Dean's Community Message

September 18, 2020

Dear College of Engineering Community,

Today is a momentous day for the College of Engineering! Earlier this afternoon, the Penn State Board of Trustees approved final design plans and authorized expenditures for construction of a new engineering research and teaching building on West Campus. Currently known as West 2, the building represents the important next step in our decade-long facilities master plan implementation; one that will transform the college and its footprint on the University Park campus. Construction on West 2 is expected to begin next month.

“You can dream, create, design, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it requires people to make the dream a reality.”
—Walt Disney

As we head into another weekend, I urge you to continuing doing your part to keep yourself and other members of our community safe and healthy. Wear a mask. Practice social distancing. Avoid large gatherings. Thank you for your commitment!

Here are today’s updates:

Zoom Security Update

Zoom is implementing several changes on September 27. Penn State Zoom meetings will require a Passcode (formerly referred to as Password), or a Waiting Room to be enabled for all meetings. Any Zoom meetings that have already been scheduled and do not have a passcode configured will automatically have Waiting Room enabled. Zoom updates may need to be upgraded with administrative privileges. Some users may also require assistance from their local Penn State IT department to perform these updates. Full details on Meeting Waiting Room and Passcode Requirements are available on Zoom’s September 27, 2020 FAQ.

Faculty/Staff Reminder: IRS Allows Benefits Changes in Response to COVID-19

In response to COVID-19, the IRS issued Notice 2020-29, which permits employers to offer greater flexibility to employees with respect to mid-year election changes for health care plans and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA). Additional details regarding employee changes to employer-sponsored health coverage, health care FSAs, dependent care (childcare) FSAs, and extended claims substantiation periods are available via this Penn State News story from July. All changes are effective through Thursday, December 31, 2020.

Teaching Tip #42: Quick Feedback on Teaching

In a very unconventional semester, you might be wondering how your teaching is going. Don’t wait for your SRTE results to find out! Gather some quick formative feedback from your students. One way to do this is with a minute paper — meaning it should not take students more than about a minute to complete, making it easy to add to the end of a class session. In a remote environment, you could use a survey in Canvas or a poll in PollEverywhere to ask students “What is working well so far in this course?” and/or “What changes would you suggest to improve this course?” or another question you want feedback on. You can quickly review the responses and make small adjustments to your teaching moving forward! Just remember, whenever you collect feedback from your students, it is important to discuss the results with them (even if you don’t plan to make any changes). Acknowledging the feedback helps students see that you value their feedback. If you have any questions about how to move forward with your feedback, you can always reach out to the Leonhard Center.

Be well!

Justin Schwartz
Harold and Inge Marcus Dean, College of Engineering