Dean's Community Message

July 2, 2020

Dear College of Engineering Community,

As we have just completed the first half of 2020, and head into the most unusual Fourth of July weekend, I want to take a moment to reflect and share some perspective. Additionally, please see today’s updates below my message including a note on course delivery details for students.

As I might have mentioned previously, or you might have gathered from my backgrounds during some videos I’ve shared, I am a big baseball fan. Baseball is referred to as our “national pastime,” and we really have not had much bandwidth for just passing the time. So in some ways the lack of Major League Baseball action has not been particularly missed. But in other ways its absence represents the absence of normalcy we have been experiencing since early March — when we’re usually in the midst of spring training.

MLB is coming back this month, but it won’t be typical in any way. The season will be short and the stands will be empty. But the heart of the game will be the same. Soon I will once again get to see Javy Baez make amazing plays on the field — see Exhibit A and Exhibit B — and wondering if the bullpen can hold a lead. It will be fun and exciting, and hopefully circumstances don’t prevent the season ending with (a Cubs victory in) the World Series.

In another seven weeks or so many of you will be coming back to campus. It also will not be typical in any way. The semester on campus will be shorter and many classrooms will be reconfigured. But the heart of what we do — undergraduate and graduate education and research — will be the same. Faculty will teach and explore research challenges, staff will offer support services, and students will learn a lot and progress towards graduation and careers.

So for today’s quote, I want to pull from a baseball movie — Field of Dreams. It’s from the famous “they will come” monologue by James Earl Jones:

“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time.”

We are in the midst of an “army of steamrollers” as we confront our nation’s history during a deadly pandemic driven by a complex virus. It’s not difficult to imagine that America is again being erased and rebuilt. As we go through this time in our history, I encourage everyone to reflect on their individual roles in forming the rebuilt America. What will you remember in 10 or 20 years about this time, and how you responded?

I hope you all have a wonderful, albeit unusual, Fourth of July weekend.

STUDENTS: Course Delivery Details Still Evolving

Departments in the college and across Penn State continue to work in partnership with instructors to finalize course delivery modes — in-person, mixed-mode, or remote — for the fall. There are several factors that influence the delivery mode decisions being made. Primary among these is the ability to deliver the course as safely as possible, which also takes into account the health and safety of the faculty and students, the size of available classrooms to enable required social distancing, and alignment of teaching methods that allow for maximum learning and engagement. While modes for some courses are currently being displayed in LionPATH, those may change in the coming weeks as more information and analysis are conducted and the schedule is updated. A recent story in Penn State News provides additional details. Highlights include:

• The goal is for most delivery mode decisions to be finalized by mid-July.
• Until that time, the course mode reflected in LionPATH may change more than once.
• The University has announced flexibility related to existing Housing contracts.

Next week, we are planning to email students with additional information about this topic, including next steps during July.

Teaching Tip #22 – Reflect on previous courses offerings

As you prepare for the fall semester, review the spring and summer remote courses you’ve taught to find ideas that worked well or that needed improvement. Ask students to provide you with feedback to help with future course planning. Then begin thinking about how to incorporate this information into your fall course design. Contact the Office for Digital Learning for help with course design planning.

Be well!

Justin Schwartz
Harold and Inge Marcus Dean, College of Engineering