Dean's Community Message

March 14, 2020

Dear College of Engineering Community,

I hope you are doing well. As mentioned yesterday, I will plan to reach out with a once-per-day update unless events warrant additional communication.

Undergraduate Research

University leadership has provided the following guidance. Undergraduate students who are doing research for credit may not continue to work in labs and other areas on campus to complete their work. Faculty are asked to identify alternative ways of achieving the learning outcomes for the experience. If a student is completing a research thesis, faculty will work to navigate best practices for completing the thesis. If an undergraduate student taking research for credit is essential to the research mission, an academic unit executive must approve an exception for the student to continue research and ensure safe social distancing in the lab. Undergraduate students who are employees performing essential work may choose to continue work on campus if good social distance practices can be maintained.

Within the college, we are developing a process for review of exception requests and will provide additional guidance early in the coming week. But to emphasize: undergraduates are not permitted in labs.

The Learning Factory

In light of the lab guidance above, the Learning Factory will be closed throughout the period of remote instruction.

Remote Class Preparation Support

For faculty working to prepare classes for remote delivery this weekend, staff from the college’s Office of Digital Learning (ODL) are monitoring requests for help submitted via the ODL contingency planning website. Look for the submission form near the bottom of the page.

As a reminder, general questions or concerns can be emailed to the college’s COVID-19 Response Team at L-COE_CORONA_CRISIS_TEAM@ENGR.PSU.EDU. And as we have shared before, all of this is in an effort, as our University works together, to focus on the health and well-being of our community. For specific University updates, please continue to visit psu.edu/virusinfo.

I hope you have a great Saturday and can get outside to enjoy some spring sunshine!

Justin Schwartz
Harold and Inge Marcus Dean, College of Engineering