ENDNOTES

HOMECOMING and REUNIONS

There was a Homecoming Mass and Reception in April. The next scheduled Homecoming and Class Reunions will be in April of 2006 as part of UIW’s 125 th anniversary celebration (1881-2006). The university will continue to honor the 25 th and 50 th graduation classes at the commencement ceremony in December and May each year. Formal reunions will be by decades as favored by a poll of IWC/UIW alumni. Suggestions and ideas are welcome and needed for the celebration in 2006.

ALUMNI SCHOLARHSIP SWEEPSTAKES 2004

The Alumni Office will once again sponsor Scholarship Sweepstakes to raise funds for the Brainpower Scholarship Endowment to benefit deserving students of the university and the two high schools. As usual, the drawing will be after Mass on July 4, at the By the Dawn’s Early Light alumni party at Brackenridge Villa (free). The prizes will include trips for two in the United States, pottery, art work, jewelry, bonds and other goodies donated by alumni and friends. The number of prizes are only limited by the prize donations – so we welcome all prizes. Once again the sweepstakes will be paperless; just tell us how many entries you want at $1 each and the computer will do the rest, up to and including the selection of winners. To donate a prize or make entries in the 2004 Sweepstakes, just e-mail dickm@universe.uiwtx.edu or contact the Alumni Office at (210) 829-6014
or 1 (800) 584-5322.

NURSING HONOR SOCIETY UPDATE FOR MEMBERS

Calling all UIW nursing honor society members, past and present: The UIW nursing honor society will become part of Sigma Theta Tau, the international nursing honor society, in April. If you are or know an honor society member, active or inactive, we need your current address. Invitations will be sent soon for the April induction ceremony. If you miss being inducted into STTI, there will be no grandfathering. Please notify Maureen Rauschhuber, Ph.D., R.N. of your address, at rauschhu@universe.uiwtx.edu. Her phone number is (210) 829-3995.

ALUMNI GIVING-BACK NETWORK PROPOSED

Alumnus Michael T. Berger, MBA ’97, and two other alumni have proposed an idea which is, at the core, “what is good for our business can be good for UIW.” Michael is in real estate with King Realtors; Ray Chacon, BA ’99, MBA ’00, is a financial planner; and Edward Leos, BA ’93, is the CEO of Destination Marketing Group (public relations, Web design, etc.). What they propose is that if alumni and friends use the services of the alumni in the network they will donate a percentage of their commission to the university for operations, capital or endowment needs. Eventually the network would have a directory of participating alumni.

Alumni interested in joining the network to provide services within this framework should contact the Alumni Office or e-mail d ickm@universe.uiwtx.edu

IMPROVE OUR COMMUNICATION

Send us your e-mail address and keep up with the UIW Web site: www.uiw.edu regularly. There is a new Alumni Calendar and many new folks on the Alumni Networking Network, plus a monthly e-mailed newsletter. Also, all of the details on Homecoming and the annual Scholarship Sweepstakes are available on the Web site or by contacting dickm@universe.uiwtx.edu or calling 1 (800) 584-5322. If you have an e-mail address, send it to the Alumni Office, as many alumni mailings are now done by e-mail to save on paper and postage.

If you use Earthlink as a server and have “spam” protection, please know that you will not receive e-mail from UIW unless we are in your approved address book.

Credit Card $: Thanks to all who regularly use their MBNA UIW affinity credit card. As you know, UIW receives a percentage quarterly on all credit card use and it does not cost the alumnus/a or the university anything extra. We now receive an annual revenue of $4,000 from MBNA, which goes directly to the Faculty Development Endowment to continue to improve the quality of classroom teaching. And, we can use that revenue for matching Federal dollars. A win-win all the way.

MARS

The Executive Council of the University, in conjunction with the offices of Admissions, Public Relations, Alumni, and Financial Assistance, has established a new student scholarship program to be named the McCracken Alumni Referral Scholarship Program. The University of the Incarnate Word McCracken Alumni Referral Scholarship (MARS) was established with the goal of recognizing UIW alumni as an effective vehicle in the recruitment of new students, passing on the “legacy” while strengthening the connection of our graduates to the university.

UIW alumni will be involved in identifying prospective students who will benefit from an Incarnate Word education and uphold the mission of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word. This scholarship is named in honor of Richard McCracken, long-time dean of alumni, in recognition of his many years of service and loyalty to UIW and its graduates.

The guidelines are as follows:

• Any UIW alumnus/a may nominate one (only) student per academic year to receive the $1000 voucher.

• Student must be a first-time, full-time undergraduate student.

• Voucher is good for first year only and is non-renewable.

• Nominated student must meet university admissions acceptance standards.

• It is preferred that the signed voucher accompanies completed admissions application, but can be forwarded to the Office of Admissions prior to or after official acceptance is issued to student.

• $20 admissions application fee will be waived if voucher accompanies paper application

• Voucher should include applicant’s name and signature of nominating alumnus/a.

• Deadline for submission is Aug. 1 for fall 2004.

• Nominated student must complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

• UIW employees who are also graduates are eligible to disperse voucher, but not to spouse, son or daughter receiving tuition benefit.

As a security precaution, the voucher form will be mailed directly to the address of record of the alumnus/a.