Dean's Community Message

May 8, 2020

Dear College of Engineering Community,

Another semester in the books! You did it! I want to congratulate all of you for making it to the finish line. I know it has been quite the semester, and it is truly an accomplishment to say we all made it to this milestone, together. A special congratulations goes out to our graduating engineering students! I am looking forward to virtually celebrating your accomplishments over the next few days. The College of Engineering and the departments have planned various virtual celebrations to acknowledge our seniors.

This inspirational quote, which I found extremely relevant for today, was submitted by two different faculty members, Judd Michael, professor of agricultural and biological engineering, and Eric Boyer, assistant professor of mechanical engineering:

“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
—Winston Churchill

With the semester ending, we are shifting to Tuesday and Friday messages next week. Of course, if anything urgent arises, we’ll get the word out right away! Don’t hesitate to continue sending in your inspirational quotes!

Here are today’s updates:

Email, Office 365, and G Suite for Education Access Extensions for Graduating Students

Graduating students’ access to Office 365 apps will be extended for 90 days, to Office 365 @psu.edu email for 365 days, and to G Suite for Education for 365 days. For students who are withdrawing, access to Office 365 apps, @psu.edu email, and G Suite for Education will be extended for 365 days.

Zoom Default Settings Changes

As a reminder, on the morning of May 11, Penn State IT will be implementing changes to the default settings of Zoom for all Penn State Zoom accounts. Be aware that some of these features, such as chat, virtual backgrounds, and webinar Q&A, will apply to all meetings/webinars that you host. These settings will not appear during a live meeting if you did not re-enable them before beginning a meeting/webinar. To adjust your preferred settings, visit psu.zoom.us after the changes have taken place on Monday at 7:00 a.m. More information on these changes can be found here.

Reminder: LPE Virtual Speaker Series

As a reminder, the Penn State Law, Policy and Engineering (LPE) initiative is hosting a virtual speaker series — titled “Technology, Policy and Law during COVID-19” — throughout the month of May. The next session will take place on Monday, May 11, and will focus on immigration in the time of COVID-19. More information can be found on the LPE events page.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and to all the mothers in the engineering community, Happy Mother’s Day!

Please continue to submit your appreciation for members of the engineering community. Penn State updates are available on the University’s coronavirus information site. You can connect with me on LinkedIn and follow the college on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. We will be shifting to Tuesday and Friday messages next week.

Be well!

Justin Schwartz
Harold and Inge Marcus Dean, College of Engineering