The Shield

Campus Activities Liberty Arena Movie Night will be held April 20 at 5:30 p.m. at the Liberty Arena. Join APB to watch Zootopia 2. Drinks and popcorn will be provided. French Pastry Night is April 22 at 3 p.m. in the Miller Language Lab. Join to enjoy some French pastries and test your knowledge in a little French trivia. Watercolor Wednesday will be held April 22 at 6 p.m. in the University Center East Patio. Join and paint your own art with different kinds of water paint.

Lucas Washington, USI student, holds the microphone while performing as the opening act at USI SpringFest 2026, April 11 in the Liberty Arena. (Photo by Izzy Hannon) The USI SpringFest 2026 concert Saturday, April 11 featured the rock band The Driver Era as the headlining act with USI student Lucas Washington performing as the opening act. Story continues below advertisement

A three-quarter-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, located in Washington, DC, along with a mobile education center, will come to the USI campus in October. In February, Provost Shelly Blunt announced the university was finalizing plans to bring the 375-foot-long traveling memorial to USI. At the time, she expected roughly 30,000 visitors. The memorial was originally scheduled to be displayed on The Quad in September 2020, but was due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Southwestern Indiana native Brandi Durham Pugh has announced her candidacy for Indiana’s 49th State Senate seat as a Republican. In the May 5 primary, she will face incumbent Jim Tomes, who recently filed for reelection. Durham Pugh, a first-time candidate, filed to run against Tomes because she thought he was going to retire. She said the senator announced his candidacy after she had made the decision to run. “Yeah, I don’t recant when I say I’m going to do something,” she said.

Speakers give academic presentations for “Fear,” 18th Annual Interdisciplinary Colloquium, Tuesday April 14, in Carter Hall. (Photo by MJ Clark) Story continues below advertisement

Before reading this article, make sure you read part I, which features Groups A-D. Part I can be found here. In part II, we will dive into groups E-H. To briefly recap part I, the 2026 World Cup expanded this year. Going from 32 teams to 48, which increases the number of matches from 64 to 104. The top three teams from each group advance to the round of 32, with the group winner receiving a favorable matchup in the round of 32.

Astrid Chang, freshman food and nutrition major, performs a Murga, a traditional Panamanian dance, while representing University Center East at the Panamanian Carnival Thursday, April 9, in the Business and Engineering Center. The Panamanian Student Association (PANAS) hosts the annual Panamanian Carnival Thursday, April 9, in the Business and Engineering Center. This is a cultural tradition held before Lent. The event had music, dancing, and parades.

Ceramic pieces made by students in ceramic class sit on a table to be sold near the University Center Breezeway Wednesday, April 15. The Dowhie Ceramics Center Studio hosted a ceramic sale at the University Center Breezeway Wednesday April 15 and will be concluding their sale Thursday, April 16 from 10 to 4 p.m. Story continues below advertisement

Record Store Day (RSD) is an annual worldwide event held on the third Saturday of April to celebrate independent record stores. Space Monkey Records is one of the many stores participating in Evansville, Indiana. What makes RSD special? Record Store Day gives music and vinyl-lovers a chance to get their hands on music titles that are otherwise “hard to find,” allowing listeners to find something exclusive and gain a community experience along the way.

The Southern Indiana Reading Series and Liberal Arts Center was proud to host the Melissa Fraterrigo Reading at the Griffith Center Wednesday, April 8. This event included a reading and signing of Fraterrigo’s latest book, The Perils of Girlhood. Fraterrigo is a limited-term English lecturer at Purdue University. She is also the executive director of the Lafayette Writers’ Studio in Lafayette, Indiana. She holds the title of author for several books.