Dean's Community Message

September 22, 2020

Dear College of Engineering Community,

Following the news of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing on Friday, I wanted to take a moment today to reflect on the importance of her work and her contributions to history. Justice Ginsburg was a leading advocate for women’s rights and gender equality. She led the fight against gender discrimination and proudly supported equal rights for all.

As the College of Engineering continues to build its community with a commitment to equity and inclusion, we can learn a lot from Justice Ginsburg’s lifelong perseverance and leadership in this area.

Today’s inspirational quote is one that I find particularly meaningful:

“Fight for the things that you care about but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”
—Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Here are today’s updates:

Zoom Updates for Sept. 27 Cancelled

The previously announced Zoom changes that were set for Sept. 27 have been cancelled by Zoom. Penn State Zoom users will not see any changes to their current settings. Details on any future Zoom security updates will be provided to the Penn State community as soon as Penn State IT is made aware.

Penn State Virtual Town Hall for Faculty and Staff: Sept. 23

Penn State leaders will host a virtual town hall event tomorrow (Sept. 23) at 3:00 p.m. to answer University faculty and staff questions about return to campus and Penn State’s ongoing response to the coronavirus.

Reminder: COE Staff Open-Ended Discussion with Q&A on Sept. 30

The college will host a virtual open-ended discussion and Q&A session for all College of Engineering staff. I will be joined by other members of the COE leadership team, including Anthony Atchley, Peter Butler, George Lesieutre, Tonya Peeples, and Chris Rahn. This discussion will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 30, from 11:00 a.m. to noon.

Teaching Tip #43 – Intervene early

As discussed in a recent Chronicle of Higher Education article, Holly Derry, associate director of behavioral science at the University of Michigan’s Center for Academic Innovation, recommends that instructors consider the earliest point in the semester where you can see that a student is struggling. Whatever the moment, “if you as an instructor can start to reach out at that point,” Derry said, “that could have a huge impact.” Canvas has tools that could help, and the Office for Digital Learning can show you how to use Canvas to send messages to students who did not complete an assignment or who did not score well on a quiz.

Take care!

Justin Schwartz
Harold and Inge Marcus Dean, College of Engineering