Dean's Community Message

March 17, 2020

Dear College of Engineering Community,

We’re on our second day of remote instruction, and I hope it is going as smooth as possible. Yesterday, the governor issued a strong recommendation for non-essential businesses across Pennsylvania to close for the next two weeks. Abington, Brandywine, and Great Valley campuses have already implemented these changes starting on March 12. All Penn State campuses, include University Park, will maintain essential services effective today, March 17.

The University has issued guidelines for these essential services. In summary, remote learning and already-approved telecommuting will continue, and the University will continue to evaluate which employees require on-site access for essential work.

Remember, we’re here to help if you run into any issues. Resources and contact information are at the bottom of this email. Here are some updates for today.

Revised Faculty Guidance for Size of Meetings and Events

The Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs has issued revised guidance pertaining to size of meetings and events, as well as faculty searches. The full details are attached. In summary, no new events or meetings with more than 10 participants may be scheduled through May 15 without approval from the Provost. Per the Department of State, all visitors, visiting scholars, and post-docs expected to arrive prior to May 11 will be asked to reschedule their visits. All faculty searches must be virtual until at least March 30 for domestic candidates and at least April 20 for international candidates.

Summer 2020 Education Abroad Courses and Programs

Please be advised that Penn State has cancelled all summer 2020 education abroad courses and programs. Travel grants for summer 2020 will not be awarded.

Fall 2020 travel grant applications will be reviewed and students will be notified of decisions before the fall commitment deadline of March 27, 2020.

Zoom and Kaltura Service Status

Both Zoom and Kaltura are reporting service degradations. In both cases, the issue is related to long processing times for recorded lectures. At this point, the live Zoom sessions appear to be working normally. For updates on both issues, see Zoom Status and Kaltura Status. We are monitoring the situation and investigating alternative recording workflows. We will keep you posted as we learn more.

Video and Audio Recordings of Class Lectures

Faculty should state at the beginning of class that the session is being recorded (i.e., “In order to provide instructional content to students registered that might not have been able to join today, we will be recording this class session. By joining today’s class session, you consent to being recorded.”). Video and audio recordings of class lectures will be part of the classroom activity. The video and audio recordings are used for educational use/purposes and may be made available to all students presently enrolled in the class. For purposes where the recordings will be used in future class session/lectures, any type of identifying information will be adequately removed from the videos.

Dean’s Community Message Archive

All of the Dean’s Community Messages are available here.

For a Moment of Levity

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCe5PaeAeew

As a reminder, continue to refer to the University’s informational site and the College of Engineering resources site. If you have unanswered questions, clarifications, or concerns, please email L-COE_CORONA_CRISIS_TEAM@engr.psu.edu, and we will work to address either individually or as part of these daily messages.

Be well!

Justin Schwartz
Harold and Inge Marcus Dean, College of Engineering