Dean's Community Message

March 25, 2020

Dear College of Engineering Community,

First and foremost: To all of our staff across the college, I know I’m not alone in my deep appreciation of your hard work and dedication in ensuring our continued operation. Faculty, students, if you’d like to recognize a particular staff person for their work, please email me. Staff are more than welcome to send messages of recognition of each other, as well!

Remember, we can also connect beyond email, on social media. You can find me on LinkedIn, and the college on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. I love connecting with you and hearing from you on social media! We need to connect even more now than ever!

Today, I’m sharing both an inspirational quote and a fun link to some much-needed distractions. The quote was submitted by Tammy McCoy, Administrative Support Assistant in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Please continue to send us your quotes!

“There are no problems we cannot solve together, and very few that we can solve by ourselves.”
—Lyndon B. Johnson

Link: explore.org/livecams/warrior-canine-connection/puppy-whelping-room

The link above goes to a livestream of puppies. I encourage you to explore the website, which contains livestreams to all variations of wild and domesticated animals.

We are and will continue to navigate difficult and unprecedented situations as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, but it is okay to take a moment to breathe and appreciate a little levity — especially in the form of puppies. Thanks to Tessa Woodring, Marketing & Communications Specialist, for sharing.

Today’s updates:


Tech Teaching Assistants Available

Course instructors in need of technology assistance during the synchronous portion of a class are encouraged to request a “Tech TA” through the Teaching and Learning with Technology group. These are Penn State students who are available to help with muting/unmuting participants, offering tech support to participants, moderating chats, polling, setting up and monitoring breakout rooms, and sharing whiteboards.


Phishing Warning

The Penn State Office of Information Security is cautioning users to expect an increase in COVID-19-related phishing campaigns in the coming weeks. In our current telecommuting and remote learning environment, it is especially important that everyone remain on guard against phishing scams and malware. Users of personal systems should make sure their operating systems are patched and are running antivirus software. Remember, no legitimate sender will ever ask you to verify your account or your identity. Even if these messages appear to come from someone you know and/or appear to be a legitimate psu.edu email address, always be suspicious of any email asking you to click on a link. When in doubt check with your departmental IT personnel or the Penn State IT help desk.


Building Occupancy

With only essential business services taking place on campus currently, it is expected that building occupancy will be minimal. Temperatures in many University facilities will be adjusted to conserve energy, reduce emissions, and generate savings for the University. Temperatures will have a heating setpoint of 50°F and a cooling setpoint of 85°F with limited outside air ventilation. This will take effect beginning at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, April 3, and will remain in this state until further notice. At University Park, there are opportunities for exceptions to the above schedule. Faculty and staff members who have an exception based on a mission-critical need are asked to submit requests through their facility coordinator, who will process the requests through the Office of Physical Plant. Exceptions are requested by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, March 27. At locations other than University Park, the campus executive office or administrative officer will determine the extent of the setback program, review requests for exceptions, and render decisions locally.


Assessment and Exam Proctoring Options

For faculty who are thinking about how to assess students remotely, the University’s remote teaching site has been updated with more information on Teaching and Testing options. If you have questions about the best option to use in your course or need help setting up the option you’ve chosen, designers from the Office for Digital Learning can provide one-on-one consultations. Contact ODL on their contingency planning site or by dropping in on their open Zoom consultation sessions any weekday from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m.


As always, additional information is available on the University’s informational site and the College of Engineering resources site. Send questions and comments to L-COE_CORONA_CRISIS_TEAM@engr.psu.edu.

Stay healthy and stay dry in this interesting weather!

Justin Schwartz
Harold and Inge Marcus Dean, College of Engineering