Dean's Community Message

March 26, 2020

Dear College of Engineering Community,

I hope today has been a good day, and that you are staying healthy, staying socially distant, but also staying virtually connected with friends, family, and colleagues. Speaking of staying connected, yesterday I hosted a Zoom meeting with members of our Industrial and Professional Advisory Council (IPAC). This is normally one of our biggest campus events each spring, so it was an adjustment shifting to a virtual format. It’s something I know all of you have been dealing with over the past few weeks — staying flexible and pushing forward in new ways to get the job done. Today’s inspirational quote, submitted by pre-major undergraduate Cassidy Pitts (but also one of my all-time favorites — I actually have a coffee mug with this quote) reminds me of that can-do spirit:

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
Theodore Roosevelt

Please continue to send your quotes! Here are some updates for today:

Employment Impacts within Penn State

Along with health, I know that questions about the economy and job security are top-of-mind right now. As noted in the town hall with the President and Provost earlier this week, Penn State has committed to pay the full salaries of all workers through at least April 30. This message is particularly important to Penn State staff in auxiliary business operations like the hotels, conference centers, and the airport, but should also provide some reassurances to our community that there are not abrupt changes planned. That said, this announcement has prompted questions from across our community, and the University has provided responses to some of the most common questions via the updated FAQs on its coronavirus information site. I encourage you to take a look and I have highlighted a few key points from the FAQs below.

• It is important to note that there are not plans for a sudden transition on April 30.
• The University shared information about the decision to pay employees and student workers through April 30 in order to help members of our community manage their short-term financial needs. This decision enables the University to take time to think through how to best conduct financial planning to minimize the potential need for further actions should this situation and a challenged economy continue.
• At this time, the University’s focus is on working through various strategies and potential options with the goal to minimize impacts for employees where possible.
• The University anticipates being able to share with our community by mid-April decisions regarding any pay changes, furloughs and/or lay-offs, which, if necessary, would not take effect until May, at the earliest.
• The University is developing financial plans given closures and losses in self-generated revenue that fund auxiliary and other units’ operations, including Penn State’s two hotel and conference centers, the airport, and housing and food services.

Optional Undergraduate Grading Scale

The University has implemented a new opt-in grading system for the spring 2020 semester. Under the new system, undergraduate students will be able to choose to keep their current grade, or to have courses graded with one of three alternate grades, which will have no impact on a students’ GPA:

• SAT, or satisfactory, representing a grade of C or better;
• V, a passing grade available if a student gets a D in a course;
• Z, or no grade, which can be used to replace an F grade, and will be treated similarly to if the student had late-dropped the class

For the spring 2020 semester, faculty will be given an additional week to enter letter grades at the conclusion of the semester. Once grades are entered, students who are pleased with their performance will be able to keep their letter grades. Additional guidance is forthcoming as University leadership finalizes implementation of this alternative grading scale.

Graduate Course Grading Scale

We anticipate information to be coming soon regarding changes to grading schemes for graduate courses.

Performance Management Extension

Penn State Human Resources has announced an adjustment to its performance management (PM) cycle. End-of-year-reviews (step 3) will now run from Friday, May 1 through Friday, July 31. The deadline to complete steps 1 (Setting Goals) and 2 (Mid-Year Check-In) of the PM cycle has been extended to Thursday, April 30. More information will be forthcoming from HR.

Academic Integrity and Remote Assessments

The Leonhard Center, the Office for Digital Learning and the Academic Integrity Office have provided a short guide to help faculty develop academic integrity plans for remote assessments. The Directors of the three offices will host two Zoom meetings on academic integrity to answer your questions and to allow you to share ideas about how best to adjust your academic integrity plan for remote assessments. The days and times for the Zoom meetings will be announced via an email to all faculty in the college.

As noted above, additional information is available on the University’s informational site as well as the College of Engineering resources site. Please continue to reach out with questions and comments to L-COE_CORONA_CRISIS_TEAM@engr.psu.edu.

I also look forward to connecting personally on my LinkedIn, and I encourage you to follow the college on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Be well!

Justin Schwartz
Harold and Inge Marcus Dean, College of Engineering