dr. Kent's research interests include the history of fashion and beauty culture, particularly during the early republic and antebellum eras in the United States. Dr. Kent has collaborated on various projects with the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield and, prior to the show, provided the audience with information that placed the clothing styles, designs, and colors in context of the historical period. Here's a link to the story in The State Journal-Register.
For
many students and faculty, Spring Break was a time to take a breather, spend
time with family or catch up on work that needs to get done. Many UIS
students took advantage of Spring Break to volunteer their time and contribute
to their communities. I'm particularly proud of the large group of
students who spent the week in Washington, D.C. volunteering at
soup kitchens and homeless shelters in collaboration with the Youth Services Opportunities Project. If you've been away, welcome back! We've got nine weeks
left in the semester with lots more opportunities to learn and be engaged here
at UIS.
The StARS Research Symposium is coming up soon, planning for
Springfest is well underway, our baseball and softball teams have several home
games scheduled and seniors are looking ahead to commencement on May 17th! Best of all, winter is OVER!!!
Welcome back and best wishes for a
productive rest of the semester.
Though its usually very quiet on campus during Spring Break, this particular Spring Break Monday is special. The UIS Baseball team played its very first game (two games actually- a conference double header against Missouri S & T) on its own UIS home field!
We'll have an official ribbon-cutting next week when the students are back on campus, but in the meantime it was great fun to bundle up and see this early Spring game - along with some hardy early Spring fans who were also there to support our team.
Pursuing a university degree is challenging and at UIS we
are constantly working to provide a supportive environment so that every
student has an opportunity to succeed. Access to various support services is a
vital element in student success and improving that access is what Associate
Vice Chancellor Karen Moranski and Dean Jim Ermatinger and many others have
been working on for several months.
Today we had a special ribbon cutting
for the new Center for Academic Success (CAS). CAS now serves as home to the
Offices of Advising Services (“OASIS”), Student Learning Services (“The
Learning Hub”), English Language Support Services (“Intensive English
Programs”), International Programs, Internships and Prior Learning Services,
and Testing Services. All of these offices, with the exception of Testing
Services, are located on the 4th Floor of the Brookens Library
Building. (Testing Services, which will be housed in the Human Resources
Building, will open in summer 2014.)
My thanks to all who have worked so
hard to make this “one-stop shop” a reality. I am confident that UIS
students will benefit greatly from this best practice.
We've got some
special guests at UIS this week – the cast and crew of the Tony Award winning
show, The Jersey Boys! I had the pleasure of meeting two of the four
leads, Adam Zelasko (from New York) and Quinn VanAntwerp (from
California). Adam and Quinn were kind enough to show me a few dance moves
from the show. I think maybe I should stick to my day job. Come and see the show at UIS Sangamon Auditorium thru March 8th. Tickets for UIS students are a great
bargain at $22 each and are available to UIS students only for the Wednesday and Thursday night performances. Opening night was fantastic!
The UIS men's basketball team played its first round game of the GLVC Tournament yesterday at Truman State University and I'm so glad I was able to be there. UIS upset the #5-seeded Truman State on their home court with a resounding 78-72 victory. It was a great game and so much fun to watch Senior Regan Bruenger score a career-high 25 points! For the first time in school history, the men's team moves on this Friday to the quarter-finals of the conference tournament in Evansville, Indiana. Congratulations to all the members of the men's team and to the coaching staff.
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