Messages for staff and faculty from Dean Lawless

Fall Meeting of the College

Thank you to everyone who came out to the Fall Meeting of the College on Tuesday. It was a bit chilly under the pavilion, but it was great to get outside and enjoy a beautiful fall afternoon. I am so proud of the work being done in our college and am looking forward to a great academic year as we work to address the challenges ahead of us. Jeremy sent out the slides I used at the meeting, so please check your email for them. If anyone has any questions, please email [email protected].

Kudos and huzzahs

I learned on Wednesday that our very own María Schmidt was recognized for her work in the education sphere by being named one of the 2022 Power 100 Who’s Who in Latino Pennsylvania by the Pennsylvania Latino Convention (PALC). The honorees on this list are among the state’s most accomplished men and women in virtually every industry and profession. Thank you, María, for all you do!

Research Conference

The College of Education Annual Research Conference is scheduled for Oct. 14 at the Penn Stater. This conference provides the college community an opportunity to learn about each other’s work, share ideas, and build collaborations for the future. College of Education faculty and graduate students are invited to attend and/or present. We also have a wonderful keynote speaker, Daniel Morales-Doyle, associate professor of science education at University of Illinois Chicago, who will speak on “Science Teachers Negotiating Contradictions of Equity and Possibilities for Justice.”

Improving our online presence

As part of our effort to push forward our digital footprint, we have hired Carl Williams as our digital marketing strategist. Carl has been charged with planning, organizing and optimizing the college's website and social media.

In order to move the college forward, we also need to increase the online presence of our most important resource, the people who comprise it. Carl has asked for faculty to reach out to him so that he can help optimize your college profile. Small changes in the wording of your bios can have a big impact for you and for the college. To schedule some time with him, you can email him at [email protected].

COVID updates

• Masking strongly recommended: While Centre County is currently in low community viral spread according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the University continues to strongly recommend that you wear a mask in crowded indoor spaces, such as classrooms and public transportation. Face masks, vaccines, proper hand hygiene, and staying home when sick are key mitigation strategies that we know minimize the spread of COVID-19. These measures — and the vigilance of our Penn State community members to follow them — help prevent the disruption and pause of daily schedules and activities when/if the virus is contracted. The latest and most comprehensive information on Penn State’s COVID-19 guidelines and support can be found on the University’s Coronavirus Information website.
• Vaccines: According to the Food and Drug Administration, the new bivalent COVID-19 vaccines are formulated to more broadly protect against the original SARS-CoV-2 virus — the virus that causes COVID-19 — as well as the newer omicron variant. To find vaccine locations in the community, click here.

Get your flu shot

In addition to getting your COVID vaccine or booster, it’s important to protect yourself from the flu. Penn State is again offering its free flu vaccine clinics on campus for employees. For more information and the schedule, click here. To schedule an appointment, visit HealthAdvocate.com/PSU online.

DCEC monthly meetings

The college’s Diversity and Community Enhancement Committee (DCEC) monthly meetings began last week, and the next meeting scheduled for noon to 2 p.m. Oct. 20 in 121 Chambers Building. The DCEC supports and enhances diversity and the ongoing development of a welcoming environment. The DCEC serves the College of Education through a mission of discussion, education and promotion of an environment that is conducive to scholarship and learning and respectful of diverse backgrounds and viewpoints. The committee welcomes participation by staff, faculty and students.

Update parking permit information

Transportation Services is asking all faculty, staff and student parking permit holders to check that license plate and vehicle information associated with their permit is correct and up to date. With the department's transition to a license plate recognition-based parking system, permit-holders must have accurate vehicle information associated with their permit to prevent parking citations from being issued. Permit holders may add a new vehicle, remove a vehicle, or change the vehicle information for a license plate already registered with their permit by logging into the online parking portal with their Penn State credentials. Instructions related to making these changes within the portal may be referenced at this link.

Best,

Kim Lawless

Welcome

Last week, we welcomed our new faculty members to campus with an orientation, and today we welcome our students back into our spaces for the start of fall semester. I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling an energy and excitement here that I haven’t felt since before the pandemic. There still will be some challenges, of course, but I have a feeling this is going to be a great semester! Here are some quick updates you need to know as you settle in.

Monkeypox

By now I’m sure you have heard or read about a confirmed case of monkeypox among our student population. The patient resides off campus, has been seen by health care providers, and is currently isolating and recovering. Close contacts of the student have been identified and notified through contract tracing conducted by the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

Monkeypox is a viral infection primarily spread through prolonged close contact. Symptoms include fever, rash and swollen lymph nodes. In most cases, monkeypox resolves on its own without prescription medicine. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, swollen lymph nodes, a general feeling of discomfort and exhaustion. Typically, within one to three days after the fever occurs, the patient develops a rash, often first on the face but sometimes initially on other parts of the body.

Employees with symptoms should work remotely at home or utilize sick time and contact their health care provider. Individuals with an active rash or other symptoms should self-isolate at home and stay in a separate room away from other people or pets when possible. Anyone who may have been in contact with a case of monkeypox should monitor their health and, if symptoms appear, schedule an appointment with their health care provider. Read more on Penn State News.

Welcome events

Here is information about some upcoming College of Education events:

• Spikes game picnic, Saturday, Aug. 27: Tami Hinish tells me that we still have a few tickets left to our fall welcome back family picnic at the Spikes game. Bring your children and enjoy fun, food and baseball as the Spikes take on the Williamsport Crosscutters on Saturday, Aug. 27, at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park. We’ll gather in the Pepsi Picnic Pavilion starting at 5:30 p.m. If you haven’t sent in your RSVP and still want to attend, contact Tami at [email protected] as soon as possible.
• Ice cream social, Wednesday, Sept. 7: Join us on the Chambers patio from 6 to 7:30 p.m. for our college’s welcome back ice cream social. As always, the deans will be dipping the ice cream for students, faculty and staff. Join us for ice cream and conversation.

Education Research Conference

The College of Education will hold its annual Research Conference from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, Oct. 14, at the Penn Stater Hotel & Conference Center on the Penn State University Park campus. The event provides the college community with an opportunity to learn about each other’s work, share ideas and build collaborations for the future. It is open to all faculty and graduate students to present or attend. Presentations should fit the conference theme of Changing Education by Educating for Change, which is consistent with the strategic plan.

Daniel Morales-Doyle, associate professor of science education in the department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Illinois Chicago, is the keynote speaker. He was a high school teacher in the Chicago Public Schools for more than a decade before joining the faculty at UIC. Dr. Morales-Doyle will speak on “Science Teachers Negotiating Contradictions of Equity and Possibilities for Justice.”

Deadline for registration is Friday, Sept. 9, and primary presenters (first author) should be prepared to enter presentation information upon registering. For more information, contact Greg Kelly at [email protected] and to register click here.

Best,

Kim Lawless

Welcome, and welcome back

I can’t believe it’s August already. It seems like we just had our spring commencement in May, and now we are only about two weeks away from the start of fall semester.

We’ve added several new faces among our faculty and staff in the past few months. If you’re in one of our buildings and see someone you don’t know, please take a moment to introduce yourself. It’s a great way to make new friends in the workplace and build community.

Take me out to the ballgame

Once again this year, we are holding our fall welcome back family picnic at the Spikes game. Bring your children and enjoy fun, food and baseball as the Spikes take on the Williamsport Crosscutters on Saturday, Aug. 27, at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park. We’ll gather in the Pepsi Picnic Pavilion starting at 5:30 p.m. If you have not yet sent in your RSVP, please do so as soon as possible at this link so we can have an accurate head- count. If you have any questions, please contact Tami Hinish at [email protected].

Ice cream!

Our College of Education welcome ice cream social is scheduled for 6 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 7, on the Chambers Portico. As always, the deans will be dipping the ice cream for students, faculty and staff. Join us for ice cream and conversation, and learn more about resources and student organizations available on campus.

Hiring freeze

I have heard through the grapevine that there are concerns among some of you regarding the University’s strategic hiring freeze. As I shared in my Aug. 1 email on the topic, prioritizing our current employees – including staff, faculty, and students – remains at the forefront of all decision-making in our college. While we have an extra process and an extended timeline to fill positions, I am confident that those positions that are mission critical will be able to proceed in a timely fashion. Further clarification from the University specifies that this strategic freeze does not impact the hiring of adjunct (FT2) faculty to staff classes this fall; undergraduate hourly positions; graduate assistantships; or positions funded fully by external grants and contracts.

Anyone in our college with questions or concerns related to this hiring freeze can stop in to chat with me on Zoom from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. TODAY, or feel free to reach out to [email protected]. If I cannot answer your questions directly, I will bring them forward to University leadership.

Hybrid work schedules

August also means the likely start of more formalized hybrid work schedules for many of our staff members. On June 20th I shared a document with unit leaders outlining the framework for full-time staff flexible work arrangements. That was followed by guidance sent by central Human Resources to those who manage staff.

The expectation for full-time staff within the College of Education who would like to work a hybrid schedule is that they will generally be on site 3 days a week with remote work permissible 2 days a week. Whether in person or working remotely, the College of Education core workday hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Full-time staff who want to work a hybrid schedule should talk with their direct supervisors to come up with a plan that works for the overall unit. The College is putting in place an internal approval process, we will be sending out details on this shortly. Once approved internally, then, you as the employee need to log into WorkDay and formally request the schedule using the Flexible Work Arrangement widget. The request will go through an approval process that ultimately formalizes the arrangement with the University.

Community-building

One key challenge to flexible work arrangements is the ability to build community. Our college has taken steps to increase opportunities to interact in person. The main way we are doing this is by designating the first business day of each month as an in-person workday, regardless of your hybrid schedule. So, if you normally work remotely on Mondays, but Monday is the first business day of the month, you would work on campus that day. It is my hope that by doing this, we will get to know each other again and build the kind of community that fosters collaboration and teamwork. For your convenience, here is a listing of the first business day of each month for the 2022-23 academic year: Thursday, Sept. 1; Monday, Oct. 3; Tuesday, Nov. 1; Thursday, Dec. 1; Tuesday, Jan. 3; Wednesday, Feb. 1; Wednesday, March 1; Monday, April 3; and Monday, May 1.

COVID

Yes, COVID is still with us, and there is still important information to share about the University’s efforts to minimize the virus’ disruption to normal activities. Here is the latest guidance from the University, which also can be found on Penn State News and on Penn State's Coronavirus Information website:

• Masking: Even on campuses in counties with low or medium COVID-19 Community Levels, the University encourages anyone who wishes to wear mask indoors on these campuses to continue to do so.
• Vaccines: The University strongly encourages all members of the community to stay up to date with their COVID-19 vaccinations — including booster doses — and to share their vaccination status with the University. Employees can provide their vaccination status to the University using SalesForce Health Cloud, a secure online platform for collecting health data.
• Testing: While mail-in COVID-19 tests can no longer be ordered from Vault Health, individuals who have a supply of previously ordered Vault tests that are not expired can continue to use those tests. Test expiration dates are indicated on the test packaging. Free at-home rapid tests provided by the U.S. government are available to be ordered online at covidtests.gov. Individuals with private health insurance coverage or who are covered by a group health plan also are eligible to have up to eight at-home COVID-19 tests covered by their insurance provider per month.
• If you test positive: Employees who are symptomatic or test positive for COVID-19 should notify their immediate supervisor and isolate at home. Faculty and staff with a positive test result should email [email protected] and provide the following information: the date symptoms started; the date of the positive COVID-19 test; first day of missed work; ability to work remotely.

Keep an eye on your email

Email sometimes is the most efficient way to get information out in a timely manner. I plan to use these sways to communicate with you roughly once a month, or more often if I need to share information with you quickly.

Best,

Kim

It is AERA week! For those of you traveling to San Diego, I hope we cross paths. For those of you participating virtually, I know this year will be a much better experience than last year. I can tell you there is a lot of energy around the in-person experience and expect that energy to translate to the online system as well. We all need an opportunity to engage with one another in learning how we can continue consequential research related to moving toward a more just educational system and experience for all learners, teachers, leaders and educational practitioners.

COVID updates

• New testing location: In case you missed the notification, asymptomatic COVID-19 testing for students, faculty and staff at University Park has moved from the White Building to the new Employee and Student Test Center at 101 North Atherton Street. The site will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday through at least the spring semester. Operated in partnership with Vault Health, the testing site will continue to offer rapid testing and a limited number of PCR tests. On-site parking is available but limited. For details, check Penn State News.
• Masks optional on CATA, campus transit: Due to the court ruling on April 18, masking while using Centre Area Transportation Authority (CATA) services and in its Customer Service Center is now optional. Masks also will be optional on Penn State's Campus Shuttle and Hershey Shuttle. Riders wishing to continue wearing masks are encouraged to do so. Visit the TSA website for additional information. For CATA-related questions, email [email protected] or call 814-238-CATA (2282). For Campus Shuttle or Hershey Shuttle questions, email [email protected] or call 814-865-7571.

Compliance training due TODAY

If you received an email on Tuesday, March 15, with “2022 Annual Compliance Training” in the subject line, you are required to complete this annual training by TODAY, April 22. The training provides an overview of ethics and compliance obligations at Penn State and covers several ethics and compliance topics, including reporting obligations relating to misconduct. The training takes about half an hour to complete. If you are not sure whether or not you have been assigned the training, go to the Penn State Learning Resource Network website and login using the “Faculty, Staff & Part-time” button. Once you have logged in with your access account, look in the left-hand column of your dashboard page. If you were assigned the 2022 Annual Compliance Training, it will be listed under an orange banner labeled DUE SOON. I urge you to complete it before today’s deadline, because failure to complete the training will impact your eligibility for future general salary increases.

Kudos and Huzzahs

• Congratulations to Ashley Patterson for being one of six faculty members University-wide to receive the 2022 Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching. The award, named after Penn State’s seventh president, honors excellence in teaching at the undergraduate level. As one of her former students said, “Dr. Patterson is the quintessential example of a professor who consistently goes above and beyond to care for her students in the best possible way. Whether it is through careful and responsive planning and teaching or putting genuine time and effort into knowing her students as people, Dr. Patterson makes Penn State a better institution and deserves to be recognized for her far-reaching impact.”
• AERA announced its 2022 Award Winners in Education Research, and I am thrilled to share that Janice Byrd was a co-winner with Christa J. Porter (Kent State University) of the Review of Research Award for “Understanding Influences of Development on Black Women’s Success in U.S. Colleges: A Synthesis of Literature" Review of Educational Research, Volume 91, Issue 6, December 2021. This award is given in recognition of an outstanding review of research article appearing in the Review of Research in Education or the Review of Educational Research. Congratulations, Janice!
• Congratulations to Jennifer Glasgow, the Staff Advisory Council Roar Recognition Award (formerly You ROCK) winner for March. Jen is being recognized for her willingness to help others whenever she can, her dedication to her job and her patience in training new staff. C&I has been short-staffed for much of the past few months, and she has stepped up to take on a number of extra duties, ensuring that the department runs as smoothly as possible. She has done so with grace and willingness, while maintaining her regular duties. Thank you, Jen, for always being willing to pitch in for the good of the department.
• The following people were honored with college-wide awards during a reception last week: Boni Richardson and the Herr Clinic staff, Cotterill Leadership Enhancement Award; JoLynn Carney, Career Achievement Award; LaWanda Ward, Climate Enhancement Award; Tiffany Nyachae, Outstanding Researcher Award; Brenda Martinez and Liz Widman, Outstanding Staff Award; Kim Powell, Outstanding Teaching Award; Sarah Fox, Undergraduate Student Leadership and Service Award; and Quiana Jackson and Leandra Cate, Graduate Student Recognition Award. For details, check Penn State News.
• We have several people celebrating service milestones. Celebrating five years: Suzanne Brokloff, Catherine Jantzer, Chrissie Klinger, Michael McCarty, Paul Smith and Gayle Willits; 10 years: Whitney DeShong; 15 years: Anita Bowes; and the big, 25-year milestone: Heather Decker. Congratulations everyone and thank you for your service to the College of Education and to Penn State. I appreciate all of you.
• Jodi Thompson, who is majoring in elementary and early childhood education, is a recipient of the 2022 Outstanding Adult Student Award, which recognizes an exceptional adult learner or student veteran at University Park who has overcome obstacles while furthering his or her education. For details, check Penn State News. We are so proud of you, Jodi!

New campus ID card

Penn State is launching a new id+ card to advance the University’s digital campus initiative in support of One Penn State 2025. The new campus card will have an updated design and several new contactless features that create a user-friendly digital experience for the Penn State community. Incoming students and new employees will be the first groups to receive the new id+ card. The University is planning a re-carding process for all current students, faculty and staff. Details of the re-carding process will be announced as the implementation dates are confirmed. For details, check Penn State News.

Board of Trustees elections

If you are a Penn State graduate, you should receive your Board of Trustees election ballot in your email on April 10. Biographical information and position statements for each candidate are available on a Meet the Candidates page by visiting https://trustees.psu.edu online. All online voting must be completed by the close of the election at 9 a.m. (Eastern) on May 5. The Board of Trustees has a direct impact on the work we do here. If you are eligible to vote, I strongly encourage you to exercise that right. Details can be found on Penn State News.

Upcoming events

• Class of 2020 Commencement Celebration Weekend, April 29 to May 1. In conjunction with the University-wide event, the College of Education is holding a wine and cheese reception from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 30, on the Chambers Building portico. Faculty and staff are welcome to join our returning graduates from 2020 for this celebration. If you intend to attend, please email [email protected].
• Undergraduate commencement, May 8. The College of Education spring undergraduate commencement ceremony will be held at 9 a.m. Sunday, May 8, in the Pegula Ice Arena. Our commencement speaker will be former NFL star Stefen Wisniewski, who graduated from the College of Education in 2010 with a degree in secondary education. I encourage you to attend the ceremony to show your support for our graduates.
• Graduate commencement, May 8. The Graduate School commencement ceremony for Spring 2022 will be held at 4:30 p.m. Sunday, May 8, 2022, in the Bryce Jordan Center. Again, I encourage you to attend the ceremony to show your support for our graduates.

Blue-White weekend

The Blue-White game will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 23, in Beaver Stadium, and will air live on the Big Ten Network. Admission to the game is free, and there will be plenty of fun outside the stadium as well, with the Blue-White Boardwalk Fan Fest open from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. Parking lots open at 9 a.m. For more information, including how to buy a parking pass if you do not already have one, can be found on the Athletics website. If you go, be safe as you enjoy what is forecasted to be a beautiful spring day.

Best,

Kim Lawless

Information for faculty

• The Human Research Protection Program (HRPP) is now hosting quarterly webinars to provide relevant IRB updates and news. Faculty, staff and students from across the University are welcome to join. Slides and recordings will be made available on the HRPP website following the webinar. The next webinar is scheduled for noon to 1 p.m. March 22. To register, click here.
• The Schreyer Institute is sponsoring the webinar “Disability Inclusion in the Classroom: Being an Ally for Students with Disabilities” from 2:30 to 4 p.m. Wednesday, March 23, via Zoom. For details, check Penn State News.
• “Tips for Writing a Narrative Statement,” the final workshop in the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs’ four-part Promotion and Tenure Workshop Series, will be held at 2 p.m. March 24 via Zoom. For details, check Penn State News.
• Faculty can now apply for Teaching Transformation and Innovation grants from the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence. Grants give faculty the opportunity to experiment, test or implement a teaching innovation that addresses an important instructional concern. The deadline to apply for consultation is April 1. For details, check Penn State News.

Celebration of Life for Vivian Yenika-Agbaw

Please join Penn State’s African Studies Program for a Celebration of Life for Vivian Yenika-Agbaw at 1 p.m. Saturday, April 2. Colleagues, friends and family will be gathering virtually to share memories, swap stories, and celebrate all the things that made her so special: the humanity, kindness, and generosity that she brought to her work; her passion for children’s literature and her tireless commitment to mentoring both new and seasoned colleagues; and her wide smile and hearty laughter. Register in advance at this link.

Annual compliance training

A new Annual Compliance Training (ACT) module is being released this week as part of the University’s compliance training plan. Individual assignment emails for those who are required to take this training will be distributed by the University’s Learning Resource Network (LRN) system. This year’s course content is focused on information beneficial to all employees and is approximately 30 minutes in length.

Individuals will receive reminder notifications to complete the training by April 22, with their supervisors being copied. I want to emphasize that this training requirement must be completed on a timely basis. Eligibility for any general salary increase (GSI) or considerations such as requests for sabbaticals or travel will be conditioned on successful completion of the annual compliance training.

If you have any questions, please email [email protected] or contact the Ethics and Compliance Office at 814-867-5088.

Kudos and Huzzahs

• Congratulations to Mary Pearce, the winner of the Staff Advisory Club’s UROCK award for February. Mary has been more than willing to step up and help wherever she can regarding the finance side, and always with a smile on her face and a kind word for everyone. She has gone above and beyond to help her department behind the scenes to process travel reimbursements for faculty and students since the early fall. Her help has been invaluable! Mary has shown team spirit and a genuine willingness to help others. Thanks, Mary. You ROCK!

Congratulations also are in order for three faculty members in EPCSE:

• Janice Byrd will receive the 2022 AMCD Young Emerging Leader Award at the upcoming American Counseling Association conference in Atlanta, GA. The Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development honors a member who has demonstrated a commitment to multicultural counseling and development and the potential for future leadership in the counseling profession. Janice’s outstanding work, anchored in critical Black feminist epistemology and social justice pedagogy, demonstrates the connections of institutional racism and sexism and overall health.
• Julia Bryan will be honored as an ACA Fellow at the upcoming American Counseling Association conference. ACA Fellow status is considered to be one of the most prestigious recognitions in the profession. Julia’s nomination package highlighted her expertise in school-family partnerships, prolific scholarship (fourth most frequently contributing author to Journal of Counseling and Development!), servant leadership to school counseling organizations and communities, and life-long mentorship of students and colleagues.
• Jim Herbert will receive the Distinguished Career in Rehabilitation Education award at the upcoming National Council on Rehabilitation Education conference in San Diego, CA. This award recognizes an individual who has demonstrated significant career achievement in rehabilitation education and celebrates the individual’s lifelong commitment to bettering the lives of persons with disabilities. In addition to his numerous achievements, nominators noted his personal attributes, "He cares deeply about the field, colleagues, and improving the lives of people with disabilities and is very generous with his time and remains humble despite his vast contributions.”

Please join me in extending sincere thanks and gratitude to these change-makers for all they do.

Best,

Kim Lawless

Mask mandate modified

In case you missed this morning’s edition of Penn State Today, the University has modified its mask mandate on all campuses except Schuylkill and the College of Medicine. Effective Monday, March 7, the University will no longer require face masks be worn in many indoor common spaces on the University Park campus.

The masking requirement will remain in effect in classrooms, labs and other academic and creative spaces on all campuses, regardless of CDC COVID-19 Community Level designation, due to high-density congregation. Additional research protocols for mask wearing will be determined and disseminated by the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research.

Face masks will continue to be encouraged in all other common indoor spaces. Additionally, masks will continue to be required where mandated by law, regulation or rule — including under guidance particular to individual workplaces or health care settings, COVID-19 testing centers and public transportation.

Regardless of a campus’ COVID-19 Community Level, individuals who have not indicated to the University they are fully vaccinated for COVID-19 must still test weekly for the virus. University contact tracing will continue, and quarantine and isolation space for students will remain available.

Employees at Penn State who work in their own individual offices may request that visitors wear masks while in their private offices, and the University asks that community members cooperate with these requests.

For more details, check Penn State News.

Kudos and Huzzahs

• The International Association for Society and Natural Resources (IASNR) selected an article co-authored by Matthew Gardner Kelly, assistant professor of education (educational leadership), and Kai Schafft, professor of education (educational leadership and rural sociology), for the Rabel J. Burdge and Donald R. Field Outstanding Article Award for best general research article published in Volume 34 (2021) of the journal Society & Natural Resources.
• Francesca Lopez, Waterbury Chair in Equity Pedagogy and professor of education, has been named one of 18 American Educational Research Association (AERA) Fellows for 2022. The AERA Fellows Program honors education researchers for their exceptional contributions to, and excellence in, education research. She and the other selected scholars will be inducted during a ceremony at the 2022 annual meeting in San Diego on April 22.

For more updates on what your colleagues have been doing, check the Around the College feature in this week’s edition of Connections, or read it on Penn State News.

Update your online directory entry

Thank you to those of you who had your portrait taken last week for the online faculty and staff directory. Photos will be uploaded to your directory entries soon.

Because we are in the midst of both faculty and staff performance evaluations, many of you are updating CVs or seeking to have your bio updated on our website. The process is easy – click here to fill out a directory change form. When uploading your CV to the form, please first make sure it is ADA accessible by running the accessibility checker within Adobe Acrobat.

Transit and parking for spring break

Transportation Services has announced information on campus transit and parking for the University's upcoming spring break week, March 7 through 12. All normal faculty/staff, student, and visitor parking regulations will remain in effect during spring break. However, core faculty/staff permits (Brown, Green, Orange, Red, Silver, Yellow) will be valid for parking at the following resident student parking areas from Sunday, March 6 through Saturday, March 12: Brown 11 (White Course Apartments), Lot 22 (Eastview Terrace), Lot 81 (South/Pollock Halls) and Lot 82 (East Halls). Faculty/staff Commuter and Evening/ Weekend permit holders who wish to gain this additional parking access must visit the Transportation Services Office to purchase a core upgrade permit.

For the many changes to bus and shuttle services, check the Transportation Services website.

University accreditation volunteers sought

The regular process for reaffirming the University’s accreditation with the Middle States Commission on Higher Education is officially underway. The process will include short- and long-term volunteer opportunities for direct participation by members of the University community. Volunteer opportunities include reviewing self-study documents, providing feedback and preparing for on-site visits by MSCHE representatives. Interested members of the university community can sign up here. Penn Staters also can follow Penn State’s self- study website for more information and updates as the process continues. The self-study runs through 2024.

Enjoy spring break

We made it! Spring break marks the mid-way point of spring semester. For faculty, there is the luxury of a time out for a week to recuperate and rejuvenate before they head into the second half of the semester. Unfortunately, staff do not get this time unless they take vacation. While I cannot change the rules, what I am asking is for supervisors to be more flexible with remote work options during Spring Break. If staff are able to work remotely while the students are away, please allow them the space to do so. If you are interested – please speak with your supervisor and make the arrangements.

We are all working like crazy and my hope is that this additional flexibility will also allow all of us to take the same breath that we collectively need to gear up for the road to graduation!

Best,

Kim Lawless

Follow-up from last week’s College Conversation

I wanted to extend an immense level of gratitude for the conversation we held last Friday as a college community to process recent events in the State College School District and listen to the experiences many of our colleagues shared about their intersections with our local schools. The conversation was powerful and courageous.

I left the meeting with a mission to connect with the school district. I have now met with the district DEI officer, Dr. Seria Chatters, and have an upcoming meeting with the superintendent. In conversation with Dr. Chatters, we are unified in building our relationship between the college and the district around diving and supporting systemic responses to what are systemic issues.

As the meeting ended, I also asked that the conversation continue within programs/units and departments concerning how we get our bodies, not just our words, in front of this work. I know that many of these conversations have commenced and am grateful and affirmed that we will continue to work to better our community as a college progressing on a path to antiracism. I further request that you do not stop – our children, our students, and our colleagues are depending on all of us to lean into this relationship and live true to our conviction of changing education by educating for change.

Performance review time

All staff should have received email from “Workday Alert” earlier this week, with a subject line reading, in part, “A Task Awaits You: Complete Self Evaluation for Performance Review.” This step is necessary to move the performance review process forward. Please complete this portion of the process in a timely manner, so your supervisor has enough time to complete the rest of the process by the March 31 deadline. The email has a link directly to your self-evaluation in WorkDay, or you can log into Workday and access it by clicking on the Performance app.

Kudos and Huzzahs

• Congratulations to Jeanette Tressler, the UROCK award winner for January. As it says on her award, Jeanette always goes above and beyond to help others in the College of Education. She is a true advocate for our students, and she is willing to do what it takes to smooth out rough paths so that they can continue to make academic progress. Whenever her assistance is needed, she makes it a priority and willingly collaborates with faculty and staff to complete the task for them. Jeanette always makes time to help others in the college, and she does it all with kindness and a smile. To nominate someone for the Staff Advisory Council’s UROCK award, click here.
• Congratulations also go out to Gil Conchas, who was recognized by the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE) for demonstrating excellence in both research and teaching, and for providing significant contributions to his academic discipline.

Black History Month in our college

• The college’s Alumni Office has organized a Lunch and Learn virtual book talk at noon Feb. 24 in honor of Black History Month. The event features author and College of Education alumnus Robert H. Mayer, professor emeritus of education at Moravian University. The book talk features his book, “In the Name of Emmett Till: How the Children of the Mississippi Freedom Showed Us Tomorrow,” which offers an unflinching portrayal of life in the segregated South and the bravery of young people who fought the system. As the United States still reckons with racism and inequality, the activists working In the Name of Emmett Till can serve as models of activism for young people today. Five lucky attendees will win a copy of the book. To register, click this link. Once you register, you will receive a confirmation email with the link to attend the webinar.
• This month our communications office has been running a social media campaign on Instagram and Facebook highlighting outstanding Black College of Education alumni, sharing their academic and professional achievements, their personal views on Black History Month, how they deal with racial and equity issues in their careers, and some positive experiences they had while here at Penn State. If you missed the features we’ve already run, click on the Facebook and Instagram links to see them now.
  • On Feb. 3, on Facebook and Instagram, we featured Jonathan Jones, who graduated in 2007 with a master's degree in special education with a focus on augmentative and alternative communications.
  • On Feb. 8, on Facebook and Instagram, we highlighted Deanna Burgess, who received a Ph.D. in counselor education and supervision in 2020.
  • Today, on Facebook and Instagram, look for our spotlight on Krishawna Goins, a 2019 graduate with a degree in elementary and early childhood education and a minor in education policy studies, and current Penn State World Campus master’s student studying curriculum and instruction with a focus on social studies education.
  • On Monday, Feb. 21, we will feature Mark Fleming on Facebook and Instagram. Mark graduated in 2002 with a Ph.D. in counseling psychology.
  • On Friday, Feb. 25, we will highlight on Facebook and Instagram Talia Carroll, who graduated in 2019 with a Ph.D. in higher education.

Black History Month across the University

As the second half of Black History Month begins, the University's celebration continues with events across Penn State's campuses. Here is a sampling. Please note that all in-person, indoor events will require participants to wear masks as per current University COVID-19 requirements. For the full list, check Penn State News.

• Black History Month programming on WPSU and WPSU-FM — through Feb. 25. See the full list of television and radio programs, and how to watch and listen, at this link.
• Black History Trivia — through Feb. 28. The Black Law Students Association is hosting Black history trivia and sharing information about Black businesses on their Instagram page @PennStateLawBLSA.
• Amie Bantz: “Lunchbox Moments” exhibit — through May 15 in the HUB- Robeson Gallery. Bantz’ exhibit uses mixed media lunchboxes to showcase stories Asian Americans have experienced in lunchrooms and schools of discrimination based on their food choices.
• Speaker: Bernice King — Tuesday, Feb. 22, 12:30 p.m., Zoom. Minister, attorney and chief executive officer of the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, and the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. Registration is required. More information is available here.
• WPSU World Kitchen for Black History Month featuring Shawn Carter of Carter's Table Catering — Tuesday, Feb. 22 at 2 p.m. Carter will join World Kitchen host Tamra Fatemi-Badi, to talk about traditionally Black food and its history and culture, and to prepare his version of shrimp and grits. Registration is free but required here.
• Movie Night: "Becoming Black Lawyers" — Feb. 24 at 6:30 p.m., 116 Katz Building. The Black Law Students Association will host a movie night featuring "Becoming Black Lawyers" with a Q&A afterward.
• Tykee James: "Sustainability Forever" (Sustainability Showcase Speaker) — Friday, Feb. 25, at noon, online. Tykee James helped establish the Audubon Society's Black Birders Week to enhance diversity and inclusion in the birding movement and to help make the outdoors more welcoming for all people. Free on Zoom; pre-registration is required here.
• Delfeayo Marsalis and Uptown Jazz Orchestra — Monday, Feb. 21, noon, through Feb. 25, noon, online. Delfeayo Marsalis and Uptown Jazz Orchestra will perform a dynamic concert of mostly original music celebrating the resilient and triumphant nature of Americans in the Deep South. Available to stream for free; Register here.

THON

THON kicks off later today at the Bryce Jordan Center and runs through Sunday, Feb. 20. After being held in a virtual format last year, THON Weekend takes place in-person this year, with new COVID-19 protocols in place to support the health and safety of all dancers, families, spectators and volunteers. Spectators who plan to watch from the stands inside the BJC are required to present either proof that they are fully vaccinated or show proof of a negative COVID-19 test to gain entry to the venue. Masking will be required for all individuals while inside the BJC, regardless of vaccination status, consistent with the University’s COVID-19 guidance. A THON Livestream will be available throughout the weekend for the benefit of those who are unable to attend in person. For details, check Penn State News.

Join the Staff Advisory Council

Applications are now being accepted for the 2022-2024 College of Education Staff Advisory Council (SAC). This body plays an important role in our college. The chair of the council sits on the Dean’s Advisory Council. I encourage all full-time staff in the following areas to apply to serve as representative for a two-year term:

• Carrara Education Technology Center (CETC) and Operations
• Curriculum and Instruction (including Center for Science and Schools)
• Dean’s Office 1 (Dean’s Suite, Recruitment, Data Analyst, Office of Education and Social Equity, Humphrey Fellowship)
• Learning and Performance Systems (including Professional Personal development Center)
• Institute for the Study of Adult Literacy

Please take a moment to review SAC Guidelines here, and download an application here. Applications should be submitted to Liz Cummings ([email protected]) no later than March 31. Approved applicants will be notified by May 31 and will begin service on July 1. Direct any questions to the SAC membership. Find their information under “Contact Us” on the SAC web page.

Best,

Kim Lawless

Information for faculty

• College of Education Equity Faculty Fellows. Applications are due on March 18 for anyone interested in becoming a College of Education Equity Fellow or Equity Leadership Fellow. The mission of this pilot program is to enhance the effectiveness of existing and future diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, and anti-racist efforts. For details, download the documents here.
• Faculty searches. Updated guidance about and resources for faculty searches appears here (click on Faculty Searches).
• Faculty career conferences. Two new support documents are available for faculty career conferences, which are underway: guidelines for administrators conducting career conferences and a guide to support faculty/staff in using Activity Insight. A second Activity Insight help session will be offered from 3 to 4 p.m. Feb. 8.
• Feedback sought. Faculty have been invited to offer feedback on two draft documents that describe the process of being nominated for a promotion review. They can provide their feedback to Faculty Council reps or via this survey link (the documents are linked within the survey), prior to the Feb. 17 Faculty Council meeting, if possible.
• P&T workshops. The University is offering several new P&T/promotion-related workshops this semester. Workshops are: Transitioning from Associate to Full in a Tenured Faculty Position (Feb. 11, 10-11 a.m.); Advancement and Promotion for Non-Tenure-Line Faculty (Feb. 16, 1-2 p.m.); Preparing for Promotion and Tenure at Penn State for Pre-Tenured Faculty (Feb. 21, 4-5 p.m.); and Tips for Writing a Narrative Statement (March 24, 2-3 p.m.)
• EDGE collaboration. Penn State’s EDGE (Experiential Digital Global Engagement) program is seeking four faculty members to participate in an upcoming grant- funded project focused on addressing select United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Interested faculty must complete the online grant application, submit a course syllabus for the proposed EDGE collaboration, and submit a 45- to 90-second video describing how the proposed course could be enhanced by engaging in an EDGE collaborative project with one of the selected central Asian university partners. Preference will be given to proposals that incorporate GIS components. Applications due by Feb. 14. For details, check Penn State News.

Information for staff

• Forum with the Dean. The Staff Advisory Council is setting up a forum to give staff an opportunity to share their thoughts with me on topics that are on their minds. Although it won’t be the only topic of discussion, at the forefront will be the University’s announcement on Wednesday that flexible work arrangements will become an established option for many staff positions, as outlined in a new University policy. We need to figure out what a flexible work arrangement will look like for staff in our college, and to do that effectively, I need to hear what staff members envision that will both benefit the college and enable staff to achieve a better work-life balance. I ask that all staff who have not already done so to please click this link and share your availability for the forum no later than Feb. 8.
• Performance reviews. The annual performance review process for staff gets underway on Feb. 14. At that time, staff who have entered their goals into the system (and whose supervisors have approved those goals) will get an email to initiate the self-evaluation stage of the process. To confirm that you have set your goals and that your supervisor has approved them, log into WorkDay, click on the Performance app, and under the My Reviews heading, click on “2021-2022: Setting Goals and Expectations.” If the overall status is not “successfully completed,” you need to set your goals and have your supervisor approve them as soon as possible. The performance review process is directly linked to the merit increase process, so it’s important to complete the process on time.

Nominate a colleague

• TODAY is the deadline for nominations for the College’s faculty, staff, and student awards. These awards recognize those who have made significant contributions to their respective fields, the College of Education, and to the larger University community.
• The Staff Advisory Council is seeking nominations for its monthly UROCK staff award. The premise is simple – if you see a staff member who’s doing a great job, click here to nominate that person for the UROCK award. Anyone – faculty, staff and students – may nominate a staff member for this award.

Faculty/staff portraits

The communications office is scheduling appointments now for faculty and staff portraits to be taken by Steve Tressler/Vista Pro Studios. Environmental portraits will be taken on Feb. 22 (Chambers bridge) and Feb. 23 (Krause Innovation Studio). Whether or not you had your photo taken in the fall, you may sign up to have your photo taken by Steve, who many of you may remember as the photographer who historically has taken these photos for our college. To schedule your five-minute appointment, use the following links:

• College of Ed portraits – Feb. 22 morning (Chambers Bridge): Doodle poll
• College of Ed portraits – Feb. 22 afternoon (Chambers Bridge): Doodle poll
• College of Ed portraits – Feb. 23 morning (Krause Studio): Doodle poll
• College of Ed portraits – Feb. 23 afternoon (Krause Studio): Doodle poll

For more details, check the email Annemarie Mountz sent on Jan. 31 (subject line College of Education faculty and staff portraits).

Stay safe,

Kim Lawless

Kudos and Huzzahs

I am incredibly excited to share that Gail Boldt and William Rothwell have been awarded the title of distinguished professor in the College of Education at Penn State. The distinguished professor title, awarded by Penn State's Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs, is the highest title bestowed on a member of our college faculty. Drs. Boldt and Rothwell have reached this pinnacle through their dedication to their respective areas of expertise and the deep care they have shown their students and colleagues. I am thrilled their careers here at Penn State have been recognized by their peers and the University. I can't wait to continue to partner with them on the next chapter of their academic journeys!

Promotion and tenure workshops

The Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs has increased their annual workshop offerings related to faculty promotion and tenure. The series of four workshops begin Feb. 11 and include sessions on transitioning from associate to full in a tenured faculty position; advancement and promotion for non-tenure-line faculty; preparing for promotion and tenure for pre-tenured faculty; and tips for writing a narrative statement. Additional information about the workshop series is available on the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs website and on Penn State News.

University Staff Advisory Council listening sessions

To effectively represent staff, the University Staff Advisory Council (USAC) is planning new opportunities to solicit staff feedback in the new year. The council will be hosting two open listening sessions for staff to share their thoughts on community and belonging. Among others, topics will include staff well-being, work environment, and unit and campus culture. Two Zoom sessions are scheduled for the following dates and times:

• Wednesday, Feb. 23, from 12:30 to 2 p.m.
• Thursday, Feb. 24, from 10 to 11:30 a.m.

USAC members will serve as facilitators and pre-registration is required. Contact information of attendees will be used to only provide session-related information to the registrant. All registrants can be assured that no identifying data will be included in the general summary shared with central administration, which will be provided to raise awareness of staff perceptions regarding community and belonging.

For more information, check Penn State News.

In case you missed it

• Faculty Senate resolution: At the first Penn State Faculty Senate meeting of the spring 2022 semester, the senate passed a resolution related to academic freedom and racial justice, similar to resolutions passed by other faculty governance bodies at universities across the United States. In response, Penn State leaders affirmed the University’s ongoing support and commitment to the academic freedom of its faculty. More information can be found on Penn State News.
• New president: Penn State President-elect Neeli Bendapudi will officially begin her tenure as the University’s 19th president on May 10, following a presidential transitional period beginning in March. For details, check Penn State News.
• Student COVID testing compliance: Students who have not provided the University with proof of vaccination and who fail to comply with the weekly testing requirement will lose access to Canvas and be redirected to an information page that will provide guidance on how to become compliant and regain access. If students lose Canvas access for failing to comply with University policy, it is possible that this will have an impact on their grades. As detailed in the Senate Policy 42-27 on student absences, instructors have the responsibility and authority of determining how absences, including failure to meet deadlines, will impact students’ grades; there is no expectation that temporary loss of Canvas access for being out of compliance with the testing requirement be treated as legitimate nor unavoidable. More detailed information is available at https://virusinfo.psu.edu/testing-support/#semester and in my Jan. 14 email, which can be viewed here.
• Data privacy: The University Privacy Office is championing the annual international recognition of Data Privacy Day today by reminding Penn Staters of the privacy services available to the University community and encouraging all Penn Staters to adopt a privacy-focused mindset in the use of personal data. Holly Swires, Penn State’s chief privacy officer, encourages all Penn Staters to familiarize themselves with the University’s Privacy Policy – AD53, its privacy principles, and for unit leaders to consider requesting a privacy impact assessment to analyze how their unit collects, uses, shares, and maintains personal information on behalf of Penn State. For details, check Penn State News.

Free courses focus on inclusiveness, accessibility

Free courses are being offered this spring for Penn State faculty, staff and graduate students looking to focus on creating a more inclusive and supportive learning environment, supporting students with accommodations, and authoring accessible courses. Registration is open now for 15 different free courses running between February and June. Some courses are offered multiple times during the semester. For details, check Penn State News.

Stay warm!

Kim Lawless

Inclement weather

According to the National Weather Service, State College has a winter storm watch in effect from Sunday afternoon through Monday afternoon. Heavy snow is possible, with accumulations of 6 inches or more possible. Please plan accordingly and bring home your laptop and everything else you need to work effectively if inclement weather keeps you home. I too will be watching the weather and will email out to the college regarding the need for a remote workday if the conditions necessitate it. So, please watch your email!

According to University policy as outlined on Penn State News: During a change in campus operations, the following procedures are in place for employees based on their individual work circumstances:

• Employees working remotely (including hybrid schedules): If an employee is working remotely and the employee continues to be able to work, they should perform their regularly assigned work functions. The employee is not eligible for Campus Closure Compensatory Time. An employee working a rotating schedule of on-campus and remote work (i.e., a hybrid location schedule) should plan to work remotely when there is a potential for, and/or during, inclement weather, regardless of rotation schedule. Such employees are not eligible for Campus Closure Compensatory Time. For details, check Penn State News under the Employees heading.
• All employees and students are encouraged to take responsibility for their own safety. Faculty, staff and students should use their own best judgment when considering traveling to campus or the need to leave early during times of inclement weather. Faculty and staff should review Handling Weather Day Absences (Human Resources Guideline 10) for specific information on how time missed for weather situations is handled.
• In the event of a change in normal campus operations due to weather or an emergency, such as during a delay or cancellation, in-person courses cannot be moved to a synchronous remote meeting, per Faculty Senate Policy 45-00, due to the fact that all students, faculty and instructors may not have the same access to University facilities and resources (such as Wi-Fi or materials needed for specialized instruction) or they may have other commitments, such as child care. For details, check Penn State News under the Classes heading.

MLK Day – a day ON!

There are no classes on Monday, in observance of MLK Day. (Offices will be open as normal.) However, this is not supposed to be a “day off” for students. Rather, MLK Day not only honors the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but also is the only federal holiday designated as a national day of service to encourage all Americans to volunteer to improve their communities. While we engage in service to the community in honor of Dr. King, I also ask that we do not lose sight of the central issue Dr. King dedicated his life to, racial equity and civil rights. This too is the mission our college pursues – let’s engage not only in service, but service with the purpose of moving forward our resolve around antiracism and racial equity.

The University has a number of events and activities planned to honor King’s life and legacy, from the MLK Week of Service to a food drive to in person and virtual speakers. Get details on Penn State News.

COVID information for faculty

COVID testing compliance

Students who have not provided the University with proof of vaccination and who fail to comply with the weekly testing requirement will lose access to Canvas and be redirected to an information page that will provide guidance on how to become compliant and regain access. To provide a mechanism for students to gain immediate access to Canvas if necessary (e.g., for a required assessment) every student will have ONE opportunity to contact the University and activate a one-week grace period. This will be communicated to students in the Canvas redirect message and email.

If students lose Canvas access for failing to comply with University policy, it is possible that this will have an impact on their grades. As detailed in the Senate Policy 42-27 on student absences, instructors have the responsibility and authority of determining how absences, including failure to meet deadlines, will impact students’ grades; there is no expectation that temporary loss of Canvas access for being out of compliance with the testing requirement be treated as legitimate nor unavoidable.

More detailed information on testing and support, including required testing, is available at https://virusinfo.psu.edu/testing-support/#semester.

If a student tests positive

Notifications will be sent from the University’s case management system, Maxient, to faculty on record in LionPath for students who test positive through a University testing process or students who notify the University of a third-party or at-home test result. Notifications also will be sent regarding close contacts identified through the contact tracing process or students who report being a close contact to Contact Tracing, when they are required to quarantine. Receiving a notice does not mean a student was positive. All emails will indicate they are out for a medical concern. Specific dates students are not able to attend class will be shared. Dates may change for a variety of reasons and an updated letter will be sent if this occurs. With the quick turnaround for potentially returning to class, students may have an email from contact tracing before faculty are notified. An email indicating a student completed their isolation/quarantine form [email protected] is sufficient for them to return to class.

Forms

• Faculty may submit a referral form if they are aware of a student that has tested positive off campus or is a confirmed close contact. Provide as much information as possible in the description section.
• This email template can be used by faculty to notify a class when a student self-discloses they have tested positive. This will provide no identifiable information and general guidance.
• If a student intentionally comes back to in-person instruction prior to the date communicated in the notification, a referral can be made to Student Conduct using this Incident Reporting Form.

If you’re sick, stay home

Faculty and staff who have symptoms of illness should not come to campus. Faculty who are ill may use their 24% flexibility to flip a class session to remote to avoid canceling class if they are well enough to teach remotely, or to cancel a class session if they are too ill to teach at all. Staff who are ill but well enough to work should notify their supervisor and then work remotely until they are well. Staff who are too ill to work remotely should notify their supervisor and schedule sick time.

Quarantine and Isolation Advice

The Omicron variant of COVID is highly contagious, and some people who do all the right things – wear masks properly, get vaccinated and boosted, etc. – will still contract COVID. If that happens, the University has isolation and quarantine requirements that must be followed. These can be different, based on whether or not the student is vaccinated and/or boosted. Below is a quick summary.

Isolation:

Required for individuals who test positive, regardless of vaccination status

• 5-10 day isolation period beginning when symptoms first appeared or test result AND
• 24 hours with no fever without the use of fever-reducing medications  AND
• Symptom-free or other symptoms of COVID-19 are improving

Quarantine:

Boosted, Fully-vaccinated and not eligible for booster yet, or positive in the last 90 days:

• Do NOT have to quarantine
• Wear a mask around others for 10 days from your last date of close contact
• Strongly recommend getting tested at least 5 days after the last date of close contact
• Monitor for symptoms of COVID-19 for 10 days following exposure

Unvaccinated or Vaccinated and NOT boosted (when eligible):

• Quarantine for a minimum of 5 days. The default quarantine period will be 10 days and we will adjust this if students test on Day 5 or later following the last date of their exposure.
• With a negative test on Day 5 or later, may leave quarantine on Day 6 or immediately if after Day 6. Must always wear a mask around others through Day 10.
• If a positive result, follow isolation guidance.
• Monitor for symptoms of COVID-19 for 10 days following exposure

Kudos and Huzzahs

• Congratulations to Kelly Rosinger, who is co-PI on a study that received a $1.4 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Within the context of more colleges and universities electing to implement test-optional policies and practices in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the two-year project, “Test-Optional Admissions Policy Equity Outcomes,” will draw on detailed information regarding institutions' test-optional policies to examine their relationship with the number of applications colleges receive, the percent of students who are accepted, the yield rate, and enrollment by race and economic status. Julie Park (University of Maryland) is PI, and additional co-PI’s are OiYan Poon (Spencer Foundation), Dominique Baker (Southern Methodist University), and Brian Kim (University of Virginia).
• Congratulations also to Tiffany Nyachae, who has been accepted into the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS) Emerging Scholar Program for its inaugural year. As an ISLS Emerging Scholar, she will receive $10,000 to support her research for one year, as well as mentorship and other support to help facilitate her work with the broader learning sciences community.

Welcome to our community

We have had a few new faces join us since December, and a few more who will start in the College this coming Monday. Please help me to welcome:

• Neharun Nesa, administrative support assistant with CSATS, who joined us Dec. 1.
• Dillon Confer, IT support specialist with the CETC, who joined us Jan. 3.
• Kristine Schmidbauer, Director of Recruitment and Undergraduate Student Engagement, who joined us on Jan. 10.

Joining us on Jan. 17:

• Darlene Glab, administrative assistant with LPS.
• JJ McCamley, IT support specialist with the CETC.
• Amelia Tyler, administrative support assistant with EPCSE.

Be safe out there!

Kim Lawless

Happy New Year and welcome back! I hope everyone was able to enjoy some down-time over the extended holiday break. With classes set to start on Monday, I wanted to share information and remind you of resources available to all of us. I strongly encourage you to read the entire sway. There is important information here that you need to know.

We know the Omicron variant of COVID is highly transmissible. However, the impact of Omicron on people who are vaccinated and boosted is significantly less than any other variant to come about to date. That doesn’t mean people should let their guard down though, because there are people in our community who are immunocompromised, who have children who are too young to be vaccinated, or who care for elderly family members who are at higher risk for complications. I am asking all of us to please exercise flexibility and patience with each other as we all continue to navigate this pandemic together.

Teaching flexibility

I would like to follow-up on the email faculty received from Faculty Senate chair Bonj Szczygiel regarding the in-person start to spring semester. The official University language on the Registrar’s website states that for in-person classes, “Class meets in person at days/times listed. Instructors can offer up to 24% of an in-person class remotely (synchronously or asynchronously), a flexibility to manage their own absences, whether due to illness or other unavoidable circumstances, during travel, or for pedagogical reasons.” The 24% translates to just over 32 hours, or about 3.5 weeks of class time for a three-credit, 15-week course.

While faculty are not able to move a full course remote, you do have the autonomy to take individual lectures remote (up to 24% of the total course) and you do not need permission. I unequivocally advocate that faculty have full autonomy and authority to make use of that 24% in the ways they deem appropriate. That said, I also want to ask faculty to think judiciously and more long-term about their use of that flexibility. If a faculty member were to use all of that time to start the semester remotely and then circumstances changed later in the semester, they would have lost the flexibility to shift to remote at that point. For instance, you may need to make a class remote or asynchronous, if you need to travel for a conference or if you or a family member becomes ill.

We ask that if you decide to start the semester remote, please let your supervisor know. You will be hearing from your department heads regarding how they would prefer to be notified if/when you change a class session to remote. Again, this is not to seek permission for the temporary change. Rather, it helps us to adequately respond when the inevitable questions come to us from administrators, students, and parents.

Finally, if you do opt to switch a lecture from in person to remote, we ask that you message your students regarding the change of the individual lecture (or lectures) is within the purview of policy (https://www.registrar.psu.edu/ registration/instruction-modes.cfm). Further, please communicate to students that although some lectures may move to remote, this does not mean that the entire course will move remote for the full semester. We are all going need to some patience with one another as we navigate through another bumpy start!

Staff flexibility

With the rapid spread of the Omicron version of COVID comes uncertainty – especially for staff members who have young children. Staff supervisors are being asked to have a plan in place to ensure essential operations continue, and that for most units we have office coverage. As with last semester, it is my hope that we can continue to have the majority of people in the office the majority of the time, and operate within that level of flexibility. As issues arise, please work with you supervisor to enact this contingency plan should it be required.

Designated eating spaces

Toward the end of last semester there was a marked increase of food consumption in classrooms and other common areas of buildings across campus. Because people cannot wear masks when they are eating, this leads to an increased threat of COVID transmission in those areas. There now is a task force at the University level to address this issue and signs will be posted reminding people not to eat in certain areas. I ask you to respect the signs and encourage students and visitors to our buildings to adhere to them as well.

Vaccine mandate

Although the Federal Contractor Vaccine Mandate, which applies to Penn State, is temporarily on hold during legal challenges, the Penn State legal team expects it ultimately to be upheld and implemented. Therefore, the University is moving forward with its requirements for everyone listed as an employee – whether they are faculty, staff, graduate assistants, work-study students, or wage payroll employees, full-time and part-time, on campus or remote – to provide proof of vaccination or be granted a religious or medical exemption. Those who did not upload proof of vaccination by Dec. 15, 2021, as well as those who received accommodations, are currently in the pool of people who are required to be tested weekly. Failure to comply with the testing requirement could lead to termination.

Tools to keep you safe

In life there are no guarantees, and the same holds for COVID. Some people who follow all of the guidance to the best of their abilities still may get COVID. However, there are many tools available to all of us to mitigate the dangers:

• Vaccines: The statistics prove very clearly – if you are vaccinated and have your booster shot, and contract COVID, your case is most likely to be very mild with no need for hospitalization. As of Thursday, 69% of those hospitalized for COVID in Mount Nittany Medical Center are NOT vaccinated. If you are not vaccinated, I encourage you to protect yourself (and those around you) and get vaccinated as soon as possible. If you are vaccinated but have not yet gotten your booster, I encourage you to get the booster as soon as you can, to further strengthen your immune system against COVID.
• Masks: Penn State will continue its indoor masking policy in the spring semester. The current guidance recommends a procedure mask. Our college has a supply of these. To get some, please contact Julian Morales at [email protected]. When I am in public spaces, I likely will double- mask, with a procedural mask under one of my cloth masks. Additional details about masking guidance can be found on Penn State News.
• Testing: Drop-in asymptomatic COVID-19 testing is available at the White Building for students living on or near campus and faculty and staff who are working on campus. For hours of operation and other details, check the Penn State coronavirus information website. University employees also can order up to 12 in-home test kits by going to the Vault Health website. Please note that you need to enter your 9-digit PSU ID number, and ALL of the tests you order are tied to that number. You cannot share the tests with others, because the results will be recorded and reported in your name.
• Contact tracing: The CDC has changed its guidance and the University is working to update its process and website. In addition, with the surge in cases in our community there is a huge volume to be processed. Please be patient. If you are contacted, or test positive, please mask, monitor for symptoms, stay home and contact Occupational Medicine (Occ. Med.) at [email protected] or call 814-863-8492.
• Air handling: The University has bypassed energy savings modes and all HVAC systems are operating in maximum mode, pulling in as much outside air as possible while mitigating humidity to avoid mold growth. HVAC units all have MERV 13 filters, which are in compliance with the latest recommendations from the CDC regarding ventilation for COVID.

Vaccine clinics

The University, in partnership with Centre Volunteers in Medicine (CVIM), will hold a vaccine clinic from noon to 6 p.m. this Sunday, Jan. 9. All three vaccines will be available. The clinic is open to Penn State and the surrounding community. As soon as I have sign-up information I will share it with you.

University Health Services (UHS) will be hosting vaccine clinics for students, beginning next week. On Wednesdays they will hold appointments for first and second vaccine doses. On Thursdays they will hold appointments for boosters. If demand for first and second doses wanes, Wednesday appointments will open for boosters.

Best,

Kim Lawless

As we prepare to leave campus tomorrow for an extended winter break, I want to wish you all a very happy, healthy, RESTFUL few weeks. The University offices are officially closed from 5 p.m. Friday until Monday, Jan. 3, and I know at least some of you are taking some vacation time to extend your break a little further. Please do be sure to TAKE TIME OFF and enjoy this break. You all earned it!

By the way, if you didn’t already see it from the email sent out on the listserv yesterday, be sure to check out our college’s holiday video. In addition, the University released its holiday video last evening via email.

COVID-related resources

The University has updated the availability of COVID-19-related resources for employees and students over the winter break. For the schedule, check Penn State News.

• Drop-in testing. Drop-in testing at the White Building at University Park campus will remain available during the winter break, but the site may be closed or have modified hours on some days.
• Required employee testing. There will be no required testing for employees from Wednesday, Dec. 15, through Sunday, Jan. 2, due to the winter break.
• Contact tracing and quarantine and isolation. Contact tracing and quarantine and isolation resources will be available as needed during the winter break.
• COVID-19 Call Center. The COVID-19 Call Center for faculty, staff, students and their families will be closed from Dec. 18 through Jan. 2. The call center will resume regular hours starting Jan. 10, and will be open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and is closed on Saturdays and Sundays. The University’s Virus Info website is the best source of information during the call center closure dates.
• Employee services — Occupational Medicine. Occupational Medicine will be closed Saturday, Dec. 18, through Sunday, Jan. 2, but staff members will monitor [email protected] and address employee questions and issues, as appropriate, including contact tracing.

For full details, check Penn State News.

URock Award

The Staff Advisory Council is accepting nominations for its URock Award now through Dec. 31. November’s winner was awarded to Wanda Wasilko. December’s winner will be announced after the January SAC Meeting. Good Luck to all those that were nominated in November – their nominations will roll into the December nomination pool – but please keep the new nominations coming! Click Here to nominate a staff member.

Before you leave …

As you leave your spaces for winter break, please make sure to do the following to reduce our energy consumption and care for the building:

• Turn off all computers/electronics (not just sleep mode).
• Make sure any windows in your spaces are not just closed, but locked. A good wind can push windows open in some of our spaces. If you see windows in common spaces open, please close and lock them as well.
• Dispose of your refrigerated items.
• Make sure all trash – and especially food waste – is removed from offices and disposed of in the hallway receptacles TODAY, because today is the last day for trash to be picked up by our custodial team. They are off tomorrow as the campus closure begins at 5 p.m. Friday.
• Please make Friday a “leave no trace day.” Whatever trash or food waste created on Friday (or not disposed of properly today) needs to leave the building with you, so there is nothing for unwanted pests to consume while we are away.

Again, I wish you all the best this winter break, and I’m looking forward to seeing you in the new year.

Best,

Kim Lawless

It’s hard to believe next week is the last week of classes, and we are just two weeks away from our extended winter break. If you have not already done so, please be sure to read the email Liz Cummings sent on Thursday with the subject line “Winter Break Extension: Additional Information.” This email includes step-by-step instructions for recording your holiday and campus closure time off, and your holiday compensatory time, in Workday.

Giving Tuesday

I want to offer my heartfelt gratitude to all of you who contributed to our #GivingTuesday campaign this year. Together, we raised more than $8,590 to support the Office of Education and Social Equity (OESE). Each gift, regardless of size, makes an impact in the EDU community by helping to create opportunities to continue existing programming or add new events for the college through OESE. Although #GivingTuesday is over, it’s not too late to add your support. I ask you to visit https://raise.psu.edu/givingtuesdayedu and consider making a gift today. Thank you.

Beware of authentication scams

The Office of Information Security (OIS) said Penn State students, faculty and staff should be on alert for text message phishing scams, called “smishing,” which attempt to hack users’ Duo two-factor authentication account and access their Penn State accounts. The smishing scam operates by sending a text message requesting a Duo authorization code to access the user’s Duo profile. Hackers are then able to add their devices to the account and receive two-factor authentication push notifications, generate access codes impersonating the Duo user or even push Duo notifications for the user to accept.

To avoid such scams, OIS warns students, faculty and staff to never reply to such text messages requesting a Duo code. Additionally, Duo users are advised to log in and review their devices to ensure there are no old devices or devices they do not recognize as their own. To manage devices, please visit Penn State’s accounts website. Anyone who thinks they may already have replied to a fraudulent text message should contact OIS at [email protected]. For more information on Duo two-factor authentication or for security- related questions, please visit the OIS website.

Protect your health

• CDC travel guidance: With new or updated travel restrictions and requirements being instituted in various countries due to the identification and spread of the coronavirus omicron variant, Penn State leaders encourage the community to continue taking health and safety precautions over the winter break as outlined by both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Department of State. Employees planning University-affiliated international travel must follow the University’s international travel guidance and request travel via the Travel Safety Network at least 30 days in advance. All individuals planning personal international travel should exercise extreme caution. For details, check Penn State News.
• Mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations. If you have not already done so, please get vaccinated, and upload your proof of vaccination at this link. You also can use the same link to double-check to make sure your COVID vaccine record is up to date. All employees at University Park fall under the federal contractor requirement, and must receive their final vaccine dose by Jan. 4 or be granted a disability/medical- or religious- related accommodation by the University. The vaccine requirements include full-time and part-time faculty, staff, and technical service workers, even if they are working remotely. Failure to comply with the federal COVID-19 requirements will result in disciplinary action in accordance with University policies, and may include being put on unpaid leave. For the latest information, including updates to COVID-19 testing schedules ahead of the upcoming break, check the University’s Coronavirus information website.
• Get your flu shot. In the past couple weeks several flu outbreaks have occurred throughout the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Not only can influenza be dangerous for people who are vulnerable, but with more influenza out there, more people may mistake their symptoms for COVID-19 and vice versa. So getting your flu shot is more important than ever. Experts note that getting both COVID-19 and flu vaccines at the same time is safe. Fu vaccines are available at most pharmacies and doctor’s offices. Employees can use their Penn State health insurance cards to obtain a flu shot at any network pharmacy or primary care physician’s office at no cost to the employee. Learn more about this year's flu vaccination at the CDC's website.

Planning for inclement weather

With Penn State’s return to on-campus teaching, learning and working for the 2021-22 academic year, the University has updated its guidance for students, faculty and staff in the event that normal campus operations are disrupted due to winter weather. In such instances, individuals are urged to avoid coming to campus, if possible, and those who must visit campus should remain alert and avoid sections of campus that may be covered in snow or ice.

All employees and students are encouraged to take responsibility for their own safety. Faculty, staff and students should use their own best judgment when considering traveling to campus or the need to leave early during times of inclement weather. Faculty and staff should review Handling Weather Day Absences (Human Resources Guideline 10) for specific information on how time missed for weather situations is handled. Information on class attendance policies is available at undergrad.psu.edu and in Faculty Senate Policy 42-27 (Class Attendance).

In such instances, individuals are urged to avoid coming to campus, if possible, and those who must visit campus should remain alert and avoid sections of campus that may be covered in snow or ice.

Faculty. There are many details about what can and cannot be done to deliver class content during a change in campus operations due to weather or an emergency. For example, per Faculty Senate Policy 45-00, in-person courses cannot be moved to a synchronous remote meeting. I strongly urge you to check Penn State News for guidance on what is permitted for the different course delivery modes.

Staff. All supervisors should talk with their employees about their expectations now, so there is no confusion when winter weather hits. Employees who currently work on campus but who can perform their job responsibilities remotely, and those working hybrid or fully remote schedules, should work remotely and are not eligible for campus closure compensatory time. However, supervisors should be flexible to allow employees the option to use accrued vacation, personal or holiday time, or adjust hours during a change in normal campus operations, where operationally feasible. For details, check Penn State News.

Official information sources. For information on inclement weather, check WPSU-FM and Penn State News — the official sources for weather-related delay or cancellation advisories at Penn State's University Park campus. In addition, advisories will be sent directly to cellphones, email and Twitter via PSUAlert.

Kudos and Huzzahs

• Congratulations to Carol Clymer and Esther Prins for being awarded a grant from the William Penn Foundation. Their 30-month project, “Continued Evaluation of Family Literacy Initiative,” has been awarded $376,311. The Goodling Institute has been conducting an independent, formative evaluation of five family literacy programs that have been funded through the Family Literacy Initiative. This evaluation will continue to provide evidence of the initiative’s theory of change, strengthen program implementation, assess the impact of these family literacy programs, and inform the Foundation’s future grantmaking efforts.
• Congratulations also to Gil Conchas, who was selected to receive the 2022 American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE) University Faculty Award. This award recognizes an individual who has demonstrated excellence in both research and teaching and has provided significant contributions to their respective academic disciplines. Gil, we are fortunate to have you as a member of our Penn State College of Education community!

Best,

Kim Lawless

In gratitude

This is the time of year when we tend to take a step back and reflect on everything for which we are grateful. As people begin to scatter for fall break, I want to express my gratitude to each and every person in our college community. Together, we have been through so much. But it’s precisely because we have been through it together that we have been able to not only persevere, but also to prosper, as individuals and as a college community.

I have witnessed or heard about so many instances where people have stepped in to help a colleague, offer support, and do what is needed to lift up each other. That does not happen everywhere, so I am grateful to know that it’s become almost “standard operating procedure” here in our college. I am grateful for those of you who have a smile and a kind word for people you encounter in the hallways of our buildings. I am grateful for your flexibility, your kindness, your helpfulness, your determination, your dedication, your willingness to take on roles that are not in your official job descriptions … in short, I am grateful for you.

As a reminder, the College of Education will be engaging in remote-only work Nov. 22-24. If you are curious what this means for your position, please work with your unit manager to better detail how you can use this remote time effectively. Of course, if any of you still want to come into the office on Nov. 22-24, you can feel free to continue your in-office experience. 😉

Reflect

While many of us can remember stories of the first Thanksgiving we were taught in school, what we were taught often fails to mention the spread of disease, violence, and ultimately, the colonization of Indigenous peoples that ensued and, in many ways, still persists today.

As we go into next week, many of us will be gathering with our families to enjoy a great meal and precious time with each other. Often, family and friends also take turns expressing that for which they are grateful. This year, I am proposing a new family tradition: once you're done saying what you're thankful for, take some time to acknowledge the land you live on and the indigenous people who lived there before and still live there now.

I will be in State College next week, so I will start with our University Land Acknowledgement.

The Pennsylvania State University campuses are located on the original homelands of the Erie, Haudenosaunee (Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora), Lenape (Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe, Stockbridge-Munsee), Shawnee (Absentee, Eastern, and Oklahoma), Susquehannock, and Wahzhazhe (Osage) Nations. As a land grant institution, we acknowledge and honor the traditional caretakers of these lands and strive to understand and model their responsible stewardship. We also acknowledge the longer history of these lands and our place in that history.

As we move forward with our strategic plan, it is important the remember it is not just what we do in our classrooms and on our campus that helps us dismantle systemic racism. It is also what we do in our homes and how we reflect critically on how these systems shaped our own lives and actions.

COVID-19 vaccination requirement

In alignment with the recent announcement from the White House on federal vaccination requirements, all Penn State employees at all locations are now subject to a federal COVID-19 vaccination requirement. All employees at University Park fall under the federal contractor requirement, and must receive their final vaccine dose by Jan. 4 or be granted a disability/medical- or religious-related accommodation by the University.

The vaccine requirements include full-time and part-time faculty, staff, and technical service workers, even if they are working remotely.

After receiving their final dose, individuals need to share with the University proof that they are fully vaccinated — providing proof is not optional. Instructions on how to upload proof of vaccination are available on Penn State News.

Faculty and staff who have not yet done so need to upload their proof of vaccination into the University’s Salesforce Health Cloud, a secure online platform for collecting health data. Those who already shared their proof of vaccination with the University by uploading an image of their vaccine card do not need to take any action.

Failure to comply with the federal COVID-19 requirements will result in disciplinary action in accordance with University policies, and may include being put on unpaid leave.

For details, please check Penn State News.

Giving Tuesday

This #GivingTuesday, as conversations about social equity unfold at the national level, and as Penn State affirms its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, I would like to ask your support for the College of Education Office of Education and Social Equity and its initiatives:

• Enhancing recruitment and retention of students from underserved and underrepresented/minoritized populations
• Enriching student academics, including integrated learning experiences that intentionally connect academics to intersectional identities and culture, student leadership development, and co-curricular/hands-on experiences around social justice advocacy
• Creating and supporting anti-racist curriculum revision and professional training in creating conditions for just policies and practices to help minoritized students thrive
• Supporting the development, implementation, preservation, and continuance of pre- college and college programs that close achievement and opportunity gaps for 1st generation, low income, and underrepresented/underserved students
• Supporting pipeline programs including S.C.O.P.E. that facilitate and increase College access and completion

For more information or to contribute, visit the college’s GivingTuesday website.

Huzzahs

Back in May, our college teamed up with the Bellisario College of Communications to bring Pete Terpstra to Penn State. Pete has been teaching in Comm, and he works in our college as a videographer. If you haven’t seen his videos, you should check them out on our YouTube channel. His videos have been a welcome addition to our social media platforms, and to our website. Thank you, Pete, for producing compelling video content that shines a bright spotlight on our college!

Benefits

The benefits open enrollment period ends at 5 p.m. this Friday, Nov. 19. If you have not yet updated your benefits for next year, please make sure you do so before then. For information, check Penn State News.

Upcoming events

For information about upcoming events in our college, check the events page on our website. To add something to the events calendar, contact [email protected].

Best,

Kim Lawless

Extended Winter Break PLUS!

By now, I assume everyone has heard that the University has extended the traditional winter break for all employees. University offices and operations — except for essential services and operations — will close for the winter break at the end of business on Friday, Dec. 17, 2021, and will resume at normal starting times on Monday, Jan. 3, 2022. This is wonderful way to extend deep appreciation to our workforce for the incredible dedication they have provided to the University during the extraordinary nature of the past year and half.

In similar fashion, I am happy to announce that the College of Education will be engaging in remote only work the workdays leading up to Thanksgiving Day (11/22-11/24). If you are curious what this means for your position, please work with your unit manager to better detail how you can use this remote time effectively. Of course, if any of you still want to come into the office on the 22nd-24th, you can feel free to continue your in-office experience ;-).

COVID-19 updates

• Upload proof of vaccination. As has been shared widely by the University, all faculty and staff at seven Penn State campuses including University Park where work is being conducted on federal contracts must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and share proof of their vaccination with the University by Dec. 8. This includes full-time and part-time faculty, staff and technical service workers, even if you are working remotely. Faculty, staff and World Campus students who are employed by the University need to upload their proof of vaccination into the University’s Salesforce Health Cloud, a secure online platform for collecting health data. To confirm that you already uploaded your proof of vaccination, visit the same Salesforce Health Cloud site. For details, check Penn State News.
• Indoor eating guideline update. As the weather turns colder, the University has updated its guidelines for indoor eating. The full guidance can be found here, but in brief, try to limit the amount of time you are in close proximity to others without wearing a mask, practice good personal hygiene, and sanitize food preparation surfaces. As an academic unit we may designate areas within our facilities to support additional indoor break areas. Julian Morales, our pandemic safety officer, is working on this and we’ll have more information as those spaces are designated and approved.

Huzzah

We have a gem in our college that once again is helping our college community through difficult times. The Herr Clinic – led by Clinic Supervisor Christy Beck and Clinic Coordinator Kristen Nadermann, and staffed by faculty and graduate students in EPCSE, has continued to provide safe spaces for our students to process the many situations that have challenged them since the pandemic hit. From pivoting to remote counseling sessions during the shut- down, to creating affinity groups, to standing up drop-in sessions on a moment’s notice as they did this week, they continue to evolve and adapt to find ways to best reach and help our students. We truly are lucky to have them as colleagues.

New grants

Congratulations to members of our faculty who have received grants:

• Francesca Lopez (PI, Curriculum and Instruction) and Mildred Boveda (Co- PI, Special Education), along with Co-PIs Nilam Rahm (Stanford) and DeLeon Gray (North Carolina State University), from Advanced Education Research & Development Fund. This project, “Asset-Based Intersectional Identities Among Latinx, Black, and Indigenous Youth: Centering Student Voice to Inform Teacher Practice and Research,” has been awarded $300,000. The objective of this study is focused on LEARN’s interest in learner development and learner variability. Namely, the researchers aim to develop, pilot and validate asset-based assessments of Latinx, Black, and Indigenous students’ multiple identities as they relate to ethnicity/race, disability, academic (self- concept), critical consciousness, and belonging in the context of Culturally Relevant (CR) courses in grades 3 through 8 in the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD).
• Allison Henward (PI, Curriculum and Instruction), and Co-PIs Kyunghwa Lee (University of Georgia), Fabienne Doucet (NYU/William T Grant Foundation), and Joseph Tobin (University of Georgia), from Brady Education Foundation. This comparative ethnographic study, “Police Curriculum in Early Childhood Classrooms in the Era of Black Lives Matter,” has been awarded $50,000. The grant will fund the initial stage of the project, which investigates how preschool educators in demographically diverse, urban, and rural communities in Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania make sense of young children’s police play. In Early Childhood Education (ECE) programs across the country, preschool teachers daily, with little preparation, face the challenge of responding to children’s police play. How, in this era of a crisis in policing, should ECE programs approach teaching young children about the role of the police in their communities?
• James T. Herbert (PI, Rehabilitation and Human Services) and Co-PIs Amber O’Shea (Rehabilitation and Human Services) and Hyung Joon Yoon (Workforce Education), from National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research. This three-year project, “Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) Scholarship Program” has been awarded $599,156. The goal of this project is to: (a) examine reasons why the high number of rehabilitation counselors are leaving the state/federal vocational rehabilitation program to seek other employment opportunities and (b) identify strategies to increase long-term employment retention of these personnel who received graduate training funding through the RSA Scholarship Program. Maintaining a qualified workforce of rehabilitation counselors trained at the master’s level is critical to improving outcomes for persons who receive vocational rehabilitation services.
• Kai Schafft (PI, Educational Leadership) and Co-PIs Erica Frankenberg (Educational Leadership), Matthew Kelly (Educational Leadership), Ashley Patterson (Curriculum & Instruction), and David Gamson (Educational Theory and Policy), from COP: Center for Rural Pennsylvania. This project, Analyzing the Effects of COVID-19 on Educational Equity in Rural Pennsylvania School Districts, has been awarded $60,000. Using a mixed methods approach combining state-level data and local case studies, this research examines how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected educational inequities and district responses along fiscal, spatial, instructional, and racial/ ethnic lines across rural Pennsylvania school districts.

Congratulations, all, for getting this important work funded!

Time to choose

It’s benefit selection time, and you have until 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19 to make your selections. To help you make an informed decision about your benefit elections, Penn State Human Resources created a section on both the HR Website and within WorkLion dedicated to all things Open Enrollment 2022. There you will find videos, guides, and other helpful resources. If you have any questions about your benefits, please contact HR Services at 814-865-1473.

Silent Set

The Penn State Women’s Volleyball will be hosting a silent set during their matchup against Michigan State at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 6, in Rec Hall. Jonni Parker, a hearing-impaired student athlete on the team is a member of our College of Education community. Jonni is an elementary and early childhood education major doing her pre-student teaching right now, and she has become a role model showing children that no obstacle should stand in the way of pursuing their dreams. Fans will be completely silent during the first set in an effort to raise awareness for the hearing impaired. Once Penn State scores its ninth point of the first set, Nittany Nation can make noise and continue to cheer on the team.

Building community

As someone said to me earlier this week, “there’s nothing quite like having a face-to-face conversation.” Limited in-person interactions hamper our ability to (re)build community. Chance encounters that lead to hallway conversation, chatter before or after meetings, the ability to pop into someone’s office and ask a quick question, I have so deeply missed these opportunities!

It is important that we all recognize that there are some in our community have official accommodations that are keeping them off-campus for the time being and that we need to make sure we design practices that continue to make sure they can participate at a distance. At the same time, with vaccination access broadened across age groups, booster shots, the mandate for employees, and the added layer of masking, I am hopeful that many of our faculty and graduate students will begin to feel more comfortable repopulating our spaces on a more regular basis. This will allow us to better rebuild our community, develop relationships with new members we have welcomed since March of 2020 and emerge with a renewed sense of optimism about who we are and who we will become …

Best,

Kim Lawless

It’s been a few weeks since my last update email so this one is packed with important information. Please read through to the end so you don’t miss anything.

Come Social Dream

The Community Dialogues Equity Grant Team is seeking additional faculty and staff members to participate in conversations that seek to engage in “social dreaming” and assess new avenues of social equity in the College of Education. These workshops will take place in the upcoming months and will be tailored to the diverse community of participants that wish to take part in this meaningful dialogue.

I highly encourage you to get involved in these conversations, which will attempt to address ways that we can support members of our community who are historically marginalized in their lives outside their direct interactions with the college. Although we have a significant number of graduate students involved, we would like to increase the participation of undergraduate students, faculty and staff. Your involvement has the potential to help reshape what the college can do to support our community. Workshops will take place in the upcoming months and will be tailored to the diverse community of participants that wish to take part in this meaningful dialogue. For more information and to sign up, complete this form.

Humphrey Fellows presentations

Join our Humphrey Fellows for presentations on Global Perspectives in Education. The first presentation in the series is on Foreign Language Education, by Amina Bektache and Angela Tejada Celi from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 27, in Paterno Library’s Foster Auditorium. This presentation and the future presentations are being advertised on our digital signage.

Inaugural Research Conference

Thank you to everyone who participated in our inaugural Research Conference on Oct. 15. The presentations were inspiring, and I am looking forward to seeing what collaborations will be built out of what everyone shared. If you missed the keynote speaker, Dr. Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, associate professor in the Educational Studies program and the Joint Program in English and Education at the University of Michigan, you can view it here if you are logged in with your Penn State credentials.

Town hall

President Eric J. Barron will host a virtual Town Hall event at 4 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 8, to share updates on the University’s ongoing progress and answer questions from community members about education, prevention, support and response efforts around sexual misconduct at Penn State. The Town Hall will be streamed at https://LiveEvents.psu.edu and will be archived online for later viewing. Questions can be submitted in advance anonymously through Google Forms at https://forms.gle/qKVxdkiJFmbkFf2U8 online. While the event will be primarily geared toward students, faculty and staff are welcome to attend and submit questions in advance. For details, check Penn State News.

COVID-19 topics

• Faculty work adjustments. Guidance has been updated and released to inform faculty and instructors of on-campus work expectations and the work adjustments process for spring 2022. A document describing the work adjustment process and criteria is available here. Faculty with an approved work adjustment for fall 2021 may apply for an extension of their work adjustment to spring 2022 here. The form for faculty who do not currently have a work adjustment, but who want to request one for spring 2022, is available here. The deadline to submit an adjustment extension or request is Friday, Oct. 29. For more information check Penn State News.
• Vaccine mandate for employees. To comply with the University’s requirement announced last week that all faculty and staff at the University Park campus must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Dec. 8, faculty and staff who have not already done so can now upload their proof of vaccination online and are encouraged to do so as soon as possible. Individuals who have already shared their proof of vaccination with the University by uploading an image of their vaccine card do not need to take any action. Faculty and staff who have not yet done so, need to upload their proof of vaccination into the University’s Salesforce Health Cloud, a secure online platform for collecting health data. Proof of vaccination includes an image of the individual’s vaccine card or other approved vaccination evidence on Penn State News.

Happy Homecoming

There is a lot going on for Homecoming this weekend. For information about the ice cream social this afternoon, tonight’s Homecoming Parade and tomorrow’s tailgate competition, check the Homecoming events website. Information about Guard the Lion Shrine can be found on the Alumni Association website. Whatever you choose to do, remember to dress warmly, and please stay safe.

Best,

Kim Lawless

It’s hard to believe it’s already Oct. 1. This semester seems to be flying by. If you are going to the football game tomorrow, bundle up – it’s supposed to be in the low 60s at kickoff, and temperatures will drop into the mid 50s by the time the game ends. (And it always seems to feel colder inside the stadium!) Before you dress for the game, make sure you check the Stripe Out website to learn whether you are supposed to wear blue or white for the Stripe Out.

Fall meeting of the college

I want to thank everyone who attended the fall meeting of the college last week. It’s my sincere hope that we can gather in person for that meeting next year, so we can have a more interactive dialogue … and maybe even Creamery ice cream. Although we met via zoom, I think it was a good meeting, and I was happy to be able to share lots of positive information with everyone.

You should have received a copy of the slides from the meeting in your email. I encourage you to look through them again, and take a moment to read the names on the slide for new externally funded grants. There are 61 names on that slide – 61 of our College of Education colleagues who have been awarded external grants for their research since the start of the 2021 fiscal year. This list is large, and it's got a lot of new names on it. There were a lot of other proposals that received really good feedback and with some revisions likely will get funded in the next year or two. This all is exciting work, and it’s taking us in the right direction.

I want to continue to celebrate new external grants coming into the college, and we will be doing that through our Connections e-newsletter. Once a month, that column will feature new grants coming into the college since the previous list was published. Although the communications team will be receiving the information from our grants and contracts office, please also be sure to email [email protected] with information whenever you are awarded a grant.

Inaugural Research Conference

Our college’s inaugural Research Conference will be held Oct. 15. The theme is “Changing Education by Educating for Change,” which is consistent with our strategic plan. The main goals of the conference are to learn about each other’s work, share ideas and build collaborations for the future and we are poised to meet those goals. Greg Kelly and Heather Decker currently are working feverishly to organize the presentations, which involve 64 faculty members and graduate students who will be sharing their research with us.

Our keynote speaker for the conference is Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, associate professor in the Educational Studies program and the Joint Program in English and Education at the University of Michigan. Dr. Thomas will speak on “Race, Storying and Restorying: Critical and Research Perspectives on the Afterlife of Slavery in Youth Literature, Media and Culture,” from 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. in 101 Chambers Building. The keynote presentation is open to all members of the College of Education community.

Center for Racial Justice

As part of ongoing efforts to address the challenges of racism, racial bias and community safety that persist in our nation, Penn State has announced the formation of a new Center for Racial Justice. The center, as part of the initiatives outlined by Penn State President Eric J. Barron in a letter earlier this year to the Penn State community, will advance the work of the Select Penn State Presidential Commission on Racism, Bias, and Community Safety and will be dedicated to research and scholarship around racism and racial bias. The formation of the center aligns with the University’s Strategic Plan, which outlines “Advancing Inclusion, Equity, and Diversity” as one of its foundations.

Learn more on Penn State News.

COVID corner

Here is the latest information related to the COVID-19 pandemic:

• Working with suspended students. To date, 117 students at University Park have been placed on interim suspension for their failure to properly comply with Penn State’s weekly COVID-19 testing requirement. Students on interim suspension may not participate in classes, in-person or remotely. If any of these students are in your classes, you should have received an email from [email protected]. The Provost’s Office has prepared a document outlining how faculty should handle the situation should a suspended student be enrolled in your class.
• Employee testing compliance. Faculty and staff who have not uploaded proof of vaccination also are required to test weekly. Human Resources currently is examining employee testing data to determine the number of faculty and staff who are not in compliance. As a reminder, staff and faculty who fail to fulfill their testing obligations will be subject to sanctions. For details, check Penn State News.
• Get vaccinated … and get your flu shot. According to Leslie Parent, vice dean for research and graduate studies at Penn State College of Medicine, the CDC says it's fine to get both shots at the same time. It's also okay if you prefer to get your flu and COVID-19 shots on separate dates. The most important thing is to be vaccinated against both viruses. For information about where to get your COVID-19 vaccine, visit the University’s COVID-19 FAQ page. Visit the flu vaccine webpage to see the vaccine clinic schedule, and instructions on how to register.

Also, given the reduction in the amount and frequency of information has begun to slow down, please note that we will being to slow down the delivery of the College Updates/Sways in parallel. For now, we will aim to publish one, every other week.

Best,

Kim

Salary increase

I’d like to take a moment to provide you with some information concerning the 2021 merit increase.

Based upon the request of President Barron, the Board of Trustees authorized a 2% merit salary increase pool for employees. While the direction provided to us was that all continuing full-time faculty and staff members whose performance met the expectations of the college should typically receive a salary increase of 1.25%, I am pleased to report the college base level for meets expectations is 1.5%. The remaining 0.5% was used for both merit and equity adjustments.

Your new salary will be effective in the September 2021 pay. While the increase in pay will take place on the September 2021 paycheck, the pay change is retroactive to July 2021.

Your new salary will be effective in the September 2021 pay.

To view your new pay information, please visit WorkLion using the directions below after the September payroll has been processed on Sept. 24.

1. Log into WorkLion using your web credentials and go to Workday.
2. To access your Employee Profile, go to the Cloud icon in the upper right-hand corner and select View Profile.
3. On the sidebar, select Compensation. On this page you will be able to see your new salary.
4. Go to the Pay Change History tab to see your prior salary information. Select the Blue Hyperlink labeled “Ad-hoc Compensation Change.” Ensure you are selecting for effective date 07/01/2021 (Reason: Request Compensation Change > Base Salary > Annual Merit Increase). You will be able to view your previous base salary, the percentage increase, amount of increase, and new salary as of July 1, 2021.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for your contributions to the College of Education. We have many significant achievements to be proud of this past year and I very much appreciate all of your hard work and dedication.

I cannot wait to continue our work together this year and am excited to see everything we will accomplish together!

College of Edu cation Fall meeting

Just a quick reminder that we will conducting our College of Education Fall meeting this coming Thursday (9/23) from 2:30-4:30 p.m.

The meeting will be held on zoom again this year and requires advance registration. Please use this link to RSVP.

Once registration is complete you will receive more information including the zoom link.

COVID-19 dashboard update

COVID-19 vaccination data for all Penn State campuses is now available on the University’s COVID-19 dashboard. As is the case with the results of University-provided COVID-19 testing, the dashboard will be updated every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon during the fall semester with the latest campus-by-campus vaccination rates.

All Penn State employees are strongly encouraged to get vaccinated for COVID-19 and provide the University with proof that they are fully vaccinated as soon as possible. Employees can upload their vaccination information through Salesforce Health Cloud, a secure online platform for collecting health data. For details, check Penn State News.

Contingency planning

The University has set up a contingency planning resource for faculty members to reference in the event something happens that impacts class time. The website, found here, has guidance and strategies for both planned absences (such as presenting at a conference) and emergencies (such as illness). They also compiled a table with suggested teaching strategies in residential courses for temporary instructor or student absence, found here.

One of the most important tips they list is to share with your students at the beginning of the semester how you will communicate with them if there is an illness or personal emergency that will impact your regularly scheduled class meeting (and include this information on your syllabus).

The site also includes procedures for classes impacted by weather delays and closures. When the university is closed for the day, instructors should not expect students to attend instructional or research activities and should inform students of the plan for making up any work. Attendance at evening or other make-ups outside of scheduled class time cannot be made mandatory nor can students be held responsible for the materials covered in such sessions, as they have other courses and responsibilities that may prevent them from attending “extra” sessions.

Instructors are encouraged to take responsibility for their own safety and that of their students, and should review “Handling Weather Day Absences” (Human Resources Guideline 10) for specific information on how time missed for weather situations is handled.

For more details, visit https://weblearning.psu.edu/contingency-planning/ and bookmark the site so you have easy access to the information when you need it.

Picture days

Thank you to all who participated in our marathon, four-day photo session to update our online directory photos. I am looking forward to seeing the new photos. While only a small portion of each image will be visible in our online directory, the full-size photos will be made available so you can use yours as needed … for example, to submit with your bio for conference presentations.

For those of you who were not able to participate, we are planning to hold another photo session in the spring.

The best part of this is that the photographers are students working in CommAgency, an engaged scholarship, co-curricular organization run by the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications. Jobs such as this one help these students advance their knowledge and build their experience, to make them job-ready when they graduate. As an educator, I embrace that goal and am happy that our college is supporting that mission.

Feedback

As a reminder, please continue to use our anonymous form to share your concerns when you feel something related to the pandemic is not being addressed, either at the college level or University-wide.

Best,

Kim Lawless

20 years…

I think we all likely remember exactly where we were and what we were doing 20 years ago when we heard the news of the terrorist strike on US soil on Sept. 11, 2001. We remember the emotions we felt at that moment, and in the days, weeks and months that followed – the fear, the confusion, the uncertainty that gripped us, along with the mourning over the incredible loss of life.

As I recall the response on my prior campus, as well as read about the response here at Penn State, I can't help but think of the similarities to what is happening in our nation today with the pandemic and the battle against systemic racism. How are we as a college community responding to these events? What are we doing to connect with our students to see how they are doing and how these events are impacting them? What are we doing as individuals to help find solutions? When we look back on this moment in time 20 years from now, how will we feel about our role, our words and our actions? Whether we are talking about the pandemic or systemic racism, will we be able to say we were part of the solution, or part of the problem? As a community, how will we come together and emerge a stronger more impactful College of Education?

Ice cream social

We had a fantastic turnout and lots of fun at the ice cream social last night. I want to thank everyone who took part, including our Education Student Council, who helped us run the event. We plan to hold more of this type of event during the semester, assuming we can do so safely within the University’s COVID-19 protocols. For those of you unable to attend, please follow this link to see a quick video recap of the event! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogvqYvCh9ZY

COVID concerns response

Within the last week, someone filled out our anonymous form with a concern about whether or not the employee Vault tests get included as “on-campus testing” on the COVID dashboard. I reached out to Kelly Wolgast, director of the COVID-19 Operations Control Center. This is her response:

“Yes, all the tests that we administer either with our campus testing or the Vault testing are on the dash for both employees and students by campus. The colors in the bar graph actually are different for employees than for students, too, to illustrate the differences by day. When one of those tests that we administer is positive, it is also reflected in our dashboard. What is not the same, though, is that Centre County will report their data according to their timeline and that is not the same timeline as our public dashboard so if this person is looking to see if they match, it probably won't, but should be close. We publish our dash 2x weekly.”

Please continue to use our anonymous form to share your concerns when you feel something related to the pandemic is not being addressed, either at the college level or University-wide.

Labor distribution approvals

Our finance office needs faculty who approve labor plans related to both grants and general funds to click here to access the training resource needed to complete this process. This will take you less than one minute, so please do it today.

Picture days

You all should have received an email (or two) from Annemarie Mountz, who is coordinating the fall photo days for our college. Between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, Sept. 13-16, we will have photographers from CommAgency taking environmental portraits of as many faculty and staff as possible. I realize that some of you have work adjustments and cannot come to campus this semester. We will be holding a “make-up” session in the spring, so perhaps you will be able to get your photo taken then. In the meantime, we can continue to use your current directory photo, or you can email a high-resolution photo of yourself to Annemarie at [email protected] and she can use that photo for your directory entry.

These will not be your typical “school pictures.” Instead, we will have more relaxed poses and a few different backdrops. Only your heads will show up in the directory, but these photos also will be available for your use so I strongly encourage you to sign up, if you haven’t already.

Board of Trustees

For those of you who may be interested in the work of our University Board of Trustees, the next public meeting of the board is scheduled for Sept. 16-17. Public committee meetings and the full board meeting will be livestreamed at https://wpsu.org/trustees/ online. Committee meetings will start at 7:30 a.m. on Sept. 16. The full board will meet at 1 p.m. on Sept. 17. The meetings will be held in a hybrid format with some members attending video conference and others in person at the Penn Stater Hotel and Conference Center. Members of the public may also attend in person. For details, check Penn State News.

Home football weekend

Campus and town already are abuzz on the eve of our first home football game of the season. Whether or not you are going to the game, enjoy the weekend and please stay safe.

Best,

Kim Lawless

As we approach the holiday Labor Day weekend, I want to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of so many of you to get our semester off to a positive start. Thank you for being present for our students and for each other. Thank you for keeping yourself safe and for going the extra mile to make sure others feel comfortable and safe as well. Thank you for continuing to offer your constructive feedback through our anonymous form when you feel something is not being addressed, either at the college level or University-wide. While I cannot answer these individually – because they are anonymous and I have no idea who sent them – please do know that I am passing along the University-level concerns to the appropriate people and am working to address anything that can be addressed at the college level.

Nominate a distinguished professor

The College of Education is eligible to make at least one Distinguished Professor appointment this academic year. The number of Distinguished Professors in the college depends upon how many of our faculty on standing academic appointments hold the rank of professor. We will be informed of our allotment in early October. The individuals currently holding appointments as Distinguished Professors of Education are Drs. M. Kathleen Heid, Gregory J. Kelly, and P. Karen Murphy.

In keeping with Policy AC10 Distinguished Professorships, I am soliciting nominations from faculty, staff and students in the College of Education. As a courtesy, I will let each nominee know that they have been suggested for this honor.

A nomination package, assembled by the nominator, will include three internal letters of support that explicitly address how the nominee meets the established selection criteria for this appointment, as delineated in the College’s Procedures for Selecting Distinguished Professors. In most cases, one letter will be from the nominee’s department head. If a department head or associate dean is nominated, then one of the deans in the college should be asked to provide a letter. Upon acceptance of a nomination for a Distinguished Professorship, nominees must promptly submit additional materials including a narrative statement, as specified in the Procedures document.

The College of Education is eligible to make at least one Distinguished Professor appointment this academic year.

I will be convening a Distinguished Professor Advisory Committee, in accord with the College Procedures. The committee will review each nominee’s materials, identify the nominees who meet the selection criteria, and offer recommendations to me. In turn, I will review the Advisory Committee’s recommendations and send forward my recommendation, with accompanying dossier, to the Office of the President.

Please submit nominations for Distinguished Professor of Education, with three letters of support, on or before Oct. 1, to Wendy Williams ([email protected]) in the Office of the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs. Nominees’ additional materials will be due by Oct. 11. Final nomination packages must be submitted to the Office of the President by Nov. 15.

Please let me know if you have any questions about this process.

COVID-19 updates

• Get vaccinated or get tested. This week the regular testing regimen began for all those who are not vaccinated, or who have not shared their proof of vaccination with the University. Failure to comply with the mandatory testing could result in termination of employment, for both faculty and staff. It’s so much easier to just get vaccinated, and to share your vaccination status with the University. Penn State employees can upload their vaccine information through Salesforce Health Cloud. For details, check Penn State News.
• Vaccination rates. In the latest COVID-19 vaccination report for the University Park campus, the vast majority of students living on campus — more than 86% — have provided proof of vaccination to the University. In addition, 83% of full-time employees at University Park have indicated that they are fully vaccinated. The combined reported vaccination rate for University Park students — all individuals living on- and off-campus — is 80%. Approximately 78% of off-campus students have uploaded their proof of vaccination, and more are continuing to upload each day, so actual vaccination rates may be higher. Read more on Penn State News.

Contact tracing

The process

The Academic Leadership Council had a session about contact tracing this week. They shared a lot of information, including how they are communicating with faculty. Notifications are sent for the following:

• Students who test positive through a University testing process or students who notify the University of a third-party positive test result.
• Students who are identified as close contacts through the contact tracing process or students who report being a close contact to Contact Tracing.

In the above cases, faculty on record in LionPath will receive an email from the University’s case management system, Maxient. Specific dates a student is not able to attend class will be shared. Dates may change for a variety of reasons and an updated letter will be sent if this occurs.

Please keep in mind that receiving a notice does not mean a student tested positive. They could be quarantining because they are a close contact of someone who tested positive. All emails will indicate the student is out for a medical concern.

Per the CDC, a close contact is defined as someone who was within 6 feet for a total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period within 2 days prior to illness onset or a positive test result if asymptomatic, regardless of whether the contact was wearing a mask. The quarantine requirement for close contacts varies depending on vaccination status and symptoms.

Limitations.

There are limitations that can affect the above process.

• If a student is tested off campus and does not report their result to the University, the contact tracing process cannot start. If notified, the University asks for a copy of the test result to initiate the process.
• Contact Tracing relies on information provided by a positive case or individuals who can confirm a student meets the close contact definition. If the information is not provided, the process cannot begin.
• The timing of a positive result and/or symptoms dictate who is deemed a close contact. It is possible a student notifies you they are positive, and they were not in your classroom while infectious.
• There is no required social distancing, and it is unlikely that every close contact will be identified through our process.
• The University has an obligation to maintain confidentiality of students as much as possible.

Strategies to assist the process (suggestions, not requirements)

• You can encourage students to tell you if they tested positive. Ask if they were tested through the University. If not, complete the referral form or encourage the student to do so. Or, call Penn State Contact Tracing at 814-863-8800. This will initiate the contact tracing process.
• You may create a seating chart and take attendance. If a student indicates they are positive, complete a referral form for the students who meet the close contact definition and include the last date they were in class with the student that tested positive.
• Remember a notification does not mean that a student has tested positive, they may be a close contact in quarantine. Assumptions should not be made about their circumstances or vaccination status.
• If a student intentionally comes back to in-person instruction prior to the date communicated in the notification, a referral can be made to Student Conduct through the Incident Reporting Form.

Get your flu shot

As fall approaches, it’s more important than ever to get your annual flu shot. The University is holding a series of free, drive-through clinics in late September through October for all employees. See the flu vaccine webpage for the schedule. To register for a flu clinic vaccine or to print a voucher to get your vaccine elsewhere, login to the Health Advocate website. Check more details in the email you should have received from Penn State Human Resources on Wednesday afternoon (subject line is 2021 Flu Vaccine Clinics).

If you haven’t gotten your COVID-19 vaccine yet, physicians say it’s fine to save yourself a trip and get both shots at the same time. Medical experts say it would also be a good idea to get the flu shot as soon as it’s available to you. Because of low flu cases last year, doctors aren’t exactly sure how influenza and the coronavirus would interact in the body. Becoming infected with both viruses at the same time is possible and could increase the chance of becoming more severely ill. Continuing to wear masks in public, avoiding crowds and practicing good hand-washing are also important to protect you against getting infected from these viruses. Read the full story on Penn State News.

Understanding the strategic plan

The College of Education recently implemented its new strategic plan for 2021-25. This plan was a collaborative effort within the college, and many individuals did some heavy-lifting for this document – even during the pandemic shutdown. You can read the full plan on the college's website. Information about the committee membership can be found here.

Each of the plan’s four goals includes multiple objectives and action items, so over the next several months I will be including an initiatives column in Connections that will focus on individual objectives and their associated action items, and what implementation of them means for us in our everyday work lives.

This week’s column gives context to the document by reviewing the planning process, which can be summarized as four phases of development and review. Read it here.

Mark your calendar

Our college’s welcome back ice cream social is coming up next week. Join us on the Chambers Portico from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 9, for ice cream and conversation. I will give brief welcoming remarks at 6:15 p.m. Registration for the event is required, so please click here to let us know you’re coming.

Human subjects research changes

The changes announced by the Human Research Protection Program (HRPP) in a webinar they held last week are now in effect. The slides presented at the webinar, and an overview of the changes, have been posted on the HRPP website. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to your analysts with questions: https://www.research.psu.edu/irb/analysts

Enjoy the long weekend!

Best,

Kim Lawless

What a great week to start off the semester. It was incredible to see our colleagues and students in our classrooms, halls, and on our campus. I could feel the energy and excitement that only a residential academic environment can generate in the air. It was rejuvenating after so much social distancing!

I know we are still dealing with a lot related to the pandemic, on top of all our regular stressors. We are all reorienting to working/learning with one another in the same space, and we are doing so when we still have a number of COVID mediation rules in place. If you see someone without a mask, don’t assume they are doing it out of spite, they may just have just forgotten to put it back on after they took a sip of water. A gentle reminder is usually all it takes. If some takes a little longer to answer an email you sent or complete a request you made, remember, they may be managing a lot too. We also need to be mindful that we owe ourselves similar grace – kindness to others and to ourselves is how we will get through this together...

COVID updates

Vaccination/mandatory testing

I cannot stress this enough: get vaccinated! If you are not yet vaccinated, or if you are vaccinated but have not yet uploaded your proof of vaccination, you are subject to the University’s weekly testing mandate. The University continues to strongly encourage everyone to get vaccinated for COVID-19 and to share their vaccination status with the University as soon as possible. Faculty and staff can share their vaccination status through Salesforce Health Cloud.

Staff members who have not provided proof of vaccination and fail to fulfill their testing obligations will be subject to sanctions, up to and including the use of HR78, Staff Employee Failure to Meet Acceptable Standards of Performance, which could lead to termination.

A separate compliance and sanction process is in place for instructors, researchers and faculty members who have not provided proof of vaccination and do not comply with required testing. For full-time instructors, researchers or faculty members, substantial noncompliance may lead to disciplinary action up to and including initiating termination proceedings consistent with Academic Policy AC70 or contract termination. Faculty members may appeal sanctions in accordance with Academic Policy AC76 or request a review of sanctions from the vice provost for faculty affairs.

For full details on compliance measures, check Penn State News.

Voluntary testing

All employees may seek voluntary COVID-19 testing through their health care provider or other local COVID-19 testing options. Employees working on campus at University Park also may utilize the drop-in testing available on campus. However, you are strongly encouraged to use the at-home, Vault Health mail-in test kit as the best test option.

Course modes

I have been asked to remind faculty that you are not permitted to change course modes unilaterally. Unilaterally changing course modes from what is listed in LionPATH could create issues for Penn State, our college, and our students. LionPATH data are used to report to state (e.g., PHEAA), federal (e.g., SEVIS reporting on international students), and accreditation agencies (e.g., CAEP), and it is critical for these data to reflect our true practices. Additionally, the broad exemptions put in place last year by the Pennsylvania Department of Education as well as other accrediting and certification organizations no longer apply, so course mode changes could impact students in unforeseen ways. For details, check Penn State News.

COVID-safe research protocols

Everyone conducting research at Penn State must adhere to the following COVID-safe research protocols. Faculty, please make sure your students are aware of this information before they begin their research as well.

Current research

• If you are currently approved to conduct human subjects research from IRB, you must make sure your study is COVID-safe before conducting in-person research.
• If your project meets all six of the criteria outlined in the Revised Standards for Human Subjects Research, you may omit the COVID-safety review and proceed with your research.
• If your project does not meet all six criteria in that document, you are required to undergo an additional COVID-safety review through the InfoReady process by following the “Procedures to Request to Conduct In-Person Human Subjects Research During COVID-19” process.

Current research — change in protocol

• If you are currently approved to conduct human subjects research from IRB in person, and you would like to change your protocol (for example, to move to remote research), you should contact your IRB analyst for instruction about how to make this change. Changes may require that you submit the revised protocol for the COVID-safety review.

New Research Projects

• If you are seeking approval to conduct human subjects research, you must get approval from the IRB for your study, and then seek approval through the COVID-safety review. If the research study cannot meet all six criteria outlined in the Revised Standards for Human Subjects Research, you must follow the “Procedures to Request to Conduct In-Person Human Subjects Research During COVID-19” process through InfoReady.

More information

• Additional information about COVID research is available at the Office of the Senior Vice- President for Research: https://www.research.psu.edu/covid
• You can learn more about getting started with Human Subjects approval for research at https://www.research.psu.edu/irb/step1
• If you are uncertain about how to proceed, please contact Greg Kelly at [email protected].

Operations update

Per a university request to centralize our operations here at the college, we have created an all-in-one request form. The form will allow you to request access to a college-owned building (key and swipe access), reserve a college-owned conference room, make non- emergency work order requests, and submit an employee parking permit request.

If you have questions while completing the form, please work with the lead staff in your area or contact [email protected]. The form, along with other helpful information, can be found on the Operations home page.

Course design assistance

In need of course design assistance? As with previous semesters, faculty members may reach out to Jana Hitchcock ([email protected]) for help. Please let her know your course name, availability, and a brief statement of the type of assistance you are looking for, and she will respond quickly.

Musical chairs

Several people and units within our college moved around over the past few months, particularly in Chambers Building. We have tried to keep up with the changes in the online directory, but may have missed updating location and phone number information for some people’s entries. Please go to our online directory here and check your entry. If you need to have information updated, click here to fill out a directory change form.

Picture days

Annemarie Mountz, our communications director, is working on setting up a series of photo sessions to get new environmental portraits taken of all faculty and staff in the college. It is my hope that all 300+ faculty and staff members in our college get these new portraits taken.

These photos will be taken by students in CommAgency, the Bellisario College of Communications’ student-run Media Production Agency that took a lot of the classroom photos for our website redesign project. Instead of using a traditional portrait backdrop, they’ll feature relaxed and natural poses similar to the photos on the Strategic Communications directory page.

Annemarie will share more information when details are worked out.

Performance review goal-setting

The 2021-2022 Performance Review Cycle is well underway. If you haven't done so, please take work with your supervisor to develop and enter your goals in Workday so that you can focus on the work required to achieve your objectives this year. To support goal setting, visit the set goals webpage to access resources.

Professional development

Penn State Human Resources Talent Management has several new and returning professional development programs available this fall. The subjects covered in these programs vary, from diversity to communication, wellness, and accountability. I highly recommend checking them out, because several of them may fill professional development goals you have, and these programs are offered at no cost to University employees. See the full schedule of programs here.

Free ice cream

The College of Education welcome back ice cream social will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 9, on the Chambers portico. Registration is required, at this link. I hope to see you there.

Send your feedback

Our leadership team continues to welcome your feedback and questions through our anonymous form. While we can’t answer these personally since they’re anonymous and we don’t know who sent them, I will try to answer questions through this weekly email.

I also encourage you to bookmark the University’s official COVID information website at https://virusinfo.psu.edu/ and visit it often. Another good reference for you is the archive of all the weekly emails I’ve sent to faculty and staff since Feb. 28, 2020. To access these, click here.

Best,

Kim Lawless

It is hard to believe that we are on the verge of embarking on the start of a new academic year! It has been incredible to see so many of you back on campus joining with our new faculty and students in orientations this week.

While we have dedicated much of our attention to environmental conditions related to the pandemic, and will continue to do so, it is also important that we do not lose sight of the multitude of exciting initiatives that we are engaged in to push us forward. We have developed and begun implementation on an exciting strategic plan. We are revising existing and designing new programmatic options for students. We have our inaugural College of Education Research Day. Many of us are engaging in professional development or learning communities to expand our perspectives and broaden our practices. We are putting into practice many of the lessons we learned over the past 18 months. The list goes on and on … so much positive progress for us to focus on!

Despite the various challenges we have faced and continue to face, I remain hopeful and optimistic, because we have remained a community - a community that is unified in the purpose of changing education by educating for change.

I’m truly excited to see how we will use our creative energy, our collective intellect, and our faith in the transformative power of education to navigate this moment and emerge as a more just, equitable, and empathetic community, both here on campus and beyond. I am honored to be on this journey with all of you.

COVID-19

Guidance and protocols related to COVID-19 continue to evolve. The most recent information as of today (Friday, Aug. 20) is below. However, I strongly encourage you to continue to check your email often for updates from me and from the University administration.

• Upload your vaccine data. I’m going to repeat this regularly until we have 100% compliance in the college: if you have not already done so, please, get vaccinated and upload your data. Those without uploaded proof of vaccination will be subject to mandatory testing. The combination of measures in place and referenced below are designed to make our working and learning spaces as safe as possible during this ongoing pandemic. A big part of this equation is having our community vaccinated. Please, do your part.
• Testing: Faculty and staff who are not vaccinated for COVID-19 and those who have not shared with the University that they are fully vaccinated will be required to test weekly for COVID-19 throughout the fall semester, or until they share with the University that they have been fully vaccinated. This testing applies to employees working on campus; employees working fully remotely are exempt from the required testing. Significant consequences are in place through Human Resources for those who do not comply with the required testing, up to and including separation from the University. For details, check Penn State News.
• Masking: Universal masking requirements remain in place: all students, faculty, staff and visitors, both vaccinated and unvaccinated, are required to wear masks indoors at all campuses and facilities operated by Penn State. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), effective masks are those that fit snugly and include multiple layers of material, whether they are reusable cloth masks or disposable “procedure masks.” Both types can be an effective complement to handwashing and other mitigation measures. As per CDC guidance, face shields and masks with exhaust valves are not acceptable because they allow air and respiratory droplets to escape, resulting in less protection for others. The Office of Physical Plant’s Environmental Health and Safety Office has updated its guidance document, which can be found on the Keep Teaching Policies, Guidelines, and Documents page under "Health and Safety" and also on the Health and Safety section page.
• Instructor/Research Violations of PSU’s COVID-19 policies: The Office of Faculty Affairs has released a document that clarifies the expectations of instructors, researchers, and faculty members to adhere to Penn State’s requirements and expectations for reducing the risk of COVID-19; describes the process for reviewing allegations of failure to abide by expectations; describes sanctions that may be imposed; and delineates the appeals process. Download the document here.
• Food safety guidelines for gatherings and events: During gatherings and events, the goal is to minimize groups of unmasked people before, during and after eating indoors. Guidance includes wearing masks except when actively eating or drinking; shifting events to outdoors whenever possible; displaying appropriate signage about masking, as well as sending a message in advance that masking is required when not actively eating or drinking; and limiting the number of attendees. Full guidance can be found here.
• Guidelines for eating in the workplace: Basic guidelines include wearing a mask except when you are actively eating or drinking; eating at your desk, outdoors or in designated break areas; and staggering mealtimes to limit the number people eating within the same space. More complete guidance can be found here.

Grant opportunities

• AERA-NSF: The AERA-NSF Grants Program is currently accepting proposals for both its Dissertation and Research Grants. With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Program provides dissertation grants to graduate students and small research grants to doctoral level scholars using large-scale data sets in their research. The proposal deadline is Tuesday, Oct. 5. For more information, check the AERA website.
• NAEd/Spencer: The NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship Program in Education Research supports early-career scholars working in critical areas of educational scholarship. Fellows will receive $70,000 for one academic year of research, or $35,000 for each of two contiguous years, working half time. Fellows also will attend professional development retreats and receive mentorship from NAEd members and other senior scholars in their field. Applicants must have had their Ph.D., Ed.D. or equivalent research degree conferred between Jan. 1, 2015, and Dec. 31, 2020, to be eligible to apply this year. Deadline to apply is Nov. 17. A webinar for applicants will be held at 2 p.m. Sept. 1. Click here to register for the webinar; click here to access the application portal; and click here to learn about the current fellows.

Mark your calendar

Every fall, we welcome new students to the College of Education with an ice cream social. This fall, I’m so excited to see everyone repopulate our campus that I’m inviting everyone in the college – new and returning undergraduate and graduate students, plus our faculty and staff. Join us on the Chambers Portico from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 9, for ice cream and conversation. I will give brief welcoming remarks at 6:15 p.m. Registration for the event is required, so please click here to let us know you’re coming.

Send your feedback

Our leadership team continues to welcome your feedback and questions through our anonymous form. While we can’t answer these personally since they’re anonymous and we don’t know who sent them, I will try to answer questions through this weekly email.

I also encourage you to bookmark the University’s official COVID information website at https://virusinfo.psu.edu/ and visit it often. Another good reference for you is the archive of all the weekly emails I’ve sent to faculty and staff since Feb. 28, 2020. To access these, click here.

Best,

Kim Lawless

Thank you for your patience with the delay of this sway from last Friday. I wanted to hold a bit to understand where we would be this week, and make sure that I had the most updated information possible to share with you all. New guidance is rolling out rapidly as we approach the start of classes next week. In addition, some minor changes might occur in existing plans as the University continues to adapt to evolving environmental conditions. So, this week I will also send out the regular College Update on Friday with any new information that arises over the next few days.

Transitioning back

I was happy to re-connect in person with a number of you at the Spikes game on Thursday night. Being physically present and interacting with people without the use of technology was refreshing and welcome for me.

I’m also happy to be seeing so many of you back on campus this week. I’ve missed everyone! Many of you have been back in your offices at least a few days a week over the past two months. For others, this week is your first time back on campus since March 13, 2020. Whichever is the case, I want to take a moment to remind you to be gentle and kind with one another, and with our students. The last 17 months have been challenging, to say the least, and we each are feeling something different as we begin to repopulate our campus. Some people are excited to be back, while others are concerned about the current state of the pandemic. Many of us are experiencing some level of both of those things at the same time. If you are feeling overwhelmed, please talk to your supervisor, or contact the Employee Assistance Program, which is a free and voluntary resource for benefits-eligible employees and their families who may need counseling.

Back in March 2020, we thought it was hard to shut down in-person operations due to a pandemic. What we’re finding now is that it’s even harder to open back up. Tensions are very high right now as people debate what it takes to keep us all safe and healthy. While I think the vast majority of us are in favor of a vaccine mandate, please, do not confuse the lack of a mandate with a lack of measures designed to protect our health, safety and well-being. The data are promising and indicate that the deliberate, three- pronged efforts – masking, vaccinations and testing – are making strong progress, and the administration is keeping a close eye on things. If conditions change, the University is prepared to take further steps if necessary to prevent the spread of COVID-19 on our campuses.

Upload your vaccine data

The combination of measures in place are designed to make our working and learning spaces as safe as possible during this ongoing pandemic, but as President Barron said in his email, “a safe and productive environment is everyone’s responsibility.” If you have not already done so, please, get vaccinated and upload your data. Those without uploaded proof of vaccination will be subject to mandatory testing.

COVID-19 protocols

The University continues to monitor the course of COVID-19 and has developed a series of on-ramps and off-ramps and is prepared to adjust our plans as needed. Here are some of the things you need to know as you return to campus:

• Masking. All individuals, regardless of their vaccination status, are required to wear face masks while inside buildings on Penn State campuses. This requirement includes members of Teamsters Local Union 8 (TLU8), which reached an agreement with the University that provides for the wearing of masks by technical-service employees. This requirement applies to all indoor spaces including classrooms, labs, meeting spaces and other shared public indoor areas. If people are traveling in a car together for University business purposes, they must be masked in the car. If vaccinated individuals are by themselves in a lab or an office where doors are closed, then they do not need to be masked. More information on this change is available on virusinfo.psu.edu.
• Vaccines. Penn State’s stance is clear: everyone who can get a vaccine should do so as soon as possible to attain very high vaccination rates on all Penn State campuses. As I said above, anyone – including faculty and staff – who is not vaccinated will be subject to weekly testing.
• Testing. Testing plans and requirements for employees who are not vaccinated or have not shared that they are vaccinated with the University are being developed and will be announced soon. Employees should upload their information through Salesforce Health Cloud as soon as possible. Those who are not vaccinated, or who have not shared their proof of vaccination, face regular testing, with serious consequences for those who do not comply.

Information for faculty

I recognize the efforts that you have made and continue to make to meet the learning needs of our students under incredibly trying conditions. Given that we all spent much of the summer anticipating a more normal return to fall semester, the recent surge in COVID-19 cases has created increased anxiety for many in our community. As our return to “normal” is increasingly challenged, the University has provided a number of expectations which I have tried to summarize below.

On-campus expectations

Faculty are expected to return to on-campus work this semester. On-campus work for faculty members, depending on individual responsibilities, may include teaching, advising, mentoring, committee work, service activities, and research.

Class modes

The University has made it very clear that the instructional mode of a course cannot be changed by individual faculty. Unilaterally changing course modes from what is listed in LionPATH could create issues for Penn State, our college, and our students. LionPATH data are used to report to state (e.g., PHEAA), federal (e.g., SEVIS reporting on international students), and accreditation agencies (e.g., CAEP), and it is critical for these data to reflect our true practices. Additionally, the broad exemptions put in place last year by the Pennsylvania Department of Education as well as other accrediting and certification organizations no longer apply, so course mode changes could impact students in unforeseen ways.

If you are scheduled to teach in person, there is flexibility to offer up to 24 percent of that class remotely. This flexibility can help you manage your own absences, whether due to illness or other unavoidable circumstances. However, that flexibility should not be used to avoid in-person teaching for non-pedagogical reasons. This use of that flexibility is problematic as students are coming to campus expecting to attend the in- person classes that they enrolled in as indicated within the LionPATH designations. Rather, it should be used as a resource in your contingency planning. Assistance with contingency planning can be found at weblearning.psu.edu/contingency-planning/. Please inform your department head if your normal class delivery will be interrupted for more than one or two class periods. To be aligned with Penn State policy, unit leaders cannot approve exceptions beyond the 24 percent flexibility without further University guidance because this would require a change in course mode.

Canvas

Please use the Canvas setup guidelines as you prepare classes for fall. These guidelines ensure that, in the event of instructor or student illness, information is conveyed consistently across courses. Guidance, FAQs, and resources are available at these sites:

• Instructional Modes
• Fall 2021 Course Preparation Resources and Webinars
• Teaching Topics on keepteaching.psu.edu

Masks

The University will provide procedure masks to all instructors in the Registrar’s database (initially, 1 package of 50 masks per instructor). Clear masks will be part of the PPE distribution program for specialty language courses. Face shields and hand sanitizer is not part of the University distribution for Fall 2021.

Student compliance

If anyone attends class without a mask, instructors should ask them to put one on or leave. Instructors may end class if anyone present refuses to appropriately wear a mask for the duration of class. Students who refuse to wear masks appropriately may face disciplinary action for Code of Conduct violations. If a student feels they cannot wear a mask during class, they should speak with their adviser immediately about options for altering their course schedule.

Information for staff

As with faculty, I recognize and appreciate all you have done over the past 17 months, and also the mixed feelings you may have about returning to on-campus work given the recent surge in COVID-19 cases. As our return to “normal” is increasingly challenged, I want to remind you of expectations for staff as laid out by the University administration.

On-campus expectations

Staff are expected to return to on-campus work this semester. In the college, we are trying to balance your needs with the needs of the college community and especially our students, and so request that supervisors work through schedules with their staff so that we have most of the staff in each unit working on campus most of the time.

Accommodations for staff

Staff members with documented disabilities may request reasonable accommodations under the ADA by contacting the University’s ADA coordinator. Staff seeking other exemptions from returning to on- campus work should talk with their supervisor, who will follow the process detailed here.

Flexible work arrangements

Recommendations drafted by the Remote Work Task Force on the future of staff work arrangements at Penn State have been reviewed and approved by senior University leadership. The task force, made up of representatives from across the University, has recommended that Penn State adopt flexible work arrangements for staff as an element of overall workforce planning operations, beginning in January 2022. During the upcoming fall 2021 semester, the University will follow interim guidelines developed by the Return to Work Task Group. Resources related to this temporary guidance are available on the Return to Work On Campus website. For full details, check Penn State News.

Technology tips for everyone

• Tech checklist. To help faculty and staff make the transition back to campus go smoothly, information technology teams across the University have collaborated on a checklist. The checklist covers a variety of topics and includes tips such as taking a photo of your devices and accessories (cable connections, locations, etc.) while they’re plugged in at home so you can use the photo as a reference when setting up back on campus. To see the full checklist, check Penn State News.
• VPN. On June 19, 2021, the GlobalProtect Virtual Private Network (VPN) replaced Cisco’s AnyConnect as the official University VPN. Faculty with course-specific work requiring a VPN connection are asked to note this in information shared with students and direct them to use the GlobalProtect VPN. GlobalProtect can be downloaded at no cost from Software at Penn State under “Available Software.” Installation and setup instructions are available on the IT Knowledge Base at GlobalProtect Remote Access VPN - Overview. Campus or College IT Support and the IT Service Desk can assist those who need help downloading and setting up GlobalProtect. After the software is installed and set up, students should verify they can access all the resources they need.

Send your feedback

Our leadership team continues to welcome your feedback and questions through our anonymous form. While we can’t answer these personally since they’re anonymous and we don’t know who sent them, I will try to answer questions through this weekly email.

I also encourage you to bookmark the University’s official COVID information website at https://virusinfo.psu.edu/ and visit it often. Other portions of that site that are important to check include:

• Fall 2021 health and safety plans announced;
• FAQ latest updates;
• What you need to know about testing; and
• Health guidelines.

Another good reference for you is the archive of all the weekly emails I’ve sent to faculty and staff since Feb. 28, 2020. To access these, click here.

Best,

Kim Lawless

Good morning,

In my email yesterday, I said that things are changing quickly regarding safety protocols to protect against the Delta variant of COVID. Last night, that line rang true.

By now, you are all aware that Penn State is shifting its masking guidelines to require all students, faculty, staff and visitors — regardless of vaccination status – in all indoor public spaces at all University locations, effective immediately. Vaccinated employees with individual offices are not required to wear a mask in their personal office while in there alone. You can learn more about this updated masking requirement on Penn State’s Virus Information website.

The University had stipulated that this shift to masking for everyone at all campuses does not change the return-to-work steps. As planned, faculty and staff should continue to prepare for a return to on-site teaching and working this month.

That being said, due to the changing nature of the pandemic recently across the country and in Pennsylvania, the University is reopening the process for faculty work adjustment requests until Thursday, Aug. 12. Remote work adjustments will be considered for individuals who are immunocompromised or live with someone who is immunocompromised; individuals with children who are unvaccinated and have a condition that puts them at high-risk for complications from COVID-19; and individuals who, for medical reasons, cannot be vaccinated.

Faculty members who wish to request a work adjustment should visit the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs website and look under the “Instructional Guidance” section for information on the adjustment process and the Faculty Work Adjustment Request Form. Requests should be submitted to the HR strategic partner for the academic unit.

Staff members with documented disabilities may request reasonable accommodations under the ADA by contacting the University’s ADA coordinator. Staff seeking other exemptions from returning to on- campus work should talk with their supervisor, who will follow the process detailed here.

This is a stressful, anxiety-filled time for all of us, especially since we thought things were getting better. Please, in addition to taking care of your physical health, pay attention to your mental health needs. If you are struggling, please talk to your PIC, department chair or your direct supervisor. You also can contact the Employee Assistance Program, which is a free and voluntary resource for benefits-eligible employees and their families who may need counseling.

As President Barron said in the email he sent last night, we are in the midst of a pandemic and we need everyone’s cooperation if we are to return to the robust, in-person campus experience that we all look forward to.

Please continue to read your email, as changes in University protocols and College operations will be communicated largely via email.

Our leadership team continues to welcome your feedback and questions through our anonymous form.

We encourage you to bookmark the University’s official COVID information website at https://virusinfo.psu.edu/ and visit it often. Other portions of that site that are important to check include:

• Fall 2021 health and safety plans announced;
• FAQ latest updates;
• What you need to know about testing; and
• Health guidelines.

Best,

Kim

To the College of Education community,

As we all learned during the University’s town hall meeting yesterday, the Delta variant of COVID-19 has changed the trajectory of the pandemic. Nobody anticipated we would be where we are with the pandemic approaching the Fall of 2021, and things are going to continue to change. University leadership is working hard to synthesize information from various sources including the CDC and the Pennsylvania Department of Health and to base protocols on that scientific data and guidance.

The biggest take-away message from University leadership to students and employees is to get vaccinated. While the University is not currently requiring vaccinations, Penn State is not impartial when it comes to getting vaccinated, and neither is the College. The University’s very strong stance is that everyone who can get a vaccine should do so as soon as possible, and we agree.

Knowing that things are in flux and changing on a near-daily basis, our College leadership team is busy trying to figure out what all of this means for us. We intend to have a better lay of the land by the end of the week or early next week. Please continue to read your email, as changes in University protocols and College operations will be communicated largely via email.

Here’s what we know right now from yesterday’s town hall meeting and new guidance posted on the University’s website:

Masking: Penn State will require all individuals — vaccinated and unvaccinated — to wear masks while indoors on campus if local virus transmission rates reach high or substantial levels or when warranted by other circumstances. Currently, Centre County is in the “moderate” or “yellow” category. If there is a change in that status, more information will be communicated regarding mandatory masking. In the meantime, all unvaccinated individuals must wear masks while indoors on campus, and vaccinated individuals are encouraged to do so as well.

Vaccination: Although the University is not currently requiring vaccinations, it has been clear in its messaging and has been repeated it often: everyone who can get vaccinated should get vaccinated as soon as possible. Vaccination is the single best way to protect yourself and our community from serious illness. We need as many people as possible to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

Employee testing: Testing plans and requirements for employees who are not vaccinated or have not shared that they are vaccinated with the University are being developed and will be announced soon. Employees should upload their information through Salesforce Health Cloud by Aug. 9 or as soon as possible.

Student testing: There are several layers to this:

• Students who will be living in on-campus residence halls who have not been fully vaccinated or have not shared their vaccination status with the University by Aug. 9 will be required to take a COVID-19 test upon arrival to campus. Students with negative results will be permitted to move into their residence halls. Students who test positive will have the choice of entering on- or near-campus isolation for 10 days or returning to their homes for 10 days.
• Students living in on-campus residence halls who remain unvaccinated or do not submit their vaccination status to the University will be required to test for COVID-19 weekly throughout the semester or until they share with the University that they have been vaccinated.
• The University will conduct regular testing throughout the fall semester of the University’s population of students living both on and off campus who have not shared with the University that they have been vaccinated.
• Students will be notified when they have to test, and there will be significant consequences for non-compliance.
• Students who test positive will be referred to isolation and the University’s contact tracing process will be initiated. Unvaccinated students who are identified as close contacts of an individual who has tested positive for COVID-19 will be referred to quarantine.

Class modes: Class modes that currently are listed in LionPath are the modes in which those classes will be offered. The University is committed to providing a safe, robust in-person experience this fall and has not authorized any change in course modality. Faculty teaching in-person are not expected to enable students to attend remotely. Students who miss class due to quarantine, isolation, or illness need to work with their instructors to make up missed work. Faculty are asked to be flexible and work with students, as they would have before the pandemic.

On-campus work: Lorraine Goffe, Vice President for Human Resources, very clearly stated during the town hall that return to on-campus work for employees (faculty and staff) is to proceed as planned. The expectation from University is that everyone returns to on-campus work, and if we return to a mask mandate, everybody will wear their masks on site. In our College, we are working within each unit to provide flexibility so that most of our staff are in the office most of the time. Staff will work with their direct supervisors to facilitate this.

Off-ramps: The University continues to monitor the COVID-19 pandemic, including the spread of the Delta variant and rise in coronavirus cases across the country and within Pennsylvania, and may continue to adjust its plans as circumstances change. The potential masking expectation for vaccinated individuals is one example of the University’s “off-ramp” contingencies designed to promote the health and safety of students, faculty, and staff. Other possible off-ramp measures may include physical distancing, curtailing or suspending some or all programs and activities, and returning to remote classes. However, these decisions will be made by senior University leadership, and not by colleges, departments, programs, or individual faculty.

In the College of Education, we have set up groups within our leadership team to figure out what all of this means for our College, and to determine what flexibility we have within these guidelines. We hope to be able to update you by early next week, and we ask for your continued patience. Please understand that nobody has all of the answers as things are shifting on a daily basis, but we are committed to doing the best we can to keep everyone safe, healthy, and informed.

We welcome your feedback and questions through our anonymous form.

We encourage you to bookmark the University’s official COVID information website at https://virusinfo.psu.edu/ and visit it often. Other portions of that site that are important to check include:

• Fall 2021 health and safety plans announced;
• FAQ latest updates;
• What you need to know about testing; and
• Health guidelines.

I want to thank those of you who have been vaccinated and uploaded your vaccination status to the University. You are doing your part in helping us move to a robust campus experience for fall semester. If you have not yet been vaccinated, or have yet to upload your proof of vaccination, please get vaccinated and share your vaccination status as soon as possible.

Best,

Dean Kim Lawless

COVID Updates

Work, class and co-curricular planning

As has been the case over the last 18 months, health and safety have been at the forefront of the University's decision-making. This will not change as we move into the next phase of the pandemic.

Anyone reading the headlines knows that there is a lot of information coming out regarding COVID-19, particularly related to the Delta variant, and much of it is confusing. There is still a lot we don’t know about this new strain, and that has only served to increase the fear and anxiety that many of us are feeling – even those of us who are fully vaccinated.

As we approach the start of the school year, we all share concerns about the virus: whether the vaccinations will protect us from the Delta variant, whether we’ll all need to start masking inside buildings again, how we can protect our children who are too young to be vaccinated, what safe child-care options may be available … the list is long, and growing.

University planning

Please know that the University administration is aware of these concerns, and they are part of the conversation as our leadership continues to plan for fall. If you have questions or concerns about COVID-19 planning at the University or College level that have not been addressed, please share them using this anonymous form and I will take them to the appropriate leadership team. Since submissions to that form are anonymous, I will use my weekly emails to respond to concerns shared through the form.

At this moment, Penn State is continuing to plan for a full on-campus learning and working environment for fall 2021. That being said, the University’s priorities continue to be our collective health and well- being. The plans for expanded in-person classes have the flexibility built in to quickly respond to changing pandemic conditions, if necessary.

The University is actively preparing for a variety of scenarios if circumstances or guidance from the government and public health authorities requires a reassessment of the plan. Expanded in-person learning is contingent on the latest health and safety guidelines, as they are adjusted in response to the state of the pandemic.

What does that mean for us in the College of Education?

Simply put, like the University as a whole, we are moving forward with plans for an in-person fall semester. At the same time, we all should be prepared to shift, if a shift is necessary. None of us wants to go through another year like 2020 – I know I certainly don’t! But, while we all feel like we’re done with COVID, the Delta variant is proving that COVID is not yet done with us. That’s why the University and our college leadership are actively engaged in contingency planning. If we do need to pivot, we want to be able to do it in a more thoughtful way than the pandemic forced us to do back in March 2020.

• Faculty: If you are scheduled to teach an in-person class, please prepare for in-person instruction. However, I ask that you also have a contingency plan for adapting to hybrid or remote delivery, in the event that the pandemic surges again.
• Staff: The plan is to have most of your unit in the office most of the time, as I outlined in the fall work schedules section of my email from July 16, which you can read by clicking here. However, I ask that you also remain flexible and be prepared to pivot if conditions warrant it.
• Students: We have been in communication with our students, particularly regarding fall student teaching placements. We are urging all students to get vaccinated. If a student is unvaccinated, we cannot guarantee them a field placement because guidelines for external entities such as K-12 schools are not under our control.

Here’s what we’re doing

The University has:

• Granted adjustments for those who are at high risk or live with a high risk individual for both faculty and staff.
• Continued to monitor COVID-19 cases and updates its dashboard twice a week.
• Followed health and safety guidance issued by the state of Pennsylvania and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in its decision-making.

Our college leadership has:

• Continued to monitor mask mandates for local school districts and field sites, as well as guidance from the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE), in our efforts to secure field placements for our students. To see daily updates from PDE, click here.
• Put flexible scheduling guidelines in place to help staff members return to on-campus work while taking into consideration the many factors that have impacted them during this ongoing pandemic.
• Worked to address faculty concerns related to teaching and research this fall.

Here’s what you can do

• Anyone who is unvaccinated is strongly encouraged to get vaccinated. Those who are not fully vaccinated are required to mask inside every University facility.
• You may post a sign available here on your office door if you are more comfortable with people wearing masks when they are in your office whether or not they are vaccinated. The sign is for individual office use only. It may not be used for classrooms or department open spaces.
• To help with population density in our spaces, I encourage staff to take advantage of the hybrid work flexibility I referenced above.

Updating faculty degree information

On July 20th, we received a request from Provost Jones asking us to review and correct our degree information in Workday. A number of you have graciously followed through with the request and corrected or updated your information.

If you have verified your information in Workday, thank you for doing so. If you have not had the opportunity to do so, I strongly encourage you to log in to Workday by Aug. 13 to review and update your information. Instructions can be found here. Some of you may have experienced technical issues while attempting to remove incorrect degree information. Please know that those issues have been resolved, and you should not experience the same issue again.

The integrity of your personal information is important, and the best way to gather the information is directly from you. Thank you in advance for your time and for your support of this important project.

Good news: raises

University leaders have confirmed that eligible non-union Penn State employees will receive merit-based salary increases for fiscal year 2021-2022 by the end of September. Pay increases will be reflected in eligible employees’ September 2021 paychecks, and these increases will be retroactive to July 1, 2021. For details, check Penn State News.

Travel guidance update

Effective Aug. 16, Penn State will lift its moratorium on University-affiliated international travel, which has been in place since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The revised guidelines apply to travel requests made on or after Aug. 16 for travel beginning Sept. 16 or later, as international travel requests must be made at least one month before departure. For details, check Penn State News. For detailed travel guidance including domestic travel for work purposes as well as personal travel, click here.

Take me out to the ballgame!

All faculty and staff should have received an invitation from Janel Fitzgerald to our college welcome back picnic, scheduled for Aug. 12 in the picnic pavilion in Medlar Field at Lubrano Park. Bring your children and enjoy the fun, food and free tickets. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. to see the Spikes take on the Williamsport Crosscutters. If you plan to attend, please click here to reserve your tickets by Aug. 5. If you have any questions, please contact Janel at [email protected].

Quick Links

College-specific:

• Weekly emails I’ve sent to students, staff and faculty since Feb. 28, 2020.

University-wide:

• University status, including course modes and health requirements; and plans for future semesters.
• Updated FAQs regarding on-campus work and learning.
• Keep Teaching and Keep Learning websites.
• Penn State’s COVID-19 dashboard.
• The Office of Human Resources COVID-19 information and Return to Work on Campus resource sites.
• A list of contacts and resources for the University community.

Best,

Kim

COVID-19 updates

• Fall return plans. President Eric Barron outlined the University’s plans to support a return to a full on-campus learning environment this fall semester and beyond in his address to the Board of Trustees on Thursday. If pandemic conditions change or worsen in Pennsylvania or the nation, President Barron said the University is prepared to quickly respond and to implement contingency plans, which could include expanded testing expectations for non-vaccinated individuals, additional mitigation actions such as more masking and/or physical distancing, and the implementation of any revised guidance from the Pennsylvania Department of Health or CDC. For details, check Penn State News.
• Database disabled. As we all prepare to return to on-campus work, University Leadership has decided to no longer require faculty and staff to submit return to on-campus work requests and has disabled the database. Instead, please coordinate your plans for returning to on-site work with your managers/ supervisors and unit leadership.
• Shuttle, fleet vehicle changes. Physical distancing and capacity restrictions for Transportation Services’ Campus Shuttle and Fleet vehicle services have been lifted. Masks will continue to be required for all transit riders, including CATA services and the Campus Shuttle. Transportation Services’ Fleet Operations also will expand its operating hours beginning Monday, Aug. 2, with new hours of 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., Monday through Friday. For details, check Penn State News.
• Share your vaccination status. Students, faculty and staff are strongly encouraged to share their vaccination status with the University to help inform University operations and COVID-19 management plans. For details, click here.
• Take the survey. The deadline is today for faculty and staff to take the anonymous vaccination survey. Completing the survey will take only about two minutes, and is important for the University to understand how many members of our community are, or plan to be, vaccinated against COVID-19 to help tune our pandemic management plan. If you have not yet taken the survey, please click here and take it today.
• University COVID information updates. For the most recent information on testing and support, the COVID-19 dashboard, University status and the latest FAQ updates, click here.

Fall work schedules

As we continue to prepare for the resumption of full on-campus activities and a return to in-person modes of instruction for fall 2021, I want to emphasize that College of Education units have the ability to explore flexibility in scheduling for staff, with the following guidance:

1. We need to have a majority of people working on campus a majority of the time (no more than two remote days during a standard work week).
2. If your position is front facing (i.e., work with students, receptionist), it may be determined that when we are fully back in person, your position tasks cannot be conducted remotely. Unit supervisors will determine this on a unit-by-unit basis.
3. All staff in an office must be in together a minimum of one day a week, to help rebuild and strengthen the community.
4. My preference is that remote days are Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.
5. Normal hours are assumed; if you are in, you are in all day. If you are remote, you are working full time during regular work hours.
6. Remote days are not set in stone. If there are coverage needs or events that require your presence, you are required to be on campus, even if it is a day that you typically work remotely. You could be called in the night before, and the expectation is that you can come in.
7. All units and departments are expected to be staffed in person by Aug. 16, allowing for a transition period in July and early August. All common areas, classrooms and conference rooms must be restored to their original state, pre- social distancing.
8. This plan holds for fall of 2021 only. In the Spring of 2022, the University will provide more permanent guidance on the ability to work remotely.

Please work with your unit supervisor or department head to come up with schedules that reflect the above guidance.

New SAC leadership

Please join me in welcoming the new leadership team for the Staff Advisory Council (SAC). Lori Witherite-Zellars, chair; Katie Wheeler, co-chair; Jenny McCloskey, treasurer; and Lindsay Fouse, secretary. As chair of the SAC, Lori will sit on the Dean’s Advisory Council, contributing to and providing leadership on issues related to policies and practices that impact staff.

Kudos and Huzzahs

• Paul Morgan was named one of 19 exemplary scholars chosen by the American Educational Research Association (AERA) as 2021 AERA Fellows. Read more here.
• Christine Cunningham (PI) and Greg Kelly (co-PI with Stacy Gardner of Vanderbilt University) received a four-year, $4.4 million MathWorks grant to support instructional materials creation and research to develop an integrated engineering, science and computational thinking curriculum for middle school.
• DeMarcus Jenkins has been awarded a Spencer Foundation grant to study police-free schools in three urban districts. His three-year project will explore changes in policy, perceptions of safety and antiblackness alongside the termination of contracts with police.
• Royel Johnson is part of a team that has been awarded a Pathways to Training grant from the Institute for Education Sciences (IES). The $1.5 million award will fund a partnership between Penn State and North Carolina Central University (NCCU), a historically Black university, that is designed to improve the schooling experiences and academic attainment of pre-kindergarten through university- level African American and Latino/a students.

In case you missed it

The Board of Trustees met this week, and among the items on the agenda was approval of the University’s operating budget for 2021-22. In recognition of the hard work and dedication displayed by the University’s workforce to meet the many challenges brought on by the pandemic, the proposed budget includes $24.7 million to fund a 2% pool for merit-based employee salary adjustments as well as contractual salary increases, and an additional $2.8 million has been budgeted for faculty promotions and related benefits. Read the full story on Penn State News.

Mark your calendar

Upcoming events:

• College of Education Welcome Back Family Picnic: 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 12, at the Spikes game, Medlar Field at Lubrano Park. More information including how to register will be sent soon.
• Summer commencement: 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 14, at the Bryce Jordan Center. Details can be found here.

Quick Links

College-specific:

• Weekly emails I’ve sent to students, staff and faculty since Feb. 28, 2020.

University-wide:

• University status, including course modes and health requirements; and plans for future semesters.

• Updated FAQs regarding on-campus work and learning.

• Keep Teaching and Keep Learning websites.

• Penn State’s COVID-19 dashboard.

• The Office of Human Resources COVID-19 information and Return to Work on Campus resource sites.

• A list of contacts and resources for the University community.

Best,

Kim

Vaccine Updates

• Get vaccinated: The University is strongly encouraging anyone who can be vaccinated to get the COVID-19 vaccination as soon as possible, and to share their vaccination status with the University. The goal is to have as many people as possible fully vaccinated before everyone returns to campus in August. Thank you to everyone who has been proactive in getting vaccinated. Your vaccination not only protects you, but also helps protect those who cannot get vaccinated at this time for medical or other reasons, including children under age 12. As of now, individuals who are vaccinated do not need to wear a mask indoors on campus.
• Share your status: If you are vaccinated and have not yet shared that information with the University, I strongly encourage you to click here for the step-by-step guide to providing COVID-19 vaccine card information. Once you upload your information, you’re eligible for weekly prize drawings through Aug. 23.
• Complete the survey: Penn State faculty and staff are being asked to complete a short and important anonymous survey about their current COVID-19 vaccination status or plans to get vaccinated before the start of the fall semester. You should have received an email sent to your Penn State email address on Wednesday (June 30) with a URL where you can complete the survey online in about two minutes. Regardless of whether you have already submitted your vaccination status through the Salesforce Health Cloud, employees are asked to complete this survey as soon as possible. This survey is completely anonymous, and the aggregate data will only be used to inform the University’s COVID-19 management plan and modify approaches, if needed.
• Your input matters: The University’s plans for fall will be informed by understanding how many Penn State students, faculty and staff are vaccinated for COVID-19 and it is vital for the University to have this data to inform what, if any, additional mitigation strategies may need to be implemented when on-campus activities fully resume in August. If we all do our part the fall semester will be all it should be. However, at this time the University is discussing mitigation measures that may need to be put into place on our campuses for unvaccinated students and employees, if the data indicates that not enough members of our community are vaccinated.

University Guidance Updates

• Domestic travel: The University has new domestic travel guidance, effective July 1. The new guidance removes unit executive approval, and vaccination is strongly encouraged. We will revert to standard practice in the various units for all forthcoming domestic travel. Please consult with your unit coordinator or unit head for further guidance in your respective unit. I ask that you please continue to limit travel where possible and consider virtual options that might replace or reduce the need to travel. This guidance is posted on the “Back to State” / COVID-19 Information for Faculty website under “Visitors, Travel, and Meetings.” The PDF version is available here. For more details, check Penn State News.
• Events: The University has updated its guidance and procedures for hosting events and large gatherings both on and off campus. Overall, from June 29 until Aug. 16, the approval process for holding events or gatherings will return to the individual or group that held approval authority before the pandemic. University leadership will continue to evaluate the new policy leading up to the start of the fall semester and release updated guidance, if necessary, before the start of the semester. You can find the details on Penn State News.

COVID-19 FAQs

The Keep Teaching and Keep Learning websites have updated FAQs regarding health and safety, including guidance on masking. Questions answered on the Keep Teaching FAQ include:

• What can I do within instructional, advising, and student services spaces to maximize health and safety?
• What actions can I recommend students take to feel more comfortable transitioning back to in-person spaces?
• Can I require students to wear a mask in my class or to an advising appointment?

Save The Date: College of Education Welcome Back Family Picnic

The College of Education is happy to once again be hosting our annual welcome back picnic for faculty, staff, and their families.

This year's event will take place on Thursday, August 12, 2021, with the gates opening at 5:30 p.m.

More information including how to register will be sent in the coming weeks. We hope you can make it and we look forward to seeing you at the ballpark.

Campus Recreation reopening

Penn State Campus Recreation will reopen for faculty, staff, affiliate, associate and retiree members on July 12 for the Intramural (IM) Building, McCoy Natatorium including the Outdoor Pool and Hepper Fitness Center. The Tennis Center expanded their operation to faculty, staff and other members earlier this month. The White Building will remain closed for recreation through the summer. Equipment and capacity restrictions were lifted on June 29, for those who have been vaccinated, following the loosening of state and campus restrictions. This will result in additional cardio and weight equipment available for use, opening lane usage to multiple swimmers per lane, and expanded capacity in group fitness classes. For details, check Penn State News.

Web Access changes

Beginning July 7, Penn State Account holders will log in to secure University applications such as Canvas, Lion PATH, Workday and Office 365 apps through a new Penn State sign- in process rather than through WebAccess. On the morning of July 7, account holders will be logged out of many Penn State resources that previously used WebAccess. The next time you access those resources, you will be prompted to sign in using the new Penn State sign-in screens. Learn more about what to expect and what you may need to do. For details, check Penn State News.

Enjoy your holiday, safely

Because July 4 falls on Sunday, the University has designated Monday, July 5, as the official holiday. As we head into the long Independence Day holiday weekend, I want to encourage everyone to celebrate safely.

Quick Links

College-specific sites:

• Weekly emails I’ve sent to students, staff and faculty since Feb. 28, 2020.
• College of Education COVID-19 Forms: return to on-site work, drop-in office visits and mission-critical purchases.

University-wide sites:

• University status, including course modes and health requirements; and plans for future semesters.
• Updated FAQs regarding on-campus work and learning.
• Keep Teaching and Keep Learning websites.
• Penn State’s COVID-19 dashboard.
• The Office of Human Resources COVID-19 information and Return to Work on Campus resource sites.
• A list of contacts and resources for the University community.

Best,

Kim

COVID updates

Get vaccinated!

As you may have seen, Penn State has launched an incentive program for students and employees who get vaccinated and share their vaccination status with the University. From June 7 to Aug. 23, students and employees will be eligible for a weekly drawing for prizes, including cash payments, gift cards and Coach James Franklin autographed footballs. Specific instructions on how to upload vaccination records are detailed on Penn State News and on Penn State’s virus information website. Data on vaccination rates among students, faculty and staff are needed to inform the University’s decision-making and its COVID-19 management plan, so please, get vaccinated, and then share your vaccine status with the University.

Do’s and don’ts

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had a very hard time keeping track of what we can and can’t do if we are vaccinated – or not vaccinated – against COVID-19. There’s so much information out there at the national, state, local and University level, and it’s changing quickly, so it’s hard to keep everything straight.

There is a chart on the CDC website that shows examples of safer and not-so- safe activities for unvaccinated and fully vaccinated people that is a handy guide. You can click here for more information.

Updated masking and social distancing measures – and vaccination incentives – have been published on Penn State News, and the virus info website is a good resource for updated information.

In addition, below are two charts that I hope will help you regarding the requirements for vaccinated and unvaccinated masking and social distancing. While requirements for fully vaccinated individuals are more flexible, I encourage anyone who is more comfortable continuing to wearing a mask indoors or outdoors to do so.

Before June 28

After June 28

Travel

According to the most recent information on Penn State News, University- affiliated travel may be approved for vaccinated individuals, and for those who have received an exemption from being vaccinated through the Affirmative Action Office. Regardless of the funding source, all employees must continue to seek permission from their unit executive for University-affiliated domestic travel. All University-affiliated international travel remains suspended until further notice. Exception requests must be made through my office and ultimately are decided by Provost Jones. The University’s full travel guidance, including additional information on how to request travel and requirements before, during and after the trip, are available from the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs and our college’s travel request form can be found here. The latest travel information also is available on Penn State's official coronavirus information website.

Performance evaluations

It’s that time of year … performance evaluations for staff and career conferences for faculty must be completed and in their respective systems by June 30. If you have not yet started the process, please start as soon as possible. Supervisors of staff members should share their evaluations with Jerry Henry before having their conversations with their staff. Jerry is working hard to turn around these evaluations within 24 hours, but if everyone waits until the last minute, that won’t be possible so please, do them sooner rather than later. Thank you.

Space updates

As you begin to return to your on-campus workspaces, please pardon our dust and clutter, particularly in Chambers Building, as we work to clean up and refresh our workspaces. We’re hoping to have all of the work done by Aug. 1.

Some units will be relocating during this refresh as well, to enable the college to better use the space it has, and to better serve our students and college community.

• Curriculum and Instruction staff are consolidating on the first floor of Chambers north.
• Curriculum and Instruction graduate students will be relocated to the “bowling alley” area adjacent to offices 265-273.
• The communications team will relocate to 203 Rackley and will be joined by our new staff videographer. (Annemarie informs me that once they are settled into their new space, they plan to have an open house with donuts and coffee, so by all means stop in to visit them!)

Kudos and Huzzah’s

A HUGE shout-out goes to Steve Wilson, our entire Development team, and everyone in the departments who worked with them in this past year. While the numbers are not yet official, our college has eclipsed its University fundraising campaign goal of $28 million. Our total stands at more than $31 million, with another year left in the campaign. A majority of the funds raised are for scholarship and program support, along with three estate gift commitments for endowed chairs. This is a “raise the profile” accomplishment, achieved during the most difficult of circumstances for fundraising, and we are being seen now as a very big small college, with changing expectations of us from the Division of Development and Alumni Relations. I want to offer a gracious thank you to everyone who has had a hand in this, which are many.

Next sway

Because I know many of you are taking time off in June, and I also will be taking some time off this month, I’m not planning to send another scheduled email update until July. In the meantime, if there is pressing information I need to share, I will send an email to the faculty/staff listserv.

Quick Links

College-specific sites:

• Weekly emails I’ve sent to students, staff and faculty since Feb. 28, 2020.
• College of Education COVID-19 Forms: return to on-site work, drop- in office visits, mission-critical purchases, in-person meetings and events, non-event visitors and travel requests.

University-wide sites:

• Learning from Home guide for students, faculty and staff.
• Updated FAQs regarding on-campus work and learning.
• Keep Teaching and Keep Learning websites, including new webinars.
• Penn State’s COVID-19 dashboard.
• The Office of Human Resources COVID-19 information and Return to Work on Campus resource sites.
• The University Measures site, which summarizes steps Penn State is taking in response to COVID-19.
• A list of contacts and resources for the University community.

Best,

Kim

Re-populating our spaces

Starting next week, more of our staff members will be working at least part of the time on campus, as we begin to repopulate our spaces. First, I would like to welcome you back – it will be wonderful to see people in our spaces again. Second, I want to strongly encourage you to follow the science and get vaccinated, if you haven’t’ already done so. Third, I want to remind everyone to please be aware of people’s differing comfort levels with this change. We’re starting slowly over the summer so people can get used to coming back before we more fully repopulate our offices starting Aug. 16.

It’s been nearly 15 months since we pivoted to our remote work environments. Some staff have been back to their offices, but many have not set foot on campus since that time. There will be adjustments as we work to repopulate our spaces and rebuild our community. People have differing, and mixed, responses to re-gathering after being largely isolated for so long. Some are excited to be back on campus, while others are experiencing anxiety. Many are feeling both of those things at the same time. I will echo what I was told one anonymous person said about the re-adjustment to working on campus: “please be patient with me. This is my first pandemic.”

Also, when the University moved to remote learning and remote work with the onset of COVID, building locking schedules and occupancy settings were adjusted to respond to the decreased occupancy. With units now bringing more staff back to campus, effective June 1, University Park will return to typical lock/ unlock schedules and building occupancy settings in alignment with normal seasonal/semester adjustments.

COVID updates

Pa. mask order to be lifted by June 28: According to a press release from the Pennsylvania Department of Health, the statewide mask order will be lifted by June 28, or when the number of fully vaccinated adults reaches 70%. Currently, 70% have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and 52.7% are fully vaccinated. Penn State is evaluating the guidance, which is changing rapidly. In the meantime, masking and physical distancing is expected by all individuals — regardless of vaccination status — inside Penn State campus buildings and on public transportation across all campuses. When outdoors on campus, vaccinated individuals are not required to wear a mask or practice physical distancing, however individuals who are not vaccinated must continue to wear masks when physical distancing from individuals outside of the same household or “pod” is not possible. For more information, check Penn State News. And, if you haven’t already done so, please get vaccinated!

Vaccination requirement for travel: Recognizing that travel presents additional risks for being exposed to and spreading COVID-19, Penn State has updated its travel guidance to address vaccination requirements for employees on University-funded travel. For all domestic and international travel that begins on June 1 or later, all Penn State employees requesting University-affiliated travel that involves University funding must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by their date of departure. There are exceptions. Please check Penn State News for details.

Summer drop-in testing: Penn State’s COVID-19 Operations Control Center has announced the schedule for drop-in COVID-19 testing at University Park through late June. This is in addition to the required weekly testing that students in residence halls must complete if full vaccination status is not provided to the University. Starting June 1, drop-in testing will be available at Pegula Ice Arena only from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. The Hintz Family Alumni Center testing site will be closed. Full details about Penn State’s summer COVID-19 testing plan can be found here. For more information, check Penn State News.

Kudos and Huzzahs

• Congratulations to Ericka Weathers and Matt Kelly, who have been named NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellows! The National Academy of Education/ Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship Program supports 25 early career scholars working in critical areas of education research. The fellowships support non- residential postdoctoral proposals that make significant scholarly contributions to the field of education. The program also develops the careers of its recipients through professional development activities involving National Academy of Education members. Thank you, Ericka and Matt, for your voices and powerful work.
• Congratulations are also extended to Rose Mary Zbiek and her colleagues Jie Chao and Bill Finzer (the Concord Consortium) and Ben Galluzzo (Clarkson University) for receiving an NSF DRK-12 award entitled, "Leveraging Dynamically Linked Representations in a Semi-Structured Workspace to Cultivate Mathematical Modeling Competencies Among Secondary Students (M2Studio)." The three-year project funded at $2,993,530 will develop, deploy, and study a web-based, integrated mathematical modeling environment, curriculum materials, and effective and equitable classroom teaching practices in mathematical modeling.

Construction season

Summertime is construction time on campus. The University has multiple projects underway that impact parking, roadways, sidewalks and building access. OPP updates an interactive construction map identifying construction projects across campus and the Campus Visitor Map also offers capital project construction information. A bullet list of projects can be found on Penn State News.

Two campus landmarks also are undergoing renovations. Beginning Tuesday, June 1, the Nittany Lion Shrine will be closed to all visitors for an estimated four weeks while a new walkway is installed. During the same timeframe, The Pennsylvania State University stone wall near Beaver Stadium will undergo accessibility walkway upgrades and landscaping improvements. The Nittany Lion Shrine will be fenced off and not available to the public. The University sign will remain partially visible, but visitors are asked to keep a safe distance from workers. For details, check Penn State News.

Schedule change

Most things at the University slow down over the summer, and in keeping with that trend, these emails will slow down as well. Instead of sending weekly updates, I’m going to switch to every other week through the summer.

Quick Links

College-specific sites:

• Weekly emails I’ve sent to students, staff and faculty since Feb. 28, 2020.
• College of Education COVID-19 Forms: return to on-site work, drop- in office visits, mission-critical purchases, in-person meetings and events, non-event visitors and travel requests.

University-wide sites:

• Learning from Home guide for students, faculty and staff.
• Updated FAQs regarding on-campus work and learning.
• Keep Teaching and Keep Learning websites.
• Penn State’s COVID-19 dashboard.
• The Office of Human Resources COVID-19 information and Return to Work on Campus resource sites.
• The University Measures site, which summarizes steps Penn State is taking in response to COVID-19.
• A list of contacts and resources for the University community.

Best,

Kim

I had a wonderfully relaxing week last week, as I took a much-needed vacation. I’ve said this in other places and I’m going to say it again here: if you don’t already have them, make plans to find tie and get offline. Do something non-academic. Engage with your family and friends. Go on vacation, unplug and recharge. Find the time for yourself to decompress, and realize that everybody else is trying to do that, too.

Town hall

I was happy to see so many of you on the town hall we had on Wednesday. For those who missed it, here are some of the things we discussed:

• Vaccinations: For now, the University is strongly encouraging everyone in our community to get vaccinated as soon as they are eligible and a dose is available. The University is continuing to monitor developments and vaccine availability carefully and may alter its approach in the future if it is determined to be in the best interest of our community or called for by public policy. More information will be forthcoming through the Pennsylvania Department of Health (which is overseeing the vaccine distribution) and the University. To learn more, visit the Vaccine Information page.
• Exceptions to on-campus work:
  • If a faculty member or a household member of the faculty member has a health condition that they believe precludes them from teaching in person or conducting research that needs to be conducted on-campus during fall semester 2021, then they should complete the Faculty Work Adjustment Request Form and send it to our unit HR Strategic Partner, Jerry Henry. The faculty member’s request should outline the health- related reason(s) why they are unable to teach, conduct on-campus research, or perform other duties in person during the fall semester, the nature of the proposed reduction/elimination of in-person activities, and the way(s) in which they propose to perform their full job duties. The full process is on page three of the document found here.
  • Staff members with documented disabilities may request reasonable accommodations under the ADA by contacting the University’s ADA coordinator. Staff seeking other exemptions from returning to on- campus work should talk with their supervisor, who will follow the process detailed here.
• Fall classes: After a phased return over the summer semester, Penn State is planning for a full on-campus learning environment for fall 2021. The fall semester will more closely resemble Penn State’s in-person instructional experience, while continuing to offer a full range of web classes. Classes will be scheduled using the University’s non-COVID modes of instruction. More information can be found here.

• Masking and social distancing: Penn State is currently evaluating the new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and update from the Pennsylvania Department of Health regarding masking for fully vaccinated individuals and will provide additional guidance to the University community. While the review is underway, masking and physical distancing is expected by all individuals — regardless of vaccination status — inside Penn State campus buildings and on public transportation across all campuses. When outdoors on campus, vaccinated individuals are not required to wear a mask or practice physical distancing, however individuals who are not vaccinated must continue to wear masks when physical distancing from individuals outside of the same household or “pod” is not possible. More information is available on Penn State News.

As I get answers to your questions, I will pass them along.

As I said in the town hall, we don’t have a lot of answers right now, but we are working on getting them and hearing directly from you about what’s on your mind will help me to know what to ask central administration. As I get answers to your questions, I will pass them along.

Kudos and huzzahs

The University has announced academic promotions for tenured and tenure- line faculty members at Penn State, effective July 1, and our college is well- represented.

Congratulations to our colleagues who have been promoted to professor and associate professor with tenure:

• Katerina Bodovski, professor of education, EPS
• Jolynn V. Carney, professor of education, EPCSE
• David A. Gamson, professor of education, EPS
• Julia A. Green Bryan, professor of education, EPCSE
• Matthew T. McCrudden, professor of education, EPCSE
• Leticia Oseguera, professor of education, EPS
• Julia D. Plummer, professor of education, C&I
• Deborah Schussler, professor of education, EPS
• Heather A. Zimmerman, professor of education, LPS
• Cristin Hall, associate professor of education, EPCSE
• Maria Lewis, associate professor of education, EPS
• Alexandra List, associate professor of education, EPCSE
• Marcela Borge, associate professor of education, LPS
• Rebecca Tarlau, associate professor of education, LPS
• Hyung Joon Yoon, associate professor of education, LPS

I am also happy to announce the promotions for our non-tenure line faculty within the college! Congratulations to our colleagues who have been promoted to assistant teaching professor, associate teaching professor and teaching professor:

• Kimberly Mowery, assistant teaching professor, C&I
• William Diehl, associate teaching professor, LPS
• Matthew Johnson, associate teaching professor, C&I
• Alicia McDyre, associate teaching professor, C&I
• Pia Smal, associate teaching professor, EPCSE
• Karen Paulson, teaching professor, EPS

Please join me in celebrating these achievements of our colleagues! HOORAY!

End-of-year review process

For staff, it’s time to complete the performance evaluation process. All staff should have received an email on Monday from Penn State Human Resources, detailing the process. Staff also should have received notification in WorkDay that their self-evaluation is ready to be completed. I ask you to please go in and complete your self-evaluation in a timely manner – before the end of May, if at all possible. While the deadline to get the process completed is June 30, your self-evaluation is only one step in the process. Supervisors need time to read your self-evaluation, complete their portion of the process and have a conversation with Jerry Henry before meeting with you to discuss your review.

IT updates

Box migration

Phase 1 of the migration will begin on May 31 and continue through June 20. During this phase, you can continue accessing, updating and saving files in Box, but please avoid moving, renaming, or deleting files in Box during the migration period.

The data will be copied from your individual Box account into a OneDrive folder called “Box Migration Data.” Data in Box Non-Person Accounts (NPA’s) will be migrated into a SharePoint site. Please do not access or modify the migrated data in OneDrive or SharePoint during this phase of the migration as it will impact Phase 2 of the migration.

You can find more information about the recommended Do’s and Don’ts for each phase here. If you have any questions or concerns leading up to or during the migration, please contact CETC through the helpdesk ticketing system.

Cisco VPN removal

A few months ago, all College of Education users were transitioned from the Cisco AnyConnect VPN client to the Palo Alto GlobalProtect VPN service. At this point, everyone in the college should be using GlobalProtect, so on Monday, May 24, our IT team will begin removing the Cisco AnyConnect client from all College of Education computers. This is important because the currently released version of Cisco AnyConnect is starting to show up in security scans as a vulnerability.

If you haven’t started using the Global Protect VPN service and you’re using a College of Education device, please find Jody’s email for instructions to connect to the new GlobalProtect application. If you’re using a personal device, you can now download and install GlobalProtect at no cost from Software at Penn State at software.psu.edu under “Available Software.” Instructions for each device and operating system are available on the IT Knowledge Base at GlobalProtect Remote Access VPN - Overview. Once GlobalProtect is installed and enabled, you can remove the Cisco AnyConnect application from your personal device. If you have any questions, or if you encounter any problems, please let the CETC know by going to https://help.educ.psu.edu and filling out a ticket.

Did you know?

All of these weekly emails I’ve been sending since Feb. 28, 2020, are archived on our website. Go to our home page at https://ed.psu.edu/ and scroll to the bottom. You’ll see a link to “Messages from Dean Lawless” near the bottom of the second column of links under “For Faculty & Staff.” You also can go directly to the page by clicking here.

Quick Links

College-specific sites:

• Weekly emails I’ve sent to students, staff and faculty since Feb. 28, 2020.
• College of Education COVID-19 Forms: return to on-site work, drop- in office visits, mission-critical purchases, in-person meetings and events, non-event visitors and travel requests.

University-wide sites:

• Learning from Home guide for students, faculty and staff.
• Updated FAQs regarding on-campus work and learning.
• Keep Teaching and Keep Learning websites, including new webinars.
• Penn State’s COVID-19 dashboard.
• The Office of Human Resources COVID-19 information and Return to Work on Campus resource sites.
• The University Measures site, which summarizes steps Penn State is taking in response to COVID-19.
• A list of contacts and resources for the University community.

Best,

Kim

Commencement

The College of Education commencement ceremony will be held in conjunction with the Bellisario College of Communications and the College of Information Sciences and Technology at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, May 8. The ceremony will be held rain or shine. Those who will be in attendance should keep in mind that umbrellas are not permitted in Beaver Stadium, but you may wear ponchos or blankets. The stadium’s no-bag policy also will be in effect, and everyone in attendance must wear face masks and maintain physical distancing to help minimize the risk of spreading COVID-19. Please check Penn State News for details.

Town hall/listening session

In an effort to share what we know about the fall, and to aggregate and think through concerns faculty and staff have so that we can elevate them where appropriate, our college leadership team will hold a town hall from 11 a.m. to noon on May 19. While we can only share what we know to this point, we want to spend some time hearing concerns, thinking through them with our community and then bringing those concerns to the administration. I encourage everyone to register at this link.

Open Educational Resources info session

The College of Education Office of Faculty Affairs will hold a one-hour information session via Zoom starting at noon Wednesday, May 19, with speaker Dr. Bryan McGeary, learning design and open education engagement librarian in the Library Learning Services Department at University Park. This session will explore how Open Educational Resources (OER) can help you find ways to incorporate no/low-cost course materials in your courses, revise and share course materials more widely, and create course materials that support diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility. Connect via Zoom at https:// psu.zoom.us/j/93453594977 where you will be taken to a “waiting room” until the host adds you to the session.

New faculty

I am very excited about our new colleagues who will be joining us this summer, and I’d like to introduce you to them briefly:

MILDRED BOVEDA, associate professor of education (special education)

Mildred comes to us from the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, where she was assistant professor of special education and cultural and linguistic diversity at. She earned her Ed.D. in exceptional student education from Florida International University, and her Ed.M. in education policy and management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research interests are special education, teacher education, intersectionality and Black feminist epistemology, and urban education. Her research focuses on establishing the theoretical and empirical evidence of validity of the intersectional competence construct. Drawing from Black feminist theory and collaborative teacher education research, she interrogates how differences are framed across education communities to influence education policy and practice.

PAUL HARRIS, associate professor of education (counselor education)

Paul comes to us from the University of Virginia, where he was associate professor in the Counselor Education program and a faculty affiliate with the Center for Race and Public Education in the South. He earned his B.S.Ed. in Health & Physical Education with a concentration in Sports Medicine and his M.Ed. in School Counseling from the University of Virginia. He completed his Ph.D. in counselor education from the University of Maryland, where the program's emphasis was on promoting systemic equity, access, and justice in schools through counseling. He also holds a master of divinity degree from Virginia Union University. His research focuses on improving the college and career readiness process of underserved students; promoting the identity development of Black male student athletes; and facilitating the empowerment of anti-racist school counselors.

JANICE BYRD, assistant professor of education (counselor education)

Janice comes to us from Kent State University, where she was assistant professor in the Counselor Education and Supervision program. She earned her Ph.D. in counselor education and supervision from the University of Iowa and an M.Ed. in counselor education (K-12 school counseling) from South Carolina State University. Her scholarship seeks to situate the lived experiences of students of color within the broader ecological context to systematically examine how their personal, social, academic, and career success is interrupted and/or enhanced throughout all stages of the educational pipeline. Her research areas of inquiry are college and career development of historically marginalized populations; the influence of the intersections of race and gender for Black girls and women on their academic, personal/social, and career development; and culturally responsive and trauma-informed counseling.

DEMARCUS JENKINS, assistant professor of education (education leadership)

DeMarcus comes to us from the University of Arizona College of Education, where he was assistant professor of educational policy studies and practice. He holds a B.A. in English and African American history from the University of Michigan; an M.A.T. in secondary English from American University; Ed.M. in English education from Georgia State University. In addition, he received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles in Urban Schooling with an emphasis in Education Policy and Leadership. His scholarly research interests draw from his previous experiences as an urban school educator and state-level policy analyst. Broadly conceived, his research interrogates the dynamic power structures that organize contemporary geographies of education and educational arrangements, including racism, sexism, and racialized capitalism.

BRANDY HENRY, assistant professor of education (rehabilitation and human services)

Brandy comes to us from the Columbia University Social Intervention Group, where she was a postdoctoral scholar. She received her doctorate and master’s degree in social policy (behavioral health track) from the Brandeis University Heller School for Social Policy and Management. She also received a master of social welfare degree from the University of California Los Angeles. Her bachelor’s degree is in psychology, with minors in statistics and biology, from Boston University. Her research aims to improve the health of criminalized populations by examining health disparities related to trauma, mental health and substance use disorders within criminalized populations, and the implementation of organizational supports for screening, assessment and referral to substance use, mental health and HIV treatment in juvenile justice systems.

AARON CAMPBELL, assistant professor of education (special education)

When Aaron joins us in July, she will just have earned her doctorate in educational psychology with an emphasis in special education from the College of Education and Human Development at Texas A&M University (TAMU). She earned her master’s degree from North Carolina Central University, and currently is an online instructor of the Teaching Special Education course at Baylor University. Her research focus is guided by her education and practicum in clinical psychology. Her long-term goal is to use her teaching and research to help those who endeavor to teach and support students with or at risk for social, emotional, and behavior problems and poor academic outcomes to become culturally competent, and to provide students with the tools necessary to not only help them to be successful in the classroom but also in life.

Zoom spring cleaning

Zoom has limited storage capacity for recordings and is not intended as a long-term solution for the archiving of videos. All Zoom recordings are automatically transferred to Kaltura and are currently stored on that platform. To decrease the amount of Zoom storage, Penn State IT asks that everyone review and delete recordings stored in Zoom which are no longer needed. While temporary links to videos stored in Zoom are fine, permanent links should always direct your viewers to Kaltura. For more information how to delete recordings in Zoom, please refer to Zoom: Delete Cloud Recordings.

Get vaccinated

The Bryce Jordan Center continues to serve as a regional vaccination clinic. Currently, you may choose the Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccines there. However, starting on May 13, the clinic will only offer the second dose of the Moderna vaccine and the single- dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The clinic is open to anyone, regardless of county of residence. While appointments are encouraged, drop-ins are also welcome.

The Department of Health website features a map of vaccine providers, which includes hospitals, urgent care centers, doctor’s offices and pharmacies. Several pharmacies, Mount Nittany Medical Center and Centre Volunteers in Medicine also are administering vaccines. For more information, visit Pennsylvania’s vaccine website. The latest vaccination information for University community members is available on Penn State’s virus information website.

Summer COVID mitigation strategy

Penn State’s COVID-19 Operations Control Center (COCC) has developed a comprehensive COVID-19 mitigation strategy for the transitional month of May and the summer 2021 semester for all campuses that includes vaccine consideration, masking, testing, contact tracing, and quarantine and isolation. For details, check Penn State News.

Take time for yourself

Working through a pandemic has taken its toll on all of us. Many of you have put off taking your vacation time because the pandemic has kept you at home, but you still need to have time away from work. I strongly encourage you all to take some vacation time this summer – even if your time off is a staycation – so you can relax and decompress. I am heeding my own advice and will be taking next week off. While I will be available for emergency situations, I will be largely unplugged while I am off, so you won’t be getting an email update from me next Friday.

Quick Links

College-specific sites:

• Weekly emails I’ve sent to students, staff and faculty since Feb. 28, 2020.
• College of Education COVID-19 Forms: return to on-site work, drop- in office visits, mission-critical purchases, in-person meetings and events, non-event visitors and travel requests.

University-wide sites:

• Learning from Home guide for students, faculty and staff.
• Updated FAQs regarding on-campus work and learning.
• Keep Teaching and Keep Learning websites, including new webinars.
• Penn State’s COVID-19 dashboard.
• The Office of Human Resources COVID-19 information and Return to Work on Campus resource sites.
• The University Measures site, which summarizes steps Penn State is taking in response to COVID-19.
• A list of contacts and resources for the University community.

Best,

Kim

End of the semester – we made it!

Congratulations for crossing the finish line and making it through an academic year filled with unprecedented challenges and obstacles. Together, as a community, we succeeded in spite of the challenges brought on by a global pandemic; repugnant acts of racism and bigotry both locally and nationally; a divisive political climate; and a surge in mental health crises, undoubtedly fed by all of these things. It’s been a tough year, on all of us. And yet, as a community we lifted each other up. Everywhere I look in our college, I see people – faculty, staff and students alike – reaching out to help each other, and actively looking for ways to make the College of Education a better place to work and learn, for everybody. The adaptability, flexibility and determination you all have demonstrated will serve you individually – and us as a community – well as we collectively turn this page. I know I have said this multiple times before, but I am so incredibly proud to be a member of this college, and I am grateful for all you do. Thank you.

Submit your grades ASAP

All faculty should have received an email from Provost Jones on Thursday about the importance of submitting final grades in a timely manner. As he noted in his email, submitting final grades within two business days of the assigned final exam period for your respective courses, enables the University to better manage a number of critical processes. With the tight transition between semesters, the timely filing of grades ensures that graduation checks, counseling of students at risk of entering academic warning or suspension status, pre-requisite checking, as well as several other processes, can be appropriately managed. In addition, the final grade must be assigned for students to have the opportunity to use alternative grades.

Commencement videos

Commencement for the College of Education will take place in-person in Beaver Stadium next Saturday, May 8, in a combined ceremony with the Bellisario College of Communications and the College of Information Sciences and Technology. There also will be a University-wide virtual ceremony at 6 p.m. May 9 at virtual.commencement.psu.edu. Once again, our college has put together several videos to celebrate this occasion, and you can get a sneak-peek at the videos by clicking on the links below:

• Danielle Conway commencement address: Inspiring words from the Penn State Dickinson Law dean
• Congratulations to our graduates: Faculty, staff & alumni congratulate College of Education graduates
• Meet our Marshals: Hear from our college & program marshals
• Senior slideshow: Celebrating our graduating seniors

Re-Setting boundaries

Before the pandemic, there were better set boundaries for work based on when we were in the office. Now, our homes are our offices, and those boundaries between work and home have been shattered. This is a big source of stress for a lot of us, and I am very concerned about our collective mental health and well-being.

Heading into the summer, we need to restore those boundaries, and we need to help each other achieve that goal. I’m going to suggest one change that I hope will relieve some of the stress we all are feeling. It’s fine to flex your work hours and get things done outside of the normal 8-5 workday. But, if you are sending emails outside of the traditional workday and the topic is not urgent, I ask that you start scheduling those emails to go out sometime between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. That way, the recipient of the email won’t be prompted to switch into work mode and respond to your email outside of their normal work hours. This small change can help your colleagues to re-set their boundaries between home and work. Scheduling your email to be sent later is easy. Click here to see how to do it.

Return to on-campus work for staff

Last week we had information about return to on-campus work for faculty. This week, the University released information on Penn State News about return to on-campus work for staff.

For now, remote work for staff continues where possible, however, the guidance outlines a path for units to return additional staff to on-site work during the summer and a full return of staff to on-site work by Aug. 16. Full return is of course predicated on relaxing guidelines from the CDC and state regarding physical distancing. It is my plan to have staff start to increase their time on campus this summer, to ease back into a more regular on-campus presence in the fall. This will look different for different people in different parts of our college, but the overall goal is to have everyone ease their return to campus at some level this summer. I’ve asked department and unit heads to start talking with their teams to see what this may mean for their areas.

For staff, information on the University’s transition strategy can be found in the “Staff Transition Strategy Guidance” document. Faculty guidance can be found on the website of the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs. Our College task force on Return to Onsite Work will be meeting at the beginning of next week to talk through guidelines and concerns as we begin to develop out plans for summer and fall.

Staff town hall

I encourage all staff members to register for the upcoming staff town hall, scheduled for 2 to 3 p.m. Tuesday, May 4. For security purposes, registration is required, and you can register by clicking here. I also encourage you to submit questions for the town hall in advance by using this web form. Submissions will remain anonymous; however, you can choose to add your information if you would like to. We will do the best we can to help answer every question we receive.

Let your voice be heard

• The Next Gen Penn State Survey is now open until April 30. Faculty, staff, students, alumni, and community stakeholders can share their feedback on the characteristics, priorities and goals that are important to them for the University’s next president. Click here to take the survey.
• Earlier this semester, an Academic Integrity Canvas module was created. Whether you downloaded the module and used it in your class, looked at the module back in February but didn’t incorporate it into your Spring class, or are just hearing about the Academic Integrity Canvas module for the first time, we would like to hear from you! Please complete this short survey to help us improve the Academic Integrity Canvas module for use in future semesters.

Get tech help

The summer 2021 Tech TA Request Form is now available. Instructors can request Tech TA support for the summer 2021 semester by submitting the form located here.

Get vaccinated

The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) and Pennsylvania Department of Health Regional Vaccination Clinic, located inside the Bryce Jordan Center (BJC) on Penn State’s University Park campus, is offering individuals the choice between either the Johnson & Johnson or Moderna vaccines. The vaccination site is open to all individuals age 18 and above, regardless of county of residence and including students from out of state, from noon to 8 p.m. on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Individuals can make an appointment online or by calling 844-545-3450. While appointments are encouraged, drop-ins are also welcome. Details are on Penn State News.

University offers guidance, procedures for events and large gatherings

Penn State is announcing updated guidance and procedures for hosting events and large gatherings both on and off campus. At this time the University continues to strongly encourage groups to host virtual events whenever possible.

All events and gatherings with more than 10 participants continue to require University approval. Events and gatherings with 10 or fewer total participants — including all of those who are present, such as employees working at the event — do not need prior permission. Regardless of event size, face masks and physical distancing continue to be required for all.

For Penn State units and organizations seeking to host an event or gathering, approval must be granted from the unit executive. For student organizations and student-run events, permission will need to be sought by the Office of Student Activities at the University Park campus, or the campus chancellor’s office at Commonwealth Campuses.

For more details, check Penn State News.

Quick Links

College-specific sites:

• Weekly emails I’ve sent to students, staff and faculty since Feb. 28, 2020.
• College of Education COVID-19 Forms: return to on-site work, drop- in office visits, mission-critical purchases, in-person meetings and events, non-event visitors and travel requests.

University-wide sites:

• Learning from Home guide for students, faculty and staff.
• Updated FAQs regarding on-campus work and learning.
• Keep Teaching and Keep Learning websites, including new webinars.
• Penn State’s COVID-19 dashboard.
• The Office of Human Resources COVID-19 information and Return to Work on Campus resource sites.
• The University Measures site, which summarizes steps Penn State is taking in response to COVID-19.
• A list of contacts and resources for the University community.

Best,

Kim

Get vaccinated!

Vaccination is the best way to ensure that we can begin to ease the restrictions on our campus and get back to a state more approximating normalcy. #ProtectYourself #ProtectOthers

As of now, everyone in Pennsylvania age 16 and over is eligible to get a COVID-19 vaccine. If you have not already gotten your vaccination, you can take advantage of a COVID-19 vaccination clinic being held at Pegula Ice Arena, offered in partnership with Walmart, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. now through Saturday, April 24. The clinic is open to Penn State students, employees and dependents of employees age 16 and older, and will administer the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. Students and employees will be asked to show their Penn State ID upon arrival to the site, and dependents will need to acknowledge that they are the family member of an employee.

Appointments are required. Click here to sign up for an appointment. For details, check Penn State News.

Presidential search survey

There are only two days left to give your opinion on what Penn State should look for in its new president. All Penn Staters are encouraged to give their feedback by April 25 on the characteristics, priorities and goals of the University's next president through the Next Gen Penn State Survey. The survey takes only 10 minutes to complete. The survey is available here. For details, check Penn State News.

Staff Advisory Council save the date

The Staff Advisory Council is sponsoring a virtual summer kick-off painting session with Jackie Gianico. Mark your calendars for 1 to 2 p.m. Wednesday, May 19, and watch your in-boxes for updates from the Staff Advisory Council.

Return to in-person teaching

The Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs has released updates to a document outlining expectations for faculty teaching and conducting research on-campus during the fall 2021 semester. These updates come are in line with the University announcement of a phased return over the summer semester to a full on-campus work environment for fall 2021. The document can be found here. All updates are highlighted in yellow.

Information will be released in the coming days that is specific to staff return to on-campus work, and I will share that information as I receive it.

Return to Campus for Staff

We expect an announcement of the plan for bringing staff back to campus in the next week or so. While I do not have the specifics of the plan, I anticipate that it will be a moderated and gradual return over the summer, with plans for full return in the fall. I am hoping for unit-level discretion on what this will look like in the college, and of course it will all be predicated on environmental conditions related to the pandemic and conform to or exceed all state and CDC guidance on mitigation approaches including physical distancing metrics and masking.

In anticipation of the University’s announcement of the Return to Campus plan, we will be holding a College of Education all-staff town hall from 2 to 3 p.m. Tuesday, May 4. We ask that you register for this event here.

If you have any questions leading up to the town hall, please reach out to [email protected].

Alumni Magazine published

The spring edition of the College of Education Alumni Magazine is now available online at issuu.com with individual stories found on Penn State News. The cover story features the Science 20/20 project, which connects future teachers with language learners through STEM. You also can read about how faculty, staff, students and alumni collectively are building upon the college’s tradition of greatness, with a focus on ending persistent inequalities. There are stories about the college’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts; how faculty, staff and students are continuing to excel as they adapt to the challenges of teaching, learning and working during a pandemic; and how research and partnerships in the college are changing education by educating for change. I encourage you to check it out, here or here.

Kudos and huzzahs

• I’m excited to share that Erica Frankenberg has won the University-wide Howard B. Palmer Faculty Mentoring Award. The award honors and recognizes outstanding achievement by a faculty member with at least five years of service who effectively guides junior faculty. Colleagues said Erica exemplifies strong mentorship and counts elevating those around her among her most valued academic successes. They said she’s someone who quickly rose through the ranks to a tenured professor and is dedicated to helping junior faculty members do the same. Read more on Penn State News. Congratulations, Erica!
• Please assist me also in congratulating Christine Cunningham (PI, Curriculum & Instruction and Engineering) and her co-PIs, Greg Kelly (Dean's office) and Peter Licona (Elizabethtown College), on their recent award from the National Science Foundation entitled, “Youth Engineering Solutions: Engineering Opportunities in Out-of-School Programs for English Learners.” This project will examine affordances of engineering with English Learners in out-of-school settings by exploring how equity-oriented engineering provides learning opportunities to develop disciplinary knowledge and practices, social and academic discourses, and identities and interests. This is a 2.5- year award for $697,965. Congratulations Christine & Greg!

Quick Links

College-specific sites:

• Weekly emails I’ve sent to students, staff and faculty since Feb. 28, 2020.
• College of Education COVID-19 Forms: return to on-site work, drop- in office visits, mission-critical purchases, in-person meetings and events, non-event visitors and travel requests.

University-wide sites:

• Learning from Home guide for students, faculty and staff.
• Updated FAQs regarding on-campus work and learning.
• Keep Teaching and Keep Learning websites, including new webinars.
• Penn State’s COVID-19 dashboard.
• The Office of Human Resources COVID-19 information and Return to Work on Campus resource sites.
• The University Measures site, which summarizes steps Penn State is taking in response to COVID-19.
• A list of contacts and resources for the University community.

Best,

Kim

And the winner is …

Each year the college honors individuals among our faculty, staff and students with awards, and we did that again this year, on Thursday via Zoom. In case you weren’t able to join us, the winners are:

• Cotterill Leadership Enhancement Award: Julia Bryan and Royel Johnson
• Outstanding Teaching Award: Rachel Wolkenhauer
• Outstanding Senior Faculty Researcher Award: Gail Boldt and Soo- yong Byun.
• Outstanding Junior Faculty Researcher Award: Tracy Raulston and Gabriela Richard
• Career Achievement Award: Greg Kelly
• Outstanding Exempt Staff Award: Kasey Hearn
• Outstanding Non-Exempt Staff Award: Susan Bass and Samantha Roan
• Climate Enhancement Award: Alicia McDyre and Seria Chatters
• Graduate Student Recognition Award: Azaria Cunningham
• Undergraduate Leadership and Student Service Award: Caitlin Brennan

In addition, because in a very special year all of you have been stretched beyond your maximum capacity, I have declared every single member of our faculty and staff a winner this year. And because you all are winners, all faculty and staff in the college will be getting a Yeti coffee mug as a small token of our deep appreciation for everything everyone has done to hold the college together during this pandemic. When they arrive, we will be distributing them to each workstation. Thank you, all!

Night of Remembrance

The University’s Night of Remembrance vigil, which honors and remembers students who have passed away during the past academic year, will take place at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 29. The vigil serves as an opportunity for members of the University community to come together, reflect and remember those who have passed. Due to coronavirus pandemic, last year's event did not take place so this year, the ​student governments plan to honor students from the past two years. The program will be a hybrid of pre-recorded content and a small in-person gathering. As more details are announced, I will share them with you.

In addition, event organizers invite you to offer remarks or a message of support to be included in the event. Click here if you would like to share words of remembrance. Remarks should be submitted by April 22 for them to be considered for inclusion in the presentation.

Justice Education Week

There are several events being planned for Justice Education Week, which is being hosted by the Restorative Justice Initiative. The keynote talk, at 6 p.m. April 19, will feature Dr. Angela Davis, a civil rights leader, educator and abolitionist activist. Her talk will explore carcerality, its history and relationship to systemic oppression, and the role abolitionist, liberatory pedagogy can play for educators and advocates. For details and to register, click here.

For the list of other events, click here.

COVID updates

Get vaccinated

Penn State is strongly encouraging all students, faculty, and staff to sign up to get a vaccine as soon as they are eligible to receive one. Faculty and staff are eligible now in Phase 1B. Phase 2, which extends vaccine eligibility to all Pennsylvanians age 16 or older, will begin on April 19. For details, check Penn State News.

BJC a vaccine site

A Regional Vaccination Clinic (RVC) is now open inside the Bryce Jordan Center. The Pennsylvania National Guard and AMI Expeditionary Healthcare, LLC, a health organization contracted by PEMA for planning and staffing assistance at commonwealth- established vaccine sites, will direct operations and administer doses at the site. The clinic will operate eight hours a day for five days a week, initially administering 600 doses of vaccine each day.

The vaccination site is open to anyone who is eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, regardless of county of residence, including eligible students from out of state. Appointments are required and can be made online or by calling 1-844-545-3450.

Keep following safety protocols

Whether or not you are vaccinated, physicians at Penn State Health urge everyone to continue to wear a mask and follow other COVID mitigation guidelines. For details, check Penn State News.

Return to On-Campus Work Update

At the University's March 31 town hall, President Barron outlined phased return to on-campus work. We don’t yet have any additional details beyond the fact that the University’s plan will be a phased approach aiming toward a more traditional fall semester. However, to help with questions regarding this topic and others, we will be holding a College of Education all-staff town hall from 2 to 3 p.m. Tuesday, May 4. We ask that you register for this event here.

If you have any questions leading up to the town hall, please reach out to [email protected].

New building access process

Julian Morales sent an email earlier this week explaining a new process for requesting building and room access, which should be much easier for everyone, especially during our hybrid work model.

Moving forward, current employees can use this form to request access to rooms and buildings (both swipe and key). The form is also linked on the Operations website and can be found here under the Access Request tab.

New guidance for Promotion and Tenure

I want to call your attention to an email I sent on Monday, which contained a memo on new guidance for Promotion and Tenure from the Provost and Vice Provost. The memo delineates new guidance for faculty promotion and tenure next year and over the course of the next several years. This guidance and set of modifications are in response to the disruptions caused by COVID to our normal operating activities.

There are a number of links for review that represent the collective work of a number of faculty affairs taskforces. This work reflects broad considerations of how we move forward with tenure and promotion post COVID, while simultaneously acknowledging the variable impacts of the pandemic on different individuals and across disparate disciplines.

These guidelines will part of the focus of the P&T workshops held in the college in the coming months, for candidates, administrators and committee members across levels.

Please read the memo in my earlier email, and if you have immediate questions about the material, please do not hesitate to reach to either Gwen Lloyd or Wendy Williams, who can assist you.

Box cleanup

As you are aware, Penn State is retiring Box this summer and moving files to comparable Office 365 services such as OneDrive and SharePoint. A handful of units across the University have already migrated. Most units, including ours, are slated for migration this spring and summer.

We need to work together to make our migration successful. To prepare, we must devote time now to cleaning up files in Box before our migration begins. Migrating excessive amounts of data, particularly outdated and unnecessary information, will drastically slow the process.

Please refer to the Box migration website for more detailed information, including training, resources, and first steps. The Office of Records Management guide can help you confirm which records can be deleted and which need to be migrated.

If you have any questions, please reach out to the central IT staff or use this form to contact the Box team. Locally, Jody Harpster is our lead on this, if you need help from CETC, please submit a help desk ticket here.

Thank you for taking the time to assist with this critical effort to save University resources, simplify support, and allow Penn State to leverage existing storage offerings. Our unit will have a successful migration if we all work together.

Presidential search

Beginning this spring, the Penn State Board of Trustees is embarking on its most important responsibility — to select Penn State’s next president. As part of this process, they launched the Next Gen Penn State Survey to garner community feedback.

Now through April 25, Penn State students, faculty, staff and alumni across every campus location, as well as other community stakeholders, are encouraged to participate and take the confidential, 10-minute survey by clicking here.

For more information about the presidential search and Next Gen Penn State listening process, visit the Next Gen Penn State website.

Kudos and huzzahs

• Congratulations to Erica Frankenberg, who won the Howard B. Palmer Mentoring award, presented to a full-time member of the faculty who demonstrates "effective mentoring through guiding and nurturing the collegial and professional development of junior faculty." Erica will be honored at the Virtual Faculty and Staff Awards Recognition Ceremony being held on April 26.
• Congratulations also to Bern Badiali, recipient of the American Educational Research Association Supervision and Instructional Leadership SIG’s 2021 Distinguished Achievement Award. Bern was recognized at this year’s AERA conference for his career achievements in the field of supervision, including his mentoring of doctoral students and junior faculty and work on the scholarship of Professional Development Schools.

People in our college are doing all sorts of great work with grants, programming, outreach, and in general going above-and-beyond to help others. If you know of someone who should be recognized, please send the information to [email protected].

Quick Links

College-specific sites:

• Weekly emails I’ve sent to students, staff and faculty since Feb. 28, 2020.
• College of Education COVID-19 Forms: return to on-site work, drop- in office visits, mission-critical purchases, in-person meetings and events, non-event visitors and travel requests.

University-wide sites:

• Learning from Home guide for students, faculty and staff.
• Updated FAQs regarding on-campus work and learning.
• Keep Teaching and Keep Learning websites, including new webinars.
• Penn State’s COVID-19 dashboard.
• The Office of Human Resources COVID-19 information and Return to Work on Campus resource sites.
• The University Measures site, which summarizes steps Penn State is taking in response to COVID-19.
• A list of contacts and resources for the University community.

Best,

Kim

COVID-19 information updates

Get vaccinated

The state of Pennsylvania has updated the COVID-19 vaccine distribution timeline. Starting Monday, faculty and staff will be eligible to receive the vaccine. Vaccine supply is still limited, and you may have to wait to receive a vaccine, so it’s best to register as soon as you are eligible.

Starting Monday, faculty and staff should click here to go to the eligibility test. Once the test confirms your eligibility to receive a vaccine, you’ll be able to advance to Step 2, which is finding a vaccine provider and scheduling your appointment.

To find a provider in advance of scheduling your appointment, click here. Note that the list of providers on that map includes mainly pharmacies and is not exhaustive. Vaccines also are being administered through Mount Nittany Medical Center, Centre Volunteers in Medicine, and some Geisinger locations.

Additional information is available on Penn State News and the University’s vaccine information website.

COVID numbers rising

While I know there is COVID fatigue around the importance of staying vigilant with masking and physical distancing, the recent rise in the number of COVID-19 cases locally has reinforced the importance of continued vigilance. We need your help to bring the numbers back down by continuing to mask up, practice social distancing, avoid large gatherings and wash your hands often.

Get tested

Faculty and staff who have recently traveled, interacted with individuals outside of their pods or believe that they have been exposed to COVID-19 are urged to get tested. Employees who are listed in the University’s Return to Work database may utilize the University’s free walk-up testing program. However, you are strongly encouraged to order an employee Vault Health mail-in test kit, when possible.

Return to on-campus work

In his webcast earlier this week, President Barron answered questions posed by faculty and staff, including the plans to bring employees back to campus. President Barron said the University will see more employees gradually come back to campus over the summer, prioritizing those who support, and have interactions with, students.

A task group focused on planning for employees’ return to their workplaces is drafting a transition plan for the increase of on-campus employees during summer and into the fall. The plan is driven by health and safety guidance issued by the state and the CDC, as well as the availability of vaccines. The group is taking extra care when formulating return to work plans due to the recent uptick in cases across the state and nation.

For more about the webcast, check Penn State News.

SIMBA update

When SIMBA went live as the University's new budgeting system last July, many processes became more streamlined, while some became more challenging. SIMBA leadership has taken the concerns seriously and is working to implement both long-term and short-term changes, including:

• Temporary replacement of the myFunds Portal with “burst” reports, which are for internal use only. The myFunds portal is being revamped and has a targeted relaunch set for later this month.
• Creation of a working group with oversight of short- and long-term mitigation efforts.
• Beginning updated training in focused topic areas related to master data, cost share/subawards, closeouts and reporting.
• Bringing back three consultants from LSI, the implementation partner for the SIMBA project since 2018. The consultants are conducting 1:1 meetings with impacted units to address unit needs and questions.
• Hiring of six wage payroll employees to assist with improving data quality.

Many initiatives are underway to manage the acute challenges our faculty has been facing. The new working group will build upon these efforts by recommending additional strategies and needed resourcing.

BIPOC Council

I’m excited to announce that we have formed our inaugural BIPOC Council. Elected to serve on this first council are: Julia Bryan, Hollie Kulago, Tiffany Nyachae, Jessica Henry, Royel Johnson, Ericka Weathers, Leticia Oseguera, Jeanine Staples, Brenda Martinez, Araya Baker, Mia Thomas and Azaria Cunningham. Congratulations and thank you for your service.

Thank you also to Efraín Marimón, Marcela Borge and many others for their efforts to co-create this council. The work of the BIPOC Council is critical to making sure we progress with our mission of becoming an anti-racist College of Education. The council serves to make sure that the voices of BIPOC faculty, staff and students are centered in the work that lies ahead of us.

Admissions tours

As you know, especially this year, we need to keep up our efforts to engage with prospective students, so I strongly encourage you to continue to reach out to students who have an offer of admission to our college and encourage them to enroll.

This spring, the Undergraduate Admissions Office has been offering limited in-person, outdoor tours of campus for students admitted to University Park. The only indoor stop on these tours is a brief visit to a model residence hall room. It’s made clear to tour visitors that offices in the academic colleges are not open and that they will not be able to enter classrooms.

As you may imagine, demand has far exceeded the number of available in-person tours, so the University also is continuing to offer and encourage virtual visits, appointments and tours via Zoom. We have our own virtual tour of our college, featuring student Taylor Young as tour host, available here. Please share this video with prospective students.

The Admissions Office also is working on summer tour plans and will be making options available in May and June for populations other than admitted students.

Quick links

College-specific sites:

• Weekly emails I’ve sent to students, staff and faculty since Feb. 28, 2020.
• College of Education COVID-19 Forms: return to on-site work, drop- in office visits, mission-critical purchases, in-person meetings and events, non-event visitors and travel requests.

University-wide sites:

• Learning from Home guide for students, faculty and staff.
• Updated FAQs regarding on-campus work and learning.
• Keep Teaching and Keep Learning websites, including new webinars.
• Penn State’s COVID-19 dashboard.
• The Office of Human Resources COVID-19 information and Return to Work on Campus resource sites.
• The University Measures site, which summarizes steps Penn State is taking in response to COVID-19.
• A list of contacts and resources for the University community.

Best,

Kim

More Rivers to Cross: Part Two

On Friday, the second part of the More Rivers to Cross report was released, a little over a year after the release of Part 1 in January of 2020. This report was assembled by a group of our Black colleagues from across the University, including our very own Julia Bryan. Part Two extends the findings from the first report, detailing results of a survey of the racism, personal and institutional, faced by our black faculty both at UP and the CCs. Further, it provides recommendations on how to steward our path forward toward equity and justice.

A few key highlights from the report:

• Black professors in the Penn State system comprise roughly 3% of the faculty – a level where it has remained for the last 20 years.
• Roughly eight out of 10 of black professors reported in a survey that they have experienced racism in some form at Penn State.
• A little more than half of the faculty felt that they sometimes or often experience racism from supervisors or administration.
• About three-quarters of those that experienced racism chose not to report it to administration, for a variety of reasons, one being that they felt that such racism was normalized and that nothing will be done about.

As we begin to launch our strategic plan that moves us to an antiracist college that develops antiracists educators, it is important that we take heed of the data presented in this report and take actionable steps to end both personal and systemic racism and all forms of discrimination in our collective work. I encourage you to read through the report and reflect on how we can individually and jointly resolve to change this narrative into one where equity and justice define our environment.

COVID numbers rising

With a recent uptick of COVID-19 cases in the State College area, Penn State and local leaders are appealing to all of us to redouble our safety efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus on campus and throughout the surrounding community.

There has been a significant rise in the number of new COVID-19 cases, as well as the number of hospitalizations due to COVID, in the last couple of weeks, and officials are warning that gains made during the pandemic — including the expansion of campus services and availability of facilities and the easing of restrictions on area restaurants and businesses — could be in jeopardy if COVID-19 cases continue to rise locally.

According to a story on Penn State News, the more transmissible variant of COVID-19 has been found here. That means that safety measures including masking, physical distancing and avoiding large gatherings are increasingly important, whether or not you have been vaccinated.

Campus visitor guideline update

Penn State has updated its guidelines for employees concerning when to invite visitors to campuses during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Anyone in our college wishing to have a non-employee visit campus for any period of time must make a request to their supervisor or department head, who then will consult with college leadership for a decision. More information is available here.

Commencement video help

Annemarie Mountz has just six photos to use in the congratulations slideshow video I want her to make for our spring commencement – and five of them are from alumni. (To the one staff member who provided a photo – you know who you are, and I thank you!)

Because the in-person commencement is limited in attendance, this video is our only opportunity as a college to congratulate our graduating students and wish them well. Annemarie needs your photos by March 31 in order to assemble the slideshow in time for uploading to the virtual commencement website.

The sign should include your name and title so our graduates and families know who you are, and the rest of the sign should be celebrating our graduates in some way. Messages should be no more than 20 words so they can be read easily in a slideshow format. You can wear commencement regalia, or something saying “College of Education” or “Penn State,” but you don’t have to.

Photos can be emailed to [email protected] OR uploaded to SharePoint here. I’ll be sending my photo this weekend and I urge you ALL – faculty and staff alike – to please participate in this effort as well.

Lobbying reporting requirements

To ensure compliance with the University’s federal and state lobbying reporting requirements, all University faculty and staff who participate in federal and state lobbying activities for the University must report all time and expenses related to these activities to the Office of Government and Community Relations on a quarterly basis. Reports for the first quarter (January, February and March) are due April 1. Instructions and forms for reporting are available for both federal lobbying and state lobbying activities.

For more information:

• AD50 Contact with State and Federal Officials and Official Requests From Government Officials
• Federal Lobbying Contact and Expense
• Pennsylvania Lobbying Disclosure Act (PDLA)

Kudos and huzzahs

People in our college are doing all sorts of great work with grants, programming, outreach, and in general going above-and-beyond to help others. If you know of someone who should be recognized, please send the information to [email protected].

Technology for Tomorrow

The Technology for Tomorrow Series (T4T for short) is a four-day series that will highlight technology innovations across various industries to help Penn State students and faculty prepare for the demands of a changing workforce. If you'd like to find out more and explore what kinds of sessions and resources are being offered by our Microsoft learning consultant, Lindsey Troyanoski, join the Penn State Technology for Tomorrow Series Team. When you join the team, you will see all the sessions listed in their respective tracks.

If you would like to co-present or moderate one of the teaching-centric sessions, email [email protected].

Quick Links

College-specific sites:

• Weekly emails I’ve sent to students, staff and faculty since Feb. 28, 2020.
• College of Education COVID-19 Forms: return to on-site work, drop-in office visits, mission-critical purchases, in-person meetings and events, non-event visitors and travel requests.

University-wide sites:

• Learning from Home guide for students, faculty and staff.
• Updated FAQs regarding on-campus work and learning.
• Keep Teaching and Keep Learning websites, including new webinars.
• Penn State’s COVID-19 dashboard.
• The Office of Human Resources COVID-19 information and Return to Work on Campus resource sites.
• The University Measures site, which summarizes steps Penn State is taking in response to COVID-19.
• A list of contacts and resources for the University community.

Best,

Kim

Commencement

As I am sure you’ve heard by now, the University is holding spring commencement both in-person and virtually. There will be multiple commencement ceremonies held in Beaver Stadium. Our college will be combined with the Colleges of Communications and IST, and our ceremony is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Saturday, May 8. There still are many logistical details to be worked out. For the official announcement, check Penn State News. For the most up-do-date information, check the commencement FAQ.

In addition, there will be a University-wide virtual ceremony at 6 p.m. May 9 – and we need your help to make that event special. Annemarie Mountz is putting together a special congratulatory video for our graduating students and needs as many of you as possible to send her a picture of yourself holding up a congratulatory sign. I strongly encourage you to overwhelm her with photos so our students can see just how many people in our college are celebrating their achievement. Annemarie needs the images by March 31, and they should be sent to [email protected] or upload them here. For more details, please check the email she sent out on March 15 with the subject line “Congratulate our graduating students.”

Website

I’m happy to share that we launched our redesigned website. While there are a few technical glitches that we’re working through, I think the site looks great and I’d like to thank the dozens of people who worked very hard over the past two years to make this new site a reality.

If you do encounter a technical glitch on the site, please report it by filling out a ticket with the CETC. If you have content changes to recommend, please contact the web editor in your area. Details can be found in the email Julian Morales sent out on March 18 with the subject line “New Website.”

Faculty Annual Reviews

Annual reviews for faculty, per policy AC40, are currently underway in our College. All faculty at Penn State are reviewed by an administrator each year, with an extended review for tenured faculty every 5 years after the most recent promotion decision. While you may feel a bit of trepidation about being reviewed this year, the process is designed to support your ability to be successful in your role.

As is typical in the past, this year you will prepare a written report (generated by Activity Insight) of your work over the past year. This year’s report will be a little different than past reports as you are asked to demonstrate “good faith effort” in teaching rather than be required to provide SRTE data. In fact, faculty are specifically instructed not to include them for spring or summer 2020 and Fall 2020 STREs are optional. Per the guidance from the VPFA, faculty/instructors may wish to include one of the alternative assessments outlined in Appendix M of the 2020-2021 Promotion and Tenure Guidelines or one of the self-reflections recommended by the University Faculty Senate’s Joint Committee on Faculty Teaching Assessments located on page 5 of the guidance document.

As is typical in the past, this year you will prepare a written report (generated by Activity Insight) of your work over the past year.

You will meet with your department head (or other supervisor) for a one-on-one “career conference.” These conversations present great opportunities for you and your department head to put your heads together to reflect on the past year’s experiences and accomplishments, recognize successes and challenges, and establish goals and areas of focus for the upcoming year. They are meant to be formative and developmental in nature. Department heads will evaluate you in the primary areas of your assignment and responsibility, with the awareness that faculty faced extraordinary challenges in 2020 – challenges that continue to profoundly and differentially impact faculty. By June 1, the review cycle will be complete, and you will receive written documentation of the results of your review from your department head.

We have not yet received word of a salary raise program for this year. When we do have confirmation either way, I will update you on what the plan is, and how we will handle determining how raises will be distributed.

Tenure-line probation extension

April 1 is the deadline for tenure-line faculty in the penultimate year of their probationary period to accept a one-year extension to their probationary period due to COVID-19. By completing the online form “Confirmation of Extension of the Probationary Period Due to COVID-19,” the faculty member’s probationary period will be extended by one year. Detailed information is available here.

SAC applications due March 31

Applications are due by March 31 for anyone interested in serving as a representative on the college’s Staff Advisory Council. This year, spots are open for Advising and Certification; Development/Alumni Relations, and Communications; and Education Policy Studies, including the Center for the Study of Higher Education. For details and the application form, visit the SAC website.

Equity Fund program

We are pleased to announce the launch of the “Equity Fund” Program Equity Team College of Education competition. Click on the link below to view more information. Funding amounts up to $10,000 per project can be directed to one or a combination of activities that directly support equity needs identified by students, staff and faculty in the college. This grant intends to offer a structure in which members of the college can engage in substantive culture change and to ensure that it happens urgently and sustainably. The internal submission deadline is Friday, April 30. For details and to apply, click here.

President Barron webcasts

President Eric Barron will host webcasts this spring to discuss important topics for the University community about the impact of the pandemic on Penn State, the University’s ongoing response and plans as the University substantially expands in- person courses this summer and plans for a full on-campus experience in the fall. For details, check Penn State News.

Free subscription to New York Times

It’s easy to stay on top of national news by getting it delivered daily to your email. Students, faculty and staff can get a digital subscription to the New York Times for free. For details and to get your free subscription, visit www.nytimes.com/PSU online.

Quick Links

College-specific sites:

• Weekly emails I’ve sent to students, staff and faculty since Feb. 28, 2020.
• College of Education COVID-19 Forms: return to on-site work, drop-in office visits, mission-critical purchases, in-person meetings and events, non-event visitors and travel requests.

University-wide sites:

• Updated FAQs regarding on-campus work and learning.
• Keep Teaching and Keep Learning websites, including new webinars.
• Penn State’s COVID-19 dashboard.
• The Office of Human Resources COVID-19 information and Return to Work on Campus resource sites.

Best,

Kim

Spring forward

Daylight Saving Time returns this weekend. While most of your devices likely will set the correct time automatically, remember to “spring forward” one hour at 2 a.m. Sunday, March 14, on those devices that need to be set manually, including ranges, coffee makers and microwaves.

Website launch

I am excited to share that our long-awaited new website will be launching on Monday, at the same URL as our current website. Thank you to everyone who had a role in making this happen. I think the site looks great, and hope everyone will find it easier to navigate than our current website. One thing I would like everyone to keep in mind is that the new website – just like the old website – is a work in progress. What you see on launch day will continue to evolve and be refined. Some sections of the site are not as robust as they eventually will become. Please be patient with the many web editors – your colleagues – who have worked so hard to transfer content from the old site to the new, working with a new CMS platform, during the disruption of the pandemic. As always, you are welcome to share constructive feedback at [email protected].

Planning for fall semester

News from President Biden last night was very encouraging: all adults will be eligible to get the vaccine by May 1, and we have a chance to return to a semblance of normal life by July 4 as long as we get vaccinated and do not prematurely abandon mask wearing, social distancing and other measures to contain the virus.

If things progress as planned, we should be able to have an on-campus learning environment for fall semester. At the same time, we need to remain prepared for the possibility that things do not go as projected. I ask that while you plan to return to your classrooms in the fall, you continue to be flexible and have a “Plan B” ready in case health and safety considerations require another pivot. The recommendation is that we use the modes in which our courses were offered last fall as a starting point for that “Plan B,” although of course room for appropriate adjustment will be given.

Professional development

As we transition away from Box and more fully use the Microsoft suite of apps, we have put together a series of overview/Q&A sessions for faculty and staff in the college. All sessions are from noon to 1 p.m. Learn more about OneDrive on March 25; Teams on April 15; and how to use OneDrive for online courses on April 22. For details, refer to the email Julian Morales sent on March 9, with the subject line “Office 365 Learning Series - Save the Date.”

Prevent Zoom-bombing

Penn State Information Technology has shared several strategies for avoiding Zoom-bombing. Those strategies include ways to advertise and promote virtual events to keep those meetings and events secure, and what to do if a disruption occurs. More details can be found in an email Julian Morales sent on March 8 with the subject line, “Protocols to help avoid Zoom-bombing.” There also is a short how-to video posted here that walks you through steps to take to secure your meetings. IT Learning and Development also has set up Zoom office hours from noon to 2 p.m. on Wednesdays through May 5. Click here for access information.

Make wellness a priority

I hope you were able to take advantage of the University’s second wellness day for the semester earlier this week. The next official wellness day is scheduled for April 7 … but don’t wait until then to make your wellness a priority. Get outside and enjoy the nice weather we’re having. Get some exercise. Read a book for pleasure. Do whatever it is you do to re-set yourself mentally and physically, while continuing to follow health and safety protocols.

Anyone needing counseling services is strongly encouraged to reach out for help:

• Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Penn State’s EAP is a free, confidential employee and family resource to be used as a first line of defense for personal or work-related concerns for yourself or your family.
• 24/7 Penn State Crisis Line: 1-877-229-6400. You don't have to feel in immediate crisis to call. When grieving it's important to have someone to speak with and the professionals at this 24/7 resource are available day and night to listen and help.
• 24/7 Crisis Text Line: Text “LIONS” to 741741. Again, there is no need to feel like you are in immediate crisis to reach out. It's important to have someone to speak to when you are grieving a loss. And sometimes a phone call isn't an option, so keep this text line on hand for in-the-moment support at any time of day, anywhere.

Quick Links

• Learning from Home guide for students, faculty and staff.
• Updated FAQs regarding on-campus work and learning.
• Keep Teaching and Keep Learning websites, including new webinars.
• Penn State’s COVID-19 dashboard.
• The Office of Human Resources COVID-19 information and Return to Work on Campus resource sites.
• The University Measures site, which summarizes steps Penn State is taking in response to COVID-19.
• A list of contacts and resources for the University community.

Best,

Kim

‘Two weeks’ has turned into a year

As hard as it is for me to comprehend, we are nearing the one-year anniversary of the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

My first email to the college community on the topic of the pandemic was Feb. 28, 2020. At that point in time, we were monitoring the COVID-19 outbreak, but it was not yet real to us, as there were no known cases of coronavirus at Penn State and no reports of the virus in Pennsylvania. Less than two weeks later during spring break, on March 11, the University announced a pivot to remote learning – effective the following Monday, March 16. We suddenly found ourselves packing up laptops, monitors and other office essentials to bring home. While I am not by nature a superstitious person, I must note that the last day that we all worked from our campus offices together was Friday the 13th of March.

What we thought was going to be a multiple-week disruption dragged on through summer, fall and winter, and now here we are, facing the first anniversary of that pivot. The good news is that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Vaccines are rolling out and with a third one just approved, the pace of vaccinations should ramp up pretty quickly. While safety measures will remain necessary for a while longer, we are starting to see signs that point to our emergence from the pandemic.

As I take stock and reflect on this past year, I am amazed by, and grateful for, all we have accomplished together. Over this past year, faculty, staff, students and our leadership team alike faced circumstances that were completely beyond our control and truly unimaginable a year ago. Somehow, we made everything work. It hasn’t been easy – in fact, it has been incredibly difficult to simultaneously manage jobs and families while working from makeshift home offices – but that didn’t stop you all from putting forth Herculean efforts to succeed.

It is fitting, that today is also National Employee Appreciation Day. This year, more than any other year, I have much to appreciate. Thank you, faculty, for providing our students with an excellent educational experience whether your class met in person, remotely or through some hybrid experience. Thank you, staff, for going above and beyond in support of our teaching mission and for continuing to manage the operations of the college under very challenging conditions. Thank you to all of you who took on additional roles that were not in your job descriptions, because you saw a need and volunteered to fill it. You all exemplify the “We Are” spirit, and I am in awe of your “can-do” attitude. You truly inspire me.

As we begin to talk about what re-gathering may look like, I challenge you to not return to “the way things were,” but instead to look at all we have learned about ourselves and the work we do, and contemplate which parts of that we want to keep doing even as the danger of COVID-19 diminishes. I am curious to hear your thoughts on this topic. Once we return to campus, what things would you like to keep from the past year? Email your feedback to [email protected].

COVID information

Random testing: With the conclusion of the required universal COVID-19 testing period, Penn State has resumed random testing of its on-campus students and employees as part of the University’s spring 2021 student testing strategy. The University will conduct random testing each day of 1% to 2% of its population of students and employees living, learning or working on campus as well as those who access campus. This includes all employees who are listed in the return-to-work database and students who are taking in-person classes or living within 20 miles of a campus. Learn more on Penn State News.

Walk-up testing: Students who are concerned they may have been exposed to COVID-19 can visit a walk-up, rapid testing site at Hintz Family Alumni Center or Pegula Ice Arena between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. It doesn't matter if you have been tested last month, last week or yesterday — if you are concerned that you may be at risk, I strongly encourage you to get tested again. Employees who are listed in the University’s Return to Work database also may utilize the walk-up testing. However, employees are strongly encouraged to order an employee Vault Health mail-in test kit, when possible.

Vaccine information: The University has put together a series of videos with information about COVID-19 vaccines. These videos are being featured on Wednesdays in Penn State Today, and you also can access them here. They also launched a vaccine information page on the Virus Information website. The page will continue to be updated to provide the latest information, and will serve as one critical avenue for information and guidance should Penn State be asked to play an active role in supporting the vaccination effort.

Guidelines for change in course mode

We are working toward delivering a Fall 2021 residential semester that more closely resembles a usual fall semester. Historically, 97% of course sections at University Park are offered in the in-person mode. The University’s expectation is that we will achieve something that closely resembles this in the fall. That being said, University leadership also recognizes that there may be necessary reasons to deliver a course in a web or hybrid mode instead of the in-person mode that was used in fall 2019. Department heads have received a document that offers guidelines to consider when making this type of change in the course offering mode, and they will be sharing the information with faculty. There will be a process, through a digital form, that allows an exception request. Details of that process will be out early next week.

Because back-up plans have become our standard operating procedure over the past year, the University strongly encourages use to have a Plan B in case the virus has other plans for us or if the vaccine roll out is not a comprehensive as we believe it will be. So, please also be thinking about your secondary course mode in case of a late summer pivot to help curb the spread if environmental health conditions dictate.

Change in Mission Critical Forms

Good news! As of today, the College of Education finance office will no longer require the submission of the mission critical form for purchases related to externally sponsored programs (grants and contracts).

Purchases on general funds, endowments and gift accounts will continue to require approval from the finance office and a mission critical form needs to be submitted.

Welcome, and thank you!

The Dean’s Office will welcome two new staff members on Monday, March 15.

Wendy Williams is the new administrative support coordinator for Faculty Affairs. Wendy has been at Penn State in the College of Health and Human Development since 2001. She brings extensive knowledge and experience in the areas of promotion and tenure, sabbaticals, and faculty reviews as well as in systems like Activity Insight and PTORP. Wendy looks forward to working with us on faculty affairs processes and getting to know our faculty, staff and students. With a degree in secondary mathematics education, she will be right at home. Welcome to the college, Wendy!

Jeremy Fisher is the new executive assistant to the dean. Jeremy comes to us from the College of Arts and Architecture, where he was administrative support coordinator in the School of Visual Arts. Last October, he was honored with the University Staff Advisory Council Staff Leadership Award for his outstanding leadership during a time of both administrative and staff changes. Among other strengths, he is recognized for being a valued mentor and problem-solver while always going above and beyond his required duties. Jeremy has a doctorate in geography. Welcome, Jeremy!

I also want to thank Kelly McClure, who came out of retirement “for a few months” to help me out in her former role of executive assistant. Those few months turned into a year, and I am grateful to Kelly for all she did to help keep me organized and learn about the college as a new dean, during a pandemic. Kelly, thank you for all you have done. I wish you all the best as you return to (mostly) retired life!

Garban Grant-in-Aid

If you are a parent of an incoming Penn State student and work at the University as a technical service or staff employee, your child may be eligible to apply for the Steve A. Garban Grant-In-Aid, which assists students with room-and-board charges for two years. The application deadline is April 16. For eligibility and application information, check Penn State News.

Mentoring March

The University is offering Mentoring March – A Workshop Series for Faculty Mentoring Graduate Students. Effective mentoring is an invaluable component of graduate students’ success, and is even more important and challenging during the pandemic, which has introduced even more complexity into developing and maintaining strong mentoring relationships.

The first webinar in the series, Effective Communication, was held this past Wednesday, March 3. The remaining webinars are:

• Aligning Expectations, Thursday, March 11, 12:30–1:30 p.m.
• Addressing Equity and Inclusion, Thursday, March 25, 12:30–1:30 p.m.

Procurement compliance training

A new federal compliance training will be available through Penn State’s Learning Resource Network (LRN) starting March 2.

It is important to note that this is required IN ADDITION TO the normal annual compliance training for budget authorities.

Federal procurement employees, including relevant principal investigators, financial officers, and research administrators, must receive training annually in procurement laws, conflicts of interest, and gift-giving policies, among other areas appropriate to their duties. These employees must certify annually they have received such training. The training also will be available to others within finance and research offices, and participation in the training is encouraged.

The deadline for those required to take the training will be April 23. For details, check Penn State News.

USAC summit

Staff are invited to attend the University Staff Advisory Council (USAC) summit on March 30. The summit lasts six hours, but since it is on Zoom attendees can pop in and out as they are able. This is a professional development opportunity for all staff – you do not need to be a member of our college Staff Advisory Council to attend – and you may attend as part of your work day. I do ask that you please let your supervisor know if you would like to attend, for scheduling purposes. Christi McClellan will forward the registration link to staff as soon as it becomes available.

Box migration

The CETC is holding a Q&A session from noon to 1 p.m. March 9 to answer questions and gather feedback regarding the migration from Box to OneDrive and Sharepoint. To gauge interest and further secure the Zoom session, please be sure to register for the event. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

As you prepare for the migration, please remember to change any links to Box folders in Canvas for your summer and fall courses. To aid in the migration, the #1 step that you can take is to delete any unnecessary files and remove yourself or your unit from any files or folders that you no longer access. Our college’s migration is taking place in two phases:

Phase 1: May 31 to June 20. During this phase, data will copy from individual Box accounts and non-person accounts to OneDrive and SharePoint, respectively. While the data is copying, you can continue to work on the data within Box as you would normally.

Phase 2: June 20 to June 27. The second and final phase will copy new files and files that have changed since Phase 1. Upon completion of your migration, you will receive a completion email from the Box migration team. Once you have received that email, your Box accounts will be configured as read-only and you can begin accessing your data in OneDrive and SharePoint. Your Box data will be in a OneDrive folder called Box Migration Data. At this stage, you’ll also want to re-establish any external collaborators. Email templates will be available so that you can notify users outside of Penn State of the change.

Quick Links

College-specific sites:

• Weekly emails I’ve sent to students, staff and faculty since Feb. 28, 2020.
• College of Education COVID-19 Forms: return to on-site work, drop-in office visits, mission-critical purchases, in-person meetings and events, non-event visitors and travel requests.

University-wide sites:

• Learning from Home guide for students, faculty and staff.
• Updated FAQs regarding on-campus work and learning.
• Keep Teaching and Keep Learning websites, including new webinars.
• Penn State’s COVID-19 dashboard.
• The Office of Human Resources COVID-19 information and Return to Work on Campus resource sites.
• The University Measures site, which summarizes steps Penn State is taking in response to COVID-19.
• A list of contacts and resources for the University community.

Best,

Kim

THON

I would be remiss if I did not start of this email with a major shout-out to everyone involved with THON for raising $10,638,078.62 to support the Four Diamonds Fund. You proved that not even a pandemic can diminish your dedication and drive to raise money #FTK. I am so proud to be a member of this community and work with these students every single day! And for those of you who donated to the cause in memory of Ashley Pauls and all she did for THON, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Becoming anti-racist

I came across a really good article in the Chronicle of Higher Education the other day and I want to share it with you. It’s called The Antiracist College, and it can be found here. It’s a strong reminder that becoming an anti-racist college means we all must participate, that we all must grow. It involves top-to-bottom changes in how we do things, that words are not enough. If we do it right, the impacts will be not only for students of color and other marginalized groups, but also for all of us.

Along those same lines, President Barron shared a message on the University’s actions to address racism, bias and community safety on Penn State News. And of course, here in our college we have our commitment to equity, Leadership Resolution and Action Plan that we have been working on addressing over the past several months. Many of you have publicly endorsed our resolution and I invite those who have not yet done so to read the resolution here, and provide your feedback to [email protected]. I also welcome you to add your names to the list of those who have publicly endorsed our efforts, which you can do by clicking the button at the top of the endorsements section, found here.

Update on teaching modes

As I emailed to you on Wednesday, the University announced on Penn State News regarding course modes for summer and fall.

For summer, we are staying with COVID codes, but as described in the press release, we are expected to have a heavy in person footprint and will continue to use the expanded complement of classroom locations used this academic year, as well as explore the addition of outdoor classrooms.

In the Fall, the University is planning a phased return to a full on-campus, residential learning environment. As positive as this news is, I want to echo the announcement in stressing that this is not a return to “pre-pandemic,” “normal” or “typical” operations. There likely will still be health guidance in place, to keep our students, employees, and local communities as safe and healthy as possible. The University will share additional information in the coming weeks and months about course registration and other aspects of its operations, including opportunities for engagement outside of the classroom.

Your Department Head or PIC will be reaching out to you for those of you teaching residential instruction courses this summer and all of you for the fall in the next couple of weeks.

Shift to Surveillance Testing

Starting Monday 3/1, Penn State will resume the random surveillance testing. Between 1-2% of the campus population will be selected and tested each day. This includes all employees who are in the return to onsite work database. Employees who are selected to participate in random testing are required to complete a COVID-19 test, with a few exceptions. At University Park, random testing will be conducted at the Mount Nittany Club in Beaver Stadium and at 101 North Atherton St., the former FedEx Office (Kinko’s) building.

In addition, there will be an increase in walk-up or on demand testing. Walk-up testing is available for on-site employees who are identified in the University’s contact tracing process or who believe they may have been in close contact with an individual who tested positive for COVID-19. It doesn't matter if you have testing last month, last week or yesterday -- if you are concerned that you may be at risk, you are strongly encouraged to come get tested again. At University Park, walk-up testing is available at the Hintz Alumni Center and will be available at the Pegula Ice Arena beginning on March 1 (Monday-Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.).

Join the SAC

Applications are now being accepted for the 2021-23 College of Education Staff Advisory Council (SAC). Staff members should have received an email earlier today from Christi McClellan, with information about applying to serve as a representative. This year, spots are open for Advising and Certification; Development/Alumni Relations, and Communications; and Education Policy Studies, including the Center for the Study of Higher Education. Please review the guidelines and application that Christi sent in her email. I strongly encourage your participation.

Mask Up clarifications

Questions have arisen about whether or not the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is now requiring double-masking, or if Penn State is adding that requirement. According to the Coronavirus FAQ on Penn State News, the answer is no – neither the CDC nor Penn State is requiring the use of a double-mask. That being said, the CDC is suggesting double-masking as a way to improve how individuals can wear their masks. Individuals seeking means to improve their mask performance can refer to CDC guidance for important ways to make sure your mask works the best it can.

What is required is that students, employees and visitors to Penn State are required to practice physical distancing and wear face masks/coverings on campus. Masks with exhaust valves are not acceptable. This is because valves allow air and respiratory droplets to escape the mask, which results in less protection for others. Those who are wearing a mask with a valve do not meet Penn State’s mask wearing requirements. For more information, check Penn State News.

Quick Links

College-specific sites:

• Weekly emails I’ve sent to students, staff and faculty since Feb. 28, 2020.
• College of Education COVID-19 Forms: return to on-site work, drop-in office visits, mission-critical purchases, in-person meetings and events, non-event visitors and travel requests.

University-wide sites:

• Learning from Home guide for students, faculty and staff.
• Updated FAQs regarding on-campus work and learning.
• Keep Teaching and Keep Learning websites, including new webinars.
• Penn State’s COVID-19 dashboard.
• The Office of Human Resources COVID-19 information and Return to Work on Campus resource sites.
• The University Measures site, which summarizes steps Penn State is taking in response to COVID-19.
• A list of contacts and resources for the University community.

Best,

Kim

Mourning our loss, celebrating a life

To say this has been a difficult week for our college community is an understatement. We have held many sessions and vigils across our intersecting communities to process together and share our memories of Ashley Pauls and her impact in so many circles on influence. Ashley's family shared that the Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 20, and will be live- streamed for those who cannot be there in person. To view the live stream, go to https://www.cantelmifuneralhome.com/obituary/Ashley-Pauls and scroll to the bottom of the page.

In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that those interested in helping the family at this time makes donations in Ashley’s name to:

• THON 227D HUB, University Park PA 16802 Email: [email protected] Web: https://donate.thon.org/index.cfm? fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID=42571
• American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) 199 Water St. 11th FL, New York NY 10038 Tel: 1-888-333-2377 Email: [email protected] Web: https://afsp.donordrive.com/index.cfm? fuseaction=donate.event&eventID=2078

As a reminder, anyone needing counseling services is strongly encouraged to reach out for help:

• Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Penn State’s EAP is a free, confidential employee and family resource to be used as a first line of defense for personal or work-related concerns for yourself or your family.
• 24/7 Penn State Crisis Line: 1-877-229-6400. You don't have to feel in immediate crisis to call. When grieving it's important to have someone to speak with and the professionals at this 24/7 resource are available day and night to listen and help.
• 24/7 Crisis Text Line: Text “LIONS” to 741741. Again, there is no need to feel like you are in immediate crisis to reach out. It's important to have someone to speak to when you are grieving a loss. And sometimes a phone call isn't an option, so keep this text line on hand for in-the-moment support at any time of day, anywhere.

THON Weekend 2021

I experienced THON for the first time last year, and it had a lasting impact on me. While the event is very different this year, the 2021 Penn State IFC/ Panhellenic Dance Marathon (THON) will host THON Weekend virtually from 6 p.m. today through 4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 21. This year’s event has been modified to safeguard the health and safety of all Four Diamonds families, participants, dancers, volunteers and spectators during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. THON Weekend will take place over a 46-hour livestream featuring many of the events that take place at THON each year, including line dances, special performances and the annual pep rally.

All members of the Penn State community, regardless of their location, are invited to join this year’s THON Weekend remotely through the official THON livestream, provided by student-run production team 46LIVE. Additional information is available in THON’s comprehensive spectator guide and on Penn State News.

SIMBA

The new SIMBA system is causing challenges across the University. This is resulting in significant delays in processing financial transactions in particular when a vendor or business partner registration is required to pay for their contributions to our projects. In SIMBA, anyone outside the University that needs to be paid is called a vendor. For us, this includes teachers, seminar speakers. research participants, and anyone getting an honorarium. Our administrative and financial staff is fully committed to supporting you and your work. Please help them to help you by submitting requests to pay our vendors as early as possible.

Annual compliance training

If you have not already done so, I strongly encourage you to complete your annual compliance training as soon as possible. All Penn State employees – including staff, faculty and graduate fellows/trainees are required to finish the training by the deadline of March 15. As in previous years, employees will need to finish their training in order to be eligible for potential future merit increases. Log in to the training on the Learning Resources Network website using your Penn State WebAccess ID. You will receive automatic weekly reminder emails from the LRN system until the training is completed – and I receive copies of those emails, so please do the training and reduce the number of emails coming into both your in-box and mine. For more information, check Penn State News.

Information about the University’s compliance training plan can be found here.

Academic Administrative Evaluations

The Office of the Vice President for Faculty Affairs is piloting a new process for academic administrative evaluations this year. The process is in line with Policy AC14, but expands it to include staff as well as faculty in the evaluation process.

All faculty and staff in our college will have the opportunity to review all academic administrators in our college. Academic administrators include me, our associate and assistant deans, and department heads.

Those with a courtesy appointment will not be included in the review stream. Those with a joint appointment should review administrators in the unit in which their tenure is held. Staff who work in the college but who report to a central unit – such as human resources, development and finance – will be given the opportunity to review academic administrators in our college. Reviews will take place in the spring semester and should coincide with the regular annual review process.

The Office of Planning, Assessment and Institutional Research (OPAIR) will generate and administer the feedback surveys for all units. Each reviewer will receive a unique survey link. OPAIR will remove the identities of respondents before forwarding the responses to the units; therefore, the responses sent to the units will be anonymous. You will receive one email asking you to evaluate the academic administrators in your unit. Once in the survey, you can select the administrators you wish to review.

For more information, including details about compilation and distribution of feedback, click here.

Virtual staff development series

Our own William Brendel, assistant professor in LPS, will present “Mindfulness@Work” from 10:30 a.m. to noon Monday, March 15, via Zoom as part of our college’s Staff Advisory Council Virtual Staff Development Conference Series. Please refer to the email sent to the Staff Advisory Council listserv earlier this morning, and click here to register.

Zoom-bombings

Over the course of the past few weeks, Penn State, along with many of our peer institutions, have experiences a host of zoom-bombings. The University is partnering with law enforcement to investigate these vial and repugnant acts of racism and bigotry.

To help avoid Zoom-bombing, individuals should not share meeting passwords or change default settings. A list of tips and settings to help prevent unwanted actions by participants is available, and includes actions to help prevent unwanted participants, such as: controlling how participants can enter the meeting; allowing only authenticated users to join; limiting screen sharing; and recording the meeting. A number of recent Zoom-bombings at Penn State have been specifically targeted at virtual events attended by people of color or featuring people of color as lecturers. University officials emphasize that any incidents of Zoom-bombing should be reported to University Police immediately, and that offenders could face charges for unlawful use of a computer, harassment and disorderly conduct, among other charges. For more information, check Penn State News.

In Case You Missed It (ICYMI)

The following important information was delivered this week through Penn State News:

• Teaching Transformation and Innovation Grant: The Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence is now accepting proposals from faculty for the 2021-22 Teaching Transformation and Innovation Grants competition. The proposal process includes three steps, the first of which must be completed by March 1. For details, check Penn State News.
• Special enrollment in health insurance marketplaces: Penn State employees who are not eligible to participate in the University’s health care plan can now sign up for health insurance coverage through HealthCare.gov, the federal health insurance marketplace, or pennie.com, Pennsylvania’s state-level health exchange, during a special enrollment period. For details, check Penn State News.
• Lifetime Password: The Office of Information Security (OIS) is making changes to Penn State Account password requirements. Once an account holder changes their password to meet the new requirements, it will never expire, and never need to be changed unless someone else gains access to it. As part of the implementation, faculty, staff and technical service employees are required to change to a Lifetime Password by May 12. Please refer to the email sent by our IT manager, Jody Harpster, on Feb. 3 for guidance. If you have a University-owned device AND you use your Penn State user ID and password to log in to it, follow the instructions in Sync My Penn State Computer Password while connected to VPN if working remotely. For assistance changing your password, please contact the IT Service Desk. If you’re having trouble updating the password on your College of Education device, please submit a CETC Help Desk Ticket. For more details, check Penn State News.

Quick links

College-specific sites:

• Weekly emails I’ve sent to students, staff and faculty since Feb. 28, 2020.
• College of Education COVID-19 Forms: return to on-site work, drop-in office visits, mission-critical purchases, in-person meetings and events, non-event visitors and travel requests.

University-wide sites:

• Learning from Home guide for students, faculty and staff.
• Updated FAQs regarding on-campus work and learning.
• Keep Teaching and Keep Learning websites, including new webinars.
• Penn State’s COVID-19 dashboard.
• The Office of Human Resources COVID-19 information and Return to Work on Campus resource sites.
• The University Measures site, which summarizes steps Penn State is taking in response to COVID-19.
• A list of contacts and resources for the University community.

Best,

Kim

This weekend, we welcome students back to our campus, and on Monday, we welcome them back into our classrooms. As we move into this next phase of our third pandemic semester, I just want to take a moment to thank each and every one of you for the immense efforts you have put forth to continue to provide an outstanding educational experience under extremely trying conditions. Whether through remote experiences or in person, I know our students see the investment CoEd faculty and staff put into each and every interaction with them. Your dedication, compassion and grace are part of what makes this college standout at Penn State as a place of brilliant and humanistic instruction and engagement. So, again, I say thank you for all you do, every single day.

COVID re-testing for ALL students

After students complete pre-arrival testing for COVID-19, testing expectations are not over. Between Feb. 15 and 26, all students are expected to be tested again as part of our community effort to contain the virus through Penn State’s Universal Testing initiative. This includes all students who are taking in-person classes or who are taking a fully remote or online course load while living in Centre County or within a 20-mile radius of a Penn State campus, including World Campus students. It also includes faculty and staff who are taking one or more classes either in person or online.

This second round of universal testing is in addition to the required initial testing of all students and does not fulfill the requirement that students must have a negative COVID-19 test result from a University provided test on file prior to, and within 72 hours of, their return to their campus community. It will take place from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. from Feb. 15 to Feb. 26 in the White Building.

This re-testing is part of the University’s spring testing strategy and will allow us to assess how the virus is spreading on our campuses and isolate cases quickly. As a small thank you, students who sign up early and complete the retesting will receive a free T-shirt, while supplies last, that includes the words of the Penn State Alma Mater. For details about how this retesting will occur, check Penn State News.

NOTE: Faculty and staff are not responsible for monitoring or enforcing testing requirements. If a faculty or staff member should become aware of a COVID-19 related violation, a referral may be made to the Office of Student Conduct online or by calling 814-863-0342.

Changing process with faculty notifications

There will be a few changes in faculty notifications of student absences this semester. These changes are related to our ability to offer both rapid testing and diagnostic testing. Students who are randomly selected for testing will first take a rapid test. If that test comes back positive, a note will go out to faculty of classes in which the students are registered notifying them of the student’s absence for a 10-day period. However, a positive rapid test will immediately be followed with a diagnostic test. Although it is expected to be rare, a student may test negative on the diagnostic test. If this is the case, faculty will receive another notification that the student is approved to return to class in a shorter time frame than the original 10-day period.

The process is also changing for students who are designated as a close contact of a student whose test is positive. Close contacts are immediately asked to quarantine (or move to quarantine if unable to quarantine in their home) and remain in quarantine for up to two weeks. A notification is sent to faculty with the date the student is permitted back in class. With the initiation of diagnostic capability this semester, students can “test out” of quarantine earlier in the process. In these cases, a second notification from student affairs will be sent alerting faculty of the ability to return to class sooner than originally anticipated.

As always, things continue to evolve as the science is better understood and technology improves. Thank you for your continued patience as we move to improve process in the interest of the health of our community.

New grants and contracts manager

The College of Education Research Office welcomes Jessica Snyder as the incoming Grants and Contracts manager beginning March 1. Jessica has been with Penn State since 2014. She brings experience from her roles as a proposal specialist at the Applied Research Laboratory and as the lead associate coordinator for grants and contracts at the Strategic Interdisciplinary Research Office. She has worked on proposals and awards across a variety of federal and non-federal funding agencies. Jessica is looking forward to getting to know the faculty, staff and students in the college and working with us on grants and contracts. Welcome Jessica.

Nittany Deck parking change

Effective immediately, the valet parking area on level one of the Nittany Parking Deck (located between the entrance and exit kiosks) has been converted back to regular parking available to permit holders and all other users of the deck.

This change has been made due to the repurposing of the Nittany Lion Inn as student housing until further notice.

Along with the designation change of these spaces, a change also has been made related to vehicle movement in this area. Vehicles parked in this section of spaces must now exit toward the entrance area of the deck and proceed around the back of the first level to reach the exit area. Signage has been installed to reflect this restriction.

CATA, campus shuttle schedules

CATA will begin operating on its CATABUS Spring 2021 Full- Service Schedule starting Monday, Feb. 15. There will be no changes to service from what had been operating throughout the fall months. Schedule and service information is available on the CATA website.

Penn State's Campus Shuttle via Beaver Avenue service also will resume on Monday, Feb. 15. This route serves 16 stops around campus every 20 minutes between 7:15 a.m. and 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. For real-time locations and arrival predictions, download the TransLoc app or visit the Transloc website.

Expanded student engagement

Guided by health and safety, Penn State has developed a phased plan to restore in-person student experiences and steadily expand organized activities across its campuses as circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic allow. As the semester progresses, Penn State will incrementally increase the scope and nature of in- person activities based on demonstrated student compliance with health and safety requirements, successful virus mitigation, and federal and state guidelines for gatherings. Virtual and hybrid programming options will continue to be offered for students who are studying remotely or who may not feel comfortable attending activities. For details, check Penn State News.

Professional development opportunities

The University has a number of development opportunities for faculty, including:

• Inclusive Online Teaching Certificate: The new certificate offers faculty information, processes and practices to help them respond to student needs and design equitable learning experiences that support a diverse student population. For details, check Penn State News.
• Addressing Intersectionality to Transform Leadership at Penn State: Several of our faculty are speaking at this symposium, which will be held via Zoom, from 2 to 5 p.m. on Feb. 19 and 26. Participants will engage in interdisciplinary dialogue to help build understanding of the effects of intersectionality on success and leadership in academia, with the goal of identifying pathways for transformational action and informing future initiatives. For details, check Penn State News.
• Weekly webinars: These webinars are designed to provide critical information to faculty and staff as they prepare their classes. For information, check the Keep Teaching website.
• The University also has a number of professional development opportunities for both staff and faculty, offered through Human Resources. They feature a wide variety of topics offered now through the end of the semester. I encourage you to check them out here, and register for those that interest you.

Quick links

College-specific sites:

• Weekly emails I’ve sent to students, staff and faculty since Feb. 28, 2020.
• College of Education COVID-19 Forms: return to on-site work, drop-in office visits, mission-critical purchases, in-person meetings and events, non-event visitors and travel requests.

University-wide sites:

• Learning from Home guide for students, faculty and staff.
• Updated FAQs regarding on-campus work and learning.
• Keep Teaching and Keep Learning websites, including new webinars.
• Penn State’s COVID-19 dashboard.
• The Office of Human Resources COVID-19 information and Return to Work on Campus resource sites.
• The University Measures site, which summarizes steps Penn State is taking in response to COVID-19.
• A list of contacts and resources for the University community.

Best,

Kim Lawless

Diversity in Education conference

The Penn State College of Education, Diversity and Community Enhancement Committee and PSU-Council for Exceptional Children are holding “Celebrating Our Differences,” The 2021 Diversity in Education Conference, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 6, via Zoom.

This is a FREE event designed to provide a forum for discussion and learning about working with the diverse populations of students throughout the educational spectrum.

Wellness Day

Information about the first of three spring 2021 Wellness Days, noninstructional days when wellness programming will be offered to students, faculty and staff, is now available at wellnessdays.psu.edu. Programming on this first day, Feb. 9, will focus on financial and occupational wellness and include live virtual events, recorded content and self-paced options.

Wellness Days are intended to support the mental health and well-being of students, faculty and staff in place of the traditional weeklong spring break, which was eliminated from the spring 2021 academic calendar to reduce the possibility of spreading the coronavirus through travel.

While no classes will be held, it is a regular work day for staff. That being said, I encourage everyone in our college community to participate in events or some activity that benefits their well-being. Staff should coordinate with their supervisor how they would spend the Wellness Day – not as a day off, but as a day dedicated to professional, intellectual, spiritual, mindful and personal growth.

Please talk with your supervisor to propose how you plan to spend time on Feb. 9 toward this goal, whether you spend some time to read a book, watch a video, attend a workshop, go on a hike, meditate, write poetry or do something else that will enable professional, intellectual, spiritual, mindful or personal growth.

Meeting with the Faculty Senate

Every three years, officers of the University Faculty Senate visit with members of the College of Education as part of a ‘listening tour’ to hear from our members and to gain a better perspective of issues and challenges facing our college. There are no presentations during this session, rather this is a time for conversation. Virtual visits have been scheduled with College of Education students, faculty and staff on Monday, Feb. 8. You should have received an email with an invitation and a zoom link to attend the appropriate session. I encourage you to attend if at all possible. If you did not receive the email invitation, please email [email protected].

IT Topics

• Lifetime password: I hope you have had a chance to read the email sent out by Jody Harpster earlier this week on the topic of a lifetime password. Penn State is rolling out significant changes to its password policies, to align with industry best practices. As part of that, they’re moving to a lifetime password for your Penn State access account. I strongly encourage you to read the information in Jody’s email, and on the Lifetime Password website, to learn how to choose your new password … and the steps you need to take to make sure you can log into your College of Education-owned computers once your password is changed. Then set your lifetime password before May 12.
• Box migration: It’s coming in late May or early June. Please refer to the email sent out earlier this week by Julian Morales. Julian will continue to update the college as plans for the migration solidify. In the meantime, please begin to prepare for the migration. Delete any unnecessary files and remove yourself or your unit from any files or folders that you no longer need or want access to, and delete any unnecessary Box Notes. Additional information, including training resources and a migration checklist covering pre-, during, and post- migration steps, are available on the new Box Migration website. If you have questions or concerns, please contact CETC by submitting a help desk request to https://help.educ.psu.edu.

Participate in commencement

Whether commencement is in-person or virtual this spring, we want to provide an opportunity for all faculty and staff in the college to publicly congratulate our graduates for a job well done in crossing the finish line to graduation in these difficult circumstances.

I invite all faculty and staff members to send a picture of themselves, holding up a congratulatory sign, to [email protected]. (Please make sure the sign doesn’t cover your face.) You can wear commencement regalia, or something saying “College of Education” or “Penn State,” but you don’t have to.

I’d like the sign to include your name and title so our graduates and their families know who you are. The rest of the sign should be celebrating our graduates in some way. Messages should be no more than 20 words so they can be read easily in a slideshow format.

Whether commencement is in-person or virtual, the photos will be used individually on our social platforms throughout commencement weekend. If we need to revert to a virtual commencement, the photos also will be assembled into a slideshow and set to Blue Band music for use in the virtual ceremony.

Webinars

The University has multiple webinars planned to support teaching and learning.

• Engaging Students in a Multi-Audience Classroom via Active Learning: Thursday, Feb. 18, 1 to 3 p.m. Learn key strategies to apply active learning techniques in a multi-audience course setting and modify content of templates that support active learning for utilization in your own courses. Register here.
• Addressing Intersectionality to Transform Leadership at Penn State: Friday, Feb. 19, 2 to 5 p.m. and Friday, Feb. 26, 2 to 5 p.m., via Zoom. This is intended for all academic leaders and faculty interested in academic leadership who seek to broaden and deepen their understanding of intersectionality and its relationships to leadership within academia. Register via this Zoom Meeting Registration form.

View the full list of webinars at https://keepteaching.psu.edu/webinars/. You can find additional self-paced materials to assist you with your courses on the Keep Teaching Spring 2021 Planning page. If you want to speak with a teaching consultant or a local learning designer about your course, consult the Keep Teaching Contacts and Support page.

Engagement Academy

Proposals are being solicited from Penn State employees, both faculty and staff, who wish to spend a portion of their time during the 2021-2022 academic year developing research, scholarship, creative accomplishment and/or programming (courses, curriculum or extra- curricular) involving engaged scholarship. The Engagement Academy is designed to deepen the University-wide discourse, practice, and recognition of student engagement and engaged scholarship at Penn State.

More information about Engagement Academy Scholars, including the application, can be found here. More information about Engagement Academy Fellows, including the application, can be found here.

ADA turns 30

Commemorate 30 years of the American Disability Act with two free virtual events from the Penn State Office of the Vice Provost for Educational Equity.

• On Tuesday, Feb. 9, join them at 10 a.m. for a virtual film viewing of Crip Camp. Watch how a group of teen campers in the 1970s joined the fight for disability civil rights. This event is open to all Penn State students, faculty and staff and is an official Wellness Days event. Watch the Crip Camp trailer here.
• On Wednesday, March 3, join them at 3:30 p.m. for a talk with lifelong disability civil rights advocate Judy Huemann. Judy spearheaded the disability social justice movement that led to the passage of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, known as Section 504, and eventually the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. She is also featured in Crip Camp.

Learn more and view these live events here.

Annual compliance training

All faculty and staff are required to complete annual compliance training through the Learning Resource Network. This training is a critical component in continuing to promote the University’s ethical culture and advance the Penn State Values of integrity, respect, responsibility, discovery, excellence and community. The training is designed to help acquaint you with laws and regulations applicable to a wide range of University activities.

You should have received an email about this training on Monday, Feb. 1. Training must be completed by March 15 for employees to be eligible for a general salary increase. You will be receiving weekly emails until the training is complete – and the provost and I are copied on those emails, so I urge you to please complete this training as soon as possible.

Outside business activities and private consulting

I have been asked by Vice Provost Kathy Bieschke to remind faculty of the time limits and pre-approval requirements in Policy AC80 – Outside Business Activities and Private Consulting. The policy requires prior approval for the following activities that have been identified as carrying the greatest risk of creating a conflict with an individual’s commitment to his/her University position:

• Exceeding the policy’s monthly or yearly time limits for OBAs;
• Involving students or University staff in OBAs;
• Starting a company;
• Teaching a full semester length course for another University during the appointment period (including remote teaching);
• Assuming an executive or management position for a third-party entity.

When engaging in these pre-approved activities or any other Outside Business Activities, faculty are also reminded not to use the University’s name, logo, letterhead or email.

The Office for Research Protections has developed a prior-approval form. Before engaging in any of the activities listed above, faculty members are expected to submit a completed form to their department head.

Questions about the policy, the pre-approval process, or the annual reporting can be directed to [email protected]. There also is information available on the ORP website.

Best,

Kim

COVID-19 information

• Vaccine information: In Pennsylvania, the state Department of Health and county health departments are responsible for COVID-19 vaccine distribution, which is being done in a phased approach with health care workers and those in long-term care facilities in the initial phase (Phase 1A). At this time, Penn State has not been named a distribution site for the vaccine and faculty, staff, and students should visit Pennsylvania’s vaccine website for information on when they may be eligible to receive a vaccine and where those vaccines may be available in their communities. The Pennsylvania Department of Health has an informational website about the COVID-19 vaccine, which includes a COVID-19 Interim Vaccination Plan. The plan provides information about the distribution of vaccines when available and describes the phases for vaccine administration.
• Faculty and staff testing: Faculty and staff listed in the University’s Return to Work database may order a Vault Health mail-in test kit. University Park employees may use the walk-up testing both during the remote period and when in-person classes resume. However, they are strongly encouraged to use the at-home, mail-in test kits when possible. For details, check the University’s official coronavirus information website.

Faculty guidance for annual reviews

A new document describes a process by which faculty who submit their Annual Report via Activity Insight can contextualize their annual review. Specifically, faculty members are encouraged (but not required) to describe the impact the pandemic and other challenges (e.g., societal/racial tension) have had on their work. In addition, faculty are encouraged to describe the innovative or creative ways obstacles were surmounted.

Faculty tenure concerns

I have been told that there are concerns among faculty that Penn State would consider taking actions similar to those taken by the Kansas Board of Regents to create a process by which the state’s six public universities can more expeditiously suspend and fire employees, including tenured faculty members. The national news on this front is disturbing and clearly anxiety provoking for all of us.

I asked Provost Nick Jones about this concern, and his answer was quite clearly no.

There has not been any talk of changing tenure here and there are no plans to do so. Penn State has made it very clear from the outset that protecting our people – faculty, staff and students alike – is our highest priority during this pandemic, and those statements have been followed by actions. The University leadership has done its best to make people whole, as we have done here in the College of Education. According to Provost Jones, there were also no non-renewals of FT1 contracts due to COVID.

While we do not have a full picture of the impact of the pandemic on our lives or our University, we do know that we will continue our commitment to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic on our faculty, staff and students.

Annual Compliance Training

All Penn State employees are required to complete Annual Compliance Training (ACT) by March 15. The ACT has been updated this year to be more accessible, engaging and convenient to navigate, and will be available through the Learning Resource Network (LRN) starting Feb. 1. The ACT takes approximately one hour to complete and now can be done over multiple sessions. As in previous years, employees will need to finish their training in order to be eligible for potential future merit increases, if applicable for that fiscal year. For details, check Penn State News.

Spring commencement

With the spring 2021 semester underway, Penn State is exploring options for potential in-person May commencement ceremonies for spring 2021 graduates. Given ongoing challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all decisions and plans will be made with the health and safety of students, their families, and campus communities as the priority and in accordance with state and federal guidelines for gatherings. Factors to consider include vaccination distribution rates; travel restrictions for out-of-town guests, if limited numbers of guests are possible; local and regional virus prevalence and conditions at campus locations; and local, state and federal guidelines. A decision on this is expected in March. For details, check Penn State News.

Online graduate education among best in nation

For the fifth straight year, Penn State is the most recognized university in U.S. News and World Report’s annual rankings of the best online degree programs in the country. The U.S. News and World Report’s 2021 Best Online Programs rankings, which were released Jan. 26, placed Penn State World Campus, the University’s online campus, in the top 10 of five graduate degree disciplines and the overall bachelor’s degree programs category. The College of Education’s online graduate education programs are tied for No. 7. The six top-10 rankings were the most of any institution. Penn State World Campus has had the most top-10 placements in U.S. News’ best online programs rankings since 2017. For details, check Penn State News.

Reading, Writing and Racism

Reading, Writing and Racism by Bree Picower is an unapologetic examination of how curriculum choices can perpetuate white supremacy, and offers radical strategies for how schools and teacher education programs can disrupt and transform racism in education.

The Harvard University Graduate School of Education’s Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging is hosting an interactive book launch from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 2. The virtual event is open to the public, but registration is required. For more information, click here, and to register, click here.

Take care of you

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to be an unprecedented source of stress for students, staff and faculty alike. In addition to the physical health threat COVID-19 poses, the psychological impact of the safety protocols in place due to the pandemic has been profound, with stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms increasing globally.

If you need help, there are mental health resources available:

• Free counseling and support services are available through the Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Family members (spouses, partners and children) also are eligible to receive these services.
• Centre County CAN HELP Line: https://centrecountypa.gov/593/ CrisisEmergency- Services and 800-643-5432.

If you have immediate urgent concerns, you can contact the Penn State Crisis Line 24/7 at 877-229-6400; or the 24/7 CrisisTextLine (Text “LIONS” to 741741).

Best,

Kim

Equity commitment

Last June, our college posted a written commitment to equity that was accompanied by a Leadership Resolution and an action plan. The action plan is probably the most important part of this trio of documents, because talk without real action is meaningless. We all need to ask ourselves whether we as individuals are truly working to become anti-racist, or if we are engaging in PAR – Performative Anti-Racism.

Julia Bryan, chair of the college’s Faculty Council and associate professor of education (counselor education), recently shared with me an article that explains PAR and how to avoid it. The article, The Plague of Performative Anti-Racism in Education, is short, but powerful. I urge you to read it, and then to act on what you’ve read.

I am very proud of our achievements, but we have so much more to do.

While our college still has a lot of work to do, we have begun to act on several items in the action plan. Last semester, through the Office of Education and Social Equity, we:

• Established an equity fund, empaneled a review committee, and finalized an application for circulation;
• Helped conceptualize and develop a BIPOC Advisory Council for the college;
• Piloted equity-based curriculum in several First Year Seminar (FYS) classes, hosted equity modules in all of the FYS classes in the college, and launched a research project exploring those efforts;
• Developed a strategic plan around antiracism for the college;
• Re-envisioned a new equity infrastructure/ecosystem in the college, including the creation of a coalition of equity-based organizations that meets with the deans multiple times a semester;
• Created an anti-racist teaching/learning community of counselor education/RHS faculty which met regularly in fall and will continue work throughout the spring semester.
• Continued work with a learning community of EECE faculty which also will continue in spring 2021;
• Developed and implemented ongoing professional development sessions on diversity, equity and inclusion training for the leadership team;
• Worked collaboratively with Dean Lloyd and the Curricular Affairs Committee to establish a Task Force on Equity-Minded Curriculum which has begun work on a course syllabus template and a process for peer consultation on equity-minded teaching.
• Reworked outreach in alumni relations and development focused on engaging BIPOC and other historically marginalized individuals.

I am very proud of our achievements, but we have so much more to do. If you want to help, please email [email protected] and we will enthusiastically welcome your assistance.

Staff award nominations sought

Nominations are being accepted for three Staff Recognition Awards from the University Staff Advisory Council (USAC) through March 1. The annual awards — the Staff Excellence Award, Staff Morale Award and Staff Leadership Award — each recognize staff across the Commonwealth who exemplify Penn State Values of integrity, respect, responsibility, discovery, excellence and community.

All full-time staff members from every campus and all work units are eligible to be nominated and anyone at the University may submit a nomination, including faculty, staff, administrators and students. Each nomination is considered on its own merit and will be given equal consideration regardless of type or level of staff position held within the University. Nominations should be received by March 1.

For details, check Penn State News.

Student Code of Conduct

After a thorough multi-month review by the Student Code of Conduct Task Force, a revised Student Code of Conduct has been implemented for the Spring 2021 semester. The changes, which were based on task force recommendations shared with the University community during a Dec. 9 virtual town hall, include modifying the code purpose and introduction by incorporating language that promotes equity and inclusion; adding “acts of bias” language to emphasize that discriminatory bias and behavior are not in alignment with University values and may result in increased sanctions when they accompany conduct violations; and adding “discriminatory harassment” to the code as its own categorical conduct violation. These and the other changes are detailed on Penn State News.

Important COVID-19 updates

• Revamped dashboard: Penn State has released a redesigned version of its COVID-19 dashboard for the spring 2021 semester that provides additional information to help students, faculty, staff and community members better understand COVID-19 testing results, virus prevalence, and quarantine and isolation capacity. The dashboard will be updated on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the spring semester. For details, check Penn State News.
• Virus information website: The University’s official virus information website has been redesigned with a focus on pointing readers to the most critical and sough- after resources. For details on the changes, check Penn State News.
• Testing plans: Penn State has developed a comprehensive spring 2021 COVID-19 testing strategy for all campuses that includes both required and voluntary testing during the remote learning period and the in-person portion of the spring semester. The University’s spring 2021 testing strategy is designed to be flexible to allow the University to pivot and adjust the plan as circumstances change. The plan is divided into eight categories. For details, check Penn State News. Readers can also find more information about testing on the University’s official coronavirus information website.
• Vaccination status does not exempt students or employees from participating in the testing for COVID-19. In addition, even if you have been vaccinated, masks and distancing are still required on campus and in any University facility.
• Walk-up testing: Through Feb. 5, walk-up testing is available for University Park employees listed in the “Return to Work” database from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays at the Hintz Family Alumni Center.
• Community testing: Through Jan. 30, Centre County is offering free, walk-up COVID-19 testing for community members from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. Testing will be conducted at 1155 Benner Pike, suite 120 (the former Comcast location).
• Test at home: For faculty and staff who work on site, opt-in asymptomatic testing via a Vault Health mail-in kit is available. Testing will continue to be available only to employees who are listed in the University’s Return to Work database. Employees can initiate this testing process online through Vault Health. Test kits will be mailed to home addresses, and the test will be completed under virtual observation with Vault Health to complete the process.
• Vaccine distribution: In Pennsylvania, the state Department of Health and county health departments are responsible for COVID-19 vaccine distribution, which is being done in a phased approach with health care workers and those in long-term care facilities in the initial phase (Phase 1A). At this time, Penn State has not been named a distribution site for the vaccine and faculty, staff, and students should visit Pennsylvania’s vaccine website for information on when they may be eligible to receive a vaccine and where those vaccines may be available in their communities.
• Dr. Cameron C. Beatty, an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Florida State University, on “Racial Battle Fatigue: Developing Coping Strategies and Supporting Others,” 11 a.m. to noon Wednesday, Jan. 27. Co-hosts are the Department of Education Policy Studies, the Hoy Endowment and the Center for the Study of Higher Education. To attend via Zoom, click here.
• Dr. Charles Payne, the Henry Rutgers Distinguished Professor of African American Studies at Rutgers University and director of the Joseph Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Research, on “‘We Who Believe in Freedom:’ The legacy of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Legacy of Donald J. Trump,” 5 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 28. The talk is co-sponsored by the Consortium for Social Movements and Education Research and Practice and the College of Education Diversity & Community Enhancement Committee (DCEC). To register for the lecture, click here.
• Staff Advisory Council virtual staff development workshop, Career Services Overview with Ashley Citarella, associate director of operations, programs & events, 10:30 to 11:45 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 2. The workshop will explain the services available to students and how staff can direct students to those services. To register, click here.
• Celebrating Our Differences 2021 Diversity in Education Conference, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 6. This is a free event designed to provide a forum for discussion and learning about working with the diverse populations of students. The conference will include discussions around the topics of LGBTQ+ issues in education; working with students with cultural and exceptional differences; and teaching, learning and social justice. The conference was organized by the College of Education, Diversity and Community Enhancement Committee and the Penn State Council for Exceptional Children.

Mark your calendar

For information about additional events, exhibits and performances, check Penn State News.

Quick links

College-specific sites:

• Weekly emails I’ve sent to students, staff and faculty since Feb. 28, 2020.
• College of Education COVID-19 Forms: return to on-site work, drop-in office visits, mission-critical purchases, in-person meetings and events, non-event visitors and travel requests.
• College of Education task forces created to facilitate our return to campus.

University-wide sites:

• Learning from Home guide for students, faculty and staff.
• Updated FAQs regarding on-campus work and learning.
• Keep Teaching and Keep Learning websites, including new webinars.
• Penn State’s COVID-19 dashboard.
• The online archive of video messages from Penn State leaders and experts.
• The Office of Human Resources COVID-19 information and Return to Work on Campus resource sites.
• The University Measures site, which summarizes steps Penn State is taking in response to COVID-19.
• The University’s health information page focused on personal safety practices for individuals at all campuses.
• A list of contacts and resources for the University community.
• The Social Science Research Institute website featuring pandemic-related insights from University experts and other resources.

Best,

Kim Lawless

Today is a day for us to pause and reflect on the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It seems particularly poignant this year given the response to the insurrection at the United States Capitol compared to the militarized response to Black Lives Matter and racial justice protesters earlier this year. This contrast lays bare the harsh reality about racial inequality in America.  

As our nation begins a new chapter this week with the presidential transition of power, we have a renewed opportunity to engage in realizing the democratic ideals inspired by the work of Dr. King. The future of our country and the rights of everyone in it depend upon our willingness to do this work. We must take ownership of this responsibility and stand together as we move ahead in service of a more just world. This requires us to be deeply committed to antiracism, an all-encompassing approach that means far more than just being “not racist.” It means being an active opponent of racism and marginalization of all people of color. It requires an active antiracist mindset, awareness, and action from each of us, every day. 

Our Resolution from the summer and our new Strategic Plan provide roadmaps for us to make bold steps to concretized Dr. King’s legacy in the internal and external work of our College. I believe that Dr. King would have found hope in the efforts we as a College have made in the past year to address the role education plays in perpetuating racism. 

I look forward to being a fellow agent of change on this journey with you all.  As stated by Dr. King, “The time is always right to do what is right.”  

Kim

Annual MLK celebration

The Forum on Black Affairs (FOBA) Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Celebration will be held virtually from 5 to 6:30 p.m. TODAY, Jan. 15.

Traditionally, FOBA brings together thousands of Penn State community members to commemorate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This year, due to the global pandemic, they have partnered with colleagues from Penn State World Campus Student Affairs to virtually commemorate Dr. King’s legacy.

This year’s theme is “Project 1972: A Conversation with Our Elders,” a virtual panel discussion including Penn State staff and faculty who worked at the University in the height of the Civil Rights movement and members of the University’s class of 1972, who were freshmen in 1968 — the year that Dr. King was assassinated. The event also will include performances from Jeffrey Lampkin and the Francis Marion University YGB Choir, and the announcement of the Fannie Lou Hamer – W.E.B. DuBois Service Scholarship award recipient.

To join the virtual celebration, click here. For more information, check Penn State News.

Spring semester PPE

The Operations Team is in the process of delivering PPE for spring semester to our departments. Faculty who are teaching in person or mixed-mode each will receive one pack of 50 procedural masks and three personal-sized bottles of hand sanitizer. Please coordinate with the lead staff person in your department regarding how and when to pick up your items.

Meeting fatigue?

We’ve all heard it … “this meeting could have been an email.” And it’s true, some meetings don’t have to be meetings at all. But, how do we know which meetings are needed, and which should be emails? Thanks go out to Karly Ford for helping to answer that question by passing along this handy guide, 7 Warning Signs Your Meeting Should Be an Email.

While the article may be tongue-in-cheek, it really is a handy guide for how to cut down on the number and length of our meetings – both now while meetings are taking place virtually, and in the future once it’s safe to gather again.

COVID-19 vaccine

The Pennsylvania Department of Health has an informational website about the COVID-19 vaccine, which includes a COVID-19 Interim Vaccination Plan. The plan provides information about the distribution of vaccines when available and describes the phases for vaccine administration.

Currently, Penn State Campuses have not been designated a vaccination sites. This may change moving forward and we will keep you posted of when and where vaccines will be made available as their distribution broadens.

Stand Up Award nominations

The Rock Ethics Institute is looking for nominations for its annual Stand Up Award. The awards recognize Penn State undergraduate students who have demonstrated courage, fortitude and ethical leadership by taking a stand for a person, cause or belief. The winners each will receive $1,000 and be honored during a virtual ceremony on April 22.

Anyone may nominate any Penn State undergraduate student from any campus, college or major for the Stand Up Award. The deadline for submitting nominations for the 2021 Stand Up Awards is Friday, Feb. 5.

The College of Education has had four students honored with Stand Up Awards since 2014:

• Divine Lipscomb (rehabilitation and human services, 2020)
• Rabiyatu Jalloh (secondary education, 2019)
• Parker Werns (education and public policy, 2015)
• Maggie Cardinn (childhood and early adolescent education, 2014)

If you know a student who would be a strong candidate for a Stand Up Award, I encourage you to submit a nomination. Additional information about the Stand Up Awards can be found at StandUpPSU.com and the nomination form can be found here. For more information about this year’s awards, contact Ben Jones, assistant director of the Rock Ethics Institute, at [email protected].

Administrative Fellows

Applications for Penn State's Administrative Fellows Program for 2021-22 are due by Thursday, Jan. 28. Mentors will be Nicholas Jones, executive vice president and provost; Lora Weiss, senior vice president for Research; and O. Richard Bundy, vice president for Development and Alumni Relations. The Administrative Fellows Program, a joint program of the Office of the President and the Commission for Women, provides professional development opportunities for faculty and staff. By serving under the mentorship of a senior level administrator for the academic year, fellows who are seeking the background necessary to compete at higher levels of administration will have an opportunity to broaden their perspectives and experience. Anyone with questions about the program can contact Annemarie Mountz, who was an Administrative Fellow in 2012-13, at [email protected]. For more details, check Penn State News.

Student trustee

Do you know students who have a strong interest in education governance? If so, please make them aware of the opportunity to apply to be a student trustee, or to serve on the selection committee.

Full-time undergraduate and graduate students who are interested in becoming a member of Penn State’s Board of Trustees are asked to submit an application by Feb. 19. Students who are interested in serving as an at-large member of the Student Trustee Selection Committee are asked to submit an application by Feb. 5. Additional information and links to applications can be found here.

Past student trustees include our own Allie Goldstein, assistant professor of education (higher education), who was appointed in 2014 when she was a graduate student in the Higher Education Program.

Presidential inauguration

As our nation braces for uncertainty and prepares for the potential of more violence during next week’s presidential inauguration, I want to remind you that now is the time we need to come together as a community to support each other.

Please keep in mind that many individuals in our community may be feeling anxious and overwhelmed by the events unfolding in Washington, D.C.

I urge you to please care for yourself and reach out to family, friends and campus resources when you need them. If at any point in the coming days and weeks you experience feelings of stress and anxiety, I highly encourage you to access free counseling and support services through the Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Family members (spouses, partners and children) also are eligible to receive these services.

Also, please be attentive to an email from Provost Jones in the next couple of days. It will contain information and resources helpful for teaching and learning over the next few days/weeks following the inauguration.

Building access

Many changes have been made to building access during the remote learning period of Jan. 19 through Feb. 14. While this information is subject to change, here is the schedule as it stands currently:

College of Education spaces

Chambers, CEDAR, Rackley and Kern buildings will be card access only. Faculty and staff in the college who can work and teach remotely should continue to do so through this remote period. If you need to use campus facilities to deliver your courses or conduct online work virtually, I ask that you use your designated campus space only around the times you are scheduled to teach. If you are already in the return-to-onsite-work database, you are all set. If you need your office regularly, but have not filed your return to onsite work request, please work with your department coordinator to process this form ASAP. The intermittent drop-in requests processed through the Operations Office (Julian Morales) also are still available. Thank you for your help!

University Park spaces

• Study space: study space will be available from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday in Boucke, Hammond, Osmond, Thomas and Willard buildings. With some exceptions, all other University Park buildings will be locked.
• Classrooms for faculty: Faculty will need to work with academic schedulers to reserve their classrooms in 25Live during this remote learning period.
• Commons: Redifer, Waring, Warnock and Findlay/Johnston commons buildings will be unlocked from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and will be locked on the weekends.
• Other buildings:
  • HUB-Robeson Center: open 24/7.
  • Pasquerilla Spiritual Center: open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and for a few hours Saturday afternoons and Sunday mornings.

Quick links

College-specific sites:

• Weekly emails I’ve sent to students, staff and faculty since Feb. 28, 2020.
• College of Education COVID-19 Forms: return to on-site work, drop-in office visits, mission-critical purchases, in-person meetings and events, non-event visitors and travel requests.
• College of Education task forces created to facilitate our return to campus.

University-wide sites:

• Learning from Home guide for students, faculty and staff.
• Updated FAQs regarding on-campus work and learning.
• Keep Teaching and Keep Learning websites, including new webinars.
• Penn State’s COVID-19 dashboard.
• The online archive of video messages from Penn State leaders and experts.
• The Office of Human Resources COVID-19 information and Return to Work on Campus resource sites.
• The University Measures site, which summarizes steps Penn State is taking in response to COVID-19.
• The University’s health information page focused on personal safety practices for individuals at all campuses.
• A list of contacts and resources for the University community.
• The Social Science Research Institute website featuring pandemic-related insights from University experts and other resources.

Best,

Kim Lawless

Even in light of the events of this week, I want to extend my sincere wishes for a Happy New Year to you. We cannot ignore the violent anarchy we witnessed on Wednesday. At the same time, we must embrace hope. Hope that we will find a way to rise above the hate and vitriol that has gripped our nation, put aside our differences and act against bias, discrimination, racism, the mindset that fueled Wednesday’s lawlessness and the privilege that emboldens people toward this type of action.

While we may feel powerless as individuals to change the nation, we can make a difference in our own little corners of the world. And if enough of us do that, we can and will make a difference on a national scale.

The events of this week were fed by the same mindsets that have perpetuated bias, discrimination and racism in this country for far too long. To heal, we must address this head-on. This past summer, the College of Education leadership team took the first tangible steps on this path, by unanimously passing a resolution to identify and challenge systemic prejudice wherever it exists; do the work necessary for policy changes that dismantle structural systems of oppression that perpetuate racial inequities in our society and institutions; strive to be better listeners and supporters of those who are the victims of racism; not rest until every American feels safe, free and accepted in our country; and to continuously abide by the goal of providing equitable educational opportunities for all people.

Read the full resolution here, and then I encourage you to show your support by clicking on the button beneath the leadership signatures to endorse it, as so many in the college already have done.

Remote Instruction Period

As announced on Dec. 18, we are starting this semester in remote mode until Feb. 15. The intent of this remote period is to de-densify our spaces. As such, we ask all of you who can work and teach remotely to continue to do so. We also realize that there may be issues that create a need for instructors to use campus facilities to deliver their courses or conduct online work virtually. To help make us maintain a low-density status, we ask that you use your designated campus space only around the times you are scheduled to teach. If you are already in the return-to-onsite-work database, you are all set. If you need your office regularly, but have not filed your return to onsite work request, please work with your department coordinator to process this form ASAP. The intermittent drop-in requests processed through the Operations Office (Julian Morales) also are still available. Thank you for your help!

Continued Flexibility

While we are scheduled to resume in person instruction on Feb. 15, please know that the University will continue to monitor the state of the pandemic, locally and nationally. While there is currently no intention to switch the in-person start date, if environmental conditions demand, the University will further extend the remote instruction period. Thank you for your flexibility and patience as the University sorts out the continued impact of the pandemic on operations.

Alternative Grade Correction

It has come to the attention of University leadership that some number of students selected an alternative grade for courses that require a (traditional) letter grade to meet Entrance to Major requirements for administratively controlled majors.

For students in this situation that already are in "conditional" status for an administratively controlled major, a special process is available to revert the alternative grade back to the earned letter grade prior to the running of the "conditional review" process.

Authorized petition submitters who can verify that a student is in this situation and needs to correct the alternative grade prior the running of the "conditional reevaluation" process may complete this online form, which will allow the Senate office and the Office of the University Registrar to correct the situation.

They also would like to have a note entered in Starfish indicating that a correction was requested.

Requests must be entered before the end of business on Thursday, Jan. 14.

After this point in time, students will need to follow established Senate petition processes for requesting changes to their decisions about Fall 2020 grades. Additionally, students who do not fit the criteria described here must follow the appropriate Senate petition process.

Fixed-term faculty promotion information

The college will offer a Zoom session focused on promotion for fixed-term faculty members at 10 a.m. Friday, Jan. 29. Connect at https://psu.zoom.us/j/93196578273 with passcode 526221. The session will be recorded for those who are unable to attend.

The information session will focus on the College of Education promotion guidelines and will include recommendations for candidates’ preparation of materials for promotion reviews in Spring 2021.

Help with course planning

In case you missed the notice from the University Faculty Development Subcommittee in the ED Faculty Collaborative Community on teams:

Programming begins this week for a series of webinettes (half hour) and webinars (one or more hours) to help instructors plan new courses and adjust existing courses. The University’s Faculty Development Subcommittee, comprising instructors, learning designers, and teaching consultants across Penn State campuses, has worked with various instruction and technology groups to schedule sessions meeting the needs of new and experienced instructors. For details, please check Teams.

Communication with students

As instructors prepare for the spring semester, the University has developed a suggested timeline for communication to students. Chris Millet, director of Learning Design for World Campus, has shared templates to streamline those communications and ensure consistency with key information, as well as technical information to support instructors in using Canvas as a communications platform. You are welcome to adapt this information to suit your specific needs. You can access the templates at CommTemplates-Spring-2021.docx

Congratulations

We just learned that Greg Kelly was selected to receive the NARST 2021 Distinguished Contributions to Science Education through Research Award. This is the highest award that NARST bestows upon its members, and is given only when a superior candidate is identified.

This award recognizes Greg as an individual who, through research over an extended period of time, has made outstanding and continuing contributions, provided notable leadership, and made a substantial impact in the area of science education. Congratulations, Greg!

Penn State Today

This morning’s edition of Penn State Today included some helpful and timely information. In case you missed it:

• Faculty invited to virtual writing retreats in January: The Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence will hold three daylong virtual writing retreats for faculty from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Jan. 8, 14 and 22. These retreats will largely provide for structured work time. Schreyer Institute coaches will be available for individual consultations on research design and writing. There also will be optional mini-sessions on topics related to teaching and learning scholarship. The link to the registration page can be found here. For more information, check Penn State News.
• Parking and transit changes in place through early February: With the University announcing that the spring semester will begin with remote learning, Penn State Transportation Services is sharing an update on parking regulations and transit service through early February. Access to additional parking areas for faculty/staff core parking permits (Brown, Green, Orange, Red, Silver, Yellow) will be extended through Friday, Feb. 5. CATA will continue to operate on its Reduced Service schedule through Saturday, Feb. 13. Full service will resume Monday, Feb. 15. The Campus Shuttle via College Avenue is currently operating on its normal schedule. The Campus Shuttle via Beaver Avenue will resume service on Monday, Feb. 15. The Transportation Services Office and Fleet Operations are currently open with regular hours. For details, check Penn State News.

Past messages

All of the weekly emails I’ve sent to students, staff and faculty since Feb. 28, 2020, can be found here. If you missed information from a previous email, or need to double-check something, please use this resource.

Best,

Kim Lawless

As this year winds down, I want to encourage you to remember the positives of this year, because in the midst of the upheaval of 2020 and all it threw at us, there was a lot of good. Each one of us learned how to do our work differently and learned new skills in the process. We learned how to stay connected with each other and with our friends and family even as we remained socially distanced. We committed to combatting and actively dismantling persistent systemic racism. We refocused our lives on people and the important role they play in our lives.

While I know we all are anxious for the day when it is safe to gather, work and attend classes in person without masks or social distancing, I sincerely hope that when that day comes, we don't forget about the lessons we have learned about what's truly important – relationships with family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, classmates and others, and their well-being.

Change of plans for spring

By now you should have received an email from President Barron about the University’s decision to begin the spring semester remotely on Jan. 19 and to delay the start of in-person classes until Feb. 15. As explained on Penn State News:

Penn State has decided to delay the start of in-person classes and transition to a fully remote learning environment for the beginning of the spring 2021 semester at all campus locations. This decision was made following extensive analysis and scenario planning given worsening virus conditions nationally and across the state indicating predictions of rising hospitalization rates in the coming weeks.

To provide an uninterrupted educational experience for students, remote classes will begin on Jan. 19 and will continue through Feb. 12. At this time, in-person classes are expected to resume across all campus locations on Feb. 15, though this date could change based on health and safety factors and guidance from the state. As currently scheduled, the 15-week semester will end on April 30, with finals week following from May 3-7.

To provide an uninterrupted educational experience for students, remote classes will begin on Jan. 19 and will continue through Feb. 12.

If you have not read President Barron’s email message, I strongly encourage you to do so, and also to read the story on Penn State News.

In the coming weeks, planning for the return to campus will continue to move forward and additional details about Penn State's plans for the spring will be forthcoming. Updates will be shared on Penn State News and Penn State’s Virus Information website.

Employees who are currently teleworking should continue to do so during the remote learning period, unless notified by their supervisor. I’m going to have a conversation with our College of Education leadership team to determine our on-campus staffing needs (if any) from Jan. 19 through Feb. 15. Stay tuned for more information.

COVID-19 quarantine update

The University has updated its quarantine guidelines for community members who are exposed to COVID-19 and for those returning from travel outside of Pennsylvania. The update follows the latest guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Pennsylvania Department of Health. For details, check Penn State News.

Commencement

Fall commencement will be held via livestream at 2 p.m. this Saturday, Dec. 19. To make sure you can view the ceremony, click here to test your browser in advance.

As with the previous virtual ceremonies, there will be a link from the main site to a special page for the College of Education, where you can see our commencement speaker, Efraín Marimón, assistant professor of education; meet our student marshal, Jennifer Stoudt; see a slideshow of our graduating seniors; and enjoy an Alma Mater tribute to our graduates from our faculty and staff.

Spring wellness days update

The University-wide team charged with developing programs for spring 2021 wellness days has announced more details about wellness day programs, including program themes for each of three wellness days and different formats for participating in programs.

While components of social and emotional wellness will be at the core of all programming, each wellness day will focus on a theme:

• Tuesday, Feb. 9 — Financial and occupational dimensions of wellness
• Thursday, March 11 — Intellectual and spiritual wellness
• Wednesday, April 7 — Physical and environmental wellness

For details, check Penn State News.

Send a message to the Moon

The Readiness Institute (RI) at Penn State, a Penn State Outreach service, is embarking on a mission to help foster hope among people around the world. Students, educators and members of the global community are invited to share messages of hope — for free — that will be included aboard a mission to the Moon. The Hope Moonshot, presented by the RI at Penn State and Global Moonshots in Education, is scheduled for launch in the second half of 2021. Those who want to aspire to new heights for 2021 are being asked to submit their hopes before Jan. 22. For details, check Penn State News.

SAC reception

Our college Staff Advisory Council held a Winter Holiday Decorating Contest Virtual Reception yesterday that was full of good conversation, shared holiday traditions, a rousing game of Kahoot trivia, and the results of the Winter Holiday Season Decorating Contest. Congratulations to contest winners:

• First place: Jenn McLaughlin
• Second place (tie): Lori Witherite-Zellers and Wanda Wasilko
• Third place: Darlene Kolesar

In my book, you all are winners. Our community in the College of Education is the most heart-filled, respectful, hard-working, dedicated community I have ever experienced, bar none, and our staff are the backbone of our college. Thank you, members of our staff, for doing more than anyone could have expected this year, without skipping a beat. Know from the bottom of my heart how much I appreciate each and every one of you.

Happy New Year!

Although I may be sending out information related to the remote start for spring semester, this is my last planned weekly email until early January. My wish for you between now and then is for good health, peace, relaxation, and lots of time to rest and re-charge. I'll see you (at least virtually) in 2021.

Best,

Kim

Stay safe

COVID-19 cases are at an all-time high. It’s more important than ever to wear a mask, keep your distance, and download the COVID Alert PA app.

Yesterday, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf announced additional, temporary mitigation measures that will go into effect Saturday, Dec. 12, and remain in place until 8 a.m. on Jan. 4. These include:

• Unnecessary travel should be limited.
• All in-person indoor dining at businesses in the retail food services industry, including, but not limited to, bars, restaurants, breweries, wineries, distilleries, social clubs, and private catered events is prohibited.
• Indoor gatherings and events of more than 10 persons are prohibited.
• Outdoor gatherings and events of more than 50 persons are prohibited.

Click here to learn more about the mitigation measures. Please be safe this winter recess!

Travel restrictions

As I shared in my Nov. 6 email, the University has suspended all University- affiliated international travel until further notice, and also strongly discourages personal travel abroad by Penn Staters. In addition, faculty and staff should continue to follow restrictions in place for University-affiliated domestic travel.

Provost Nick Jones indicated that absent exceptional circumstances (particularly those related to the pandemic or to issues covered by FMLA), Penn State is not approving requests to work remotely while living in another country. Employees who are approved for University-affiliated travel are expected to return to the U.S. by their approved return date. While minor travel delays can be accommodated, those unable to return will not be permitted to continue to work remotely while abroad and will be placed on unpaid leave until they return to the U.S.

For more information, check Penn State News.

Walk-up testing

The University has extended its hours for walk-up coronavirus testing from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays through Jan. 18, to allow more individuals to be tested and prevent people from waiting outdoors as temperatures cool.

Walk-up testing is available at the Hintz Family Alumni Center for employees listed in Penn State's "Return to Work" database. For details, check Penn State News.

Mark your calendar

• Winter break. As a reminder, University offices and operations, except for essential services and operations, will close at the end of business on Wednesday, Dec. 23, and will resume at normal starting times on Monday, Jan. 4, 2021. For details about the official University holidays, check Penn State News.
• Heat reduction. The University is implementing its annual Holiday Heat Reduction Program, so indoor building temperatures can be expected to be at 50°F and ventilation systems will be off beginning at 5 p.m. Dec. 23 through the morning of Jan. 3. All buildings will remain locked during this time period. Key and card access will continue to work for employees, but it is expected that building occupancy during this period will be minimal. For details, check Penn State News.
• Academic calendar. Spring semester will begin on Jan. 18 and run through April 30. Final exams will take place in person or remotely, depending on the mode of the course, May 3-7. University leaders also are planning for a variety of scenarios if circumstances or guidance from the government and public health authorities change and a reassessment of the plan is needed before the Jan. 18 start date.
• Wellness days. In lieu of a spring break, the University has scheduled wellness days for Tuesday, Feb. 9; Thursday, March 11; and Wednesday, April 7. These are days during which there should be a pause in teaching and learning, to focus on wellness, self-care and the health of our community. They are to be non-instructional days during which no classes will be held, although University offices will remain open. For details, check Penn State News.

EOPC proposal deadline

The Equal Opportunity Planning Committee is still looking for proposals for support of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The deadline to submit an EOPC proposal for academic year 2021-2022 is Jan. 22, 2021.

This is a good opportunity to seek funding for initiatives that will advance the college’s strategic plan, so I strongly encourage you to reach out to María Schmidt, assistant dean of Education and Social Equity, in advance of completing your proposal to enable you to articulate the ways in which your initiative will align with our plan.

The Office of the Vice Provost for Educational Equity will review proposal drafts to provide feedback in advance of submission deadlines as time and capacity permits. The link to the proposal form, deadlines, resources and information are available on EOPC’s website.

For more information on how to complete an EOPC proposal or how to develop an assessment for your EOPC proposal, you can access workshops in the EOPC Box folder. For more information, email [email protected] or visit EOPC’s website.

Teaching resources

As you get ready for your spring 2021 courses, please consider taking a few minutes to explore the Spring 2021 Planning Page on the Keep Teaching website, which includes resources that have been gathered to assist you in your preparations.

The page includes a new Upcoming Semester Guide, including a checklist of tasks to complete prior to teaching and a list of "instructor to instructor" best online resources; virtual office hours with technology experts and practice opportunities with teaching consultants; and recorded and live webinars on the topics most requested by instructors.

I think it will be worth the time you invest in it. Best wishes with your spring semester planning.

THE rankings

Each year, renowned global rankings publishers send university reputation surveys to distinguished faculty around the world to complete. This year, the Times Higher Education (THE) survey was sent out in November and will continue to receive submissions until early February. This survey is sent by invitation only through a blind sample size conducted by third-party research institution Elsevier.

The email is from [email protected] and the title will be: Your invitation to influence the outcome of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.

Leaders in the Office of Planning, Assessment and Institutional Research, and in the Office of Global Programs, ask you to complete the survey process if you received the email. Penn State does not have any influence over who is selected to complete the survey.

Many Penn State international students and alumni share that the global ranking of our institution was a factor in their decision to apply. Should you receive an invitation to engage with THE (or QS or ARWU), you are encouraged to respond. We know Penn State is among the world’s greatest institutions, yet it remains important to find ways to tell our story and celebrate our excellence in research and teaching. These reputation surveys are one way in which we can promote the work of Penn State.

If you have any questions regarding this request, please contact William Shuey or Karen O'Brien, representatives from the Penn State Global Rankings Team who can provide insight on any questions you may have about global rankings.

Decorating contest

A number of people have uploaded photos of their decorations for the Staff Advisory Council (SAC) Holiday Home Decorating Contest. The SAC will share a link to an online ballot with all staff members on Monday, Dec. 14. Be sure to vote for your favorite by 5 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 15. Winners will be announced at a SAC Zoom reception from 3 to 4 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 17.

Be well,

Kim

Thank you

As we head into the final week of the fall semester, I want to express my sincere appreciation to everyone in our college for getting us here. You all have been incredibly flexible, and words cannot adequately express how deeply appreciative I am of everything our college leadership, faculty, staff and students have done – together – to get us through.

Take care of you

While the semester is winding down and we all soon will be able to enjoy a well-deserved winter break, COVID-19 numbers are spiking nationwide and stress is building up because of the prolonged disruptions caused by the pandemic.

While we are remote, please continue to be mindful of the multitude of things folks are trying to balance, including work, family and health, and be kind to each other.

Be kind to yourselves, as well. If things are becoming overwhelming, reach out. If you find you need help, contact the Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Email your PIC, department head, direct supervisor, or me if there is anything you feel we can do to help you.

Looking ahead to spring

The current plan for spring semester courses is to continue the  current flexible instructional modes. However, as was the case with fall semester, the University will be monitoring environmental conditions and will pivot if necessary. Please check your email often while on winter break, in case information is shared about any changes to spring semester.

Dean's equity Forum

The second presentation in the Dean's Equity Forum series will feature Dr. Marcus Jenkins, assistant professor in the Department of Education Leadership and Policy at the University of Arizona, starting at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 8.

Drawing from critical theories of race and social justice, this talk will explore how approaches to leadership are connected to community engagement for school reform. In particular, Dr. Jenkins will examine the praxis of Black leaders and how their practices not only foster community but work to disrupt structural antiblackness.

The forum starts with Dr. Jenkins' talk at 4 p.m. and will conclude with a discussion of the implications and future directions of this line of inquiry for training and supporting K-12 school leaders from 5:15 to 6 p.m.

For Zoom connection information, email [email protected].

Awards

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2020-2021 Faculty, Staff, and Student awards program. Our college is composed of exceptional colleagues who influence our lives and the lives of others each and every day. We look forward to honoring their commitment to the college and to the Penn State community.

Now it is easier than ever to submit a nomination. Click here for an updated nomination form, criteria for each award, and streamlined supporting materials.

The nomination deadline is Jan. 31. For more information, contact Janel Fitzgerald ([email protected]) or call 867-3371.

Assessment of teaching effectiveness

A new document summarizes the University’s approach to the assessment of teaching effectiveness for calendar year 2020. The guidance, which applies to faculty members, instructors, and graduate students serving as the instructor-of-record or as a graduate teaching assistant, outlines how faculty may include assessments of teaching effectiveness, including SRTEs and alternative assessments, in both annual reviews and promotion and/or tenure reviews.

Again, I thank you for all you have done to make this a strong semester for our college. I am deeply grateful.

Best,

Kim

Because we're heading into Thanksgiving break, I wanted to send my weekly email early this week. I want to start with a big sigh of relief … WE MADE IT! While there was a great deal of uncertainty as we began this semester, we now have a clear understanding that when our students, staff and faculty band together, there is nothing that we cannot accomplish. On the cusp of our move back to remote instruction, I want to extend a deep and heartfelt THANK YOU to you all for what you have accomplished this semester. Our college is strong because of the people that inhabit it, and I am grateful to have the opportunity to work with each and every one of you. I hope that you all find the space to rest, recuperate and enjoy the holiday in the week to come – you all have earned it ten times over!

Remote work to continue

Penn State is directing all employees who have been working from home during the fall semester to continue doing so following the transition to remote learning on Nov. 20 and throughout the upcoming spring semester, unless notified by their supervisors of the need to return to onsite work.

In association with the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s efforts, the decision to continue remote work is a continuation of the University’s efforts to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus and promote the health and well- being of Penn State students, faculty, staff and surrounding local communities.

However, employees are reminded that "remote from home" does not include remote work from outside of the country unless the employee and supervisor have requested and received specific approval.

For employees whose duties require them to keep working on campus, the University will continue to follow appropriate health and safety measures, which include wearing masks, practicing social distancing and other similar actions.

For the remainder of the fall semester starting Nov. 30, faculty will be permitted to utilize classrooms for remote instruction. Details on classroom use can be found on the Penn State Virus Info website.

For details, check Penn State News.

SRTEs

The Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs has released guidance on the use of SRTE data from the spring, summer and fall 2020 instructional periods for both annual reviews and future promotion and tenure reviews. As we know, SRTEs from the 2020 spring and summer sessions are not to be used in annual evaluations or in promotion and tenure reviews (except in very rare cases), and peer evaluations were suspended.

For the fall, an abbreviated SRTE will be administered and results will again only be released to the faculty for formative guidance. However, peer reviews (e.g., observations) are expected to take place where needed (Q68 on P&T FAQs).

In their annual reviews for 2020 (Faculty Activity Report and Career Conference), faculty must include some type of assessment of teaching effectiveness, such as those included in Appendix M of the 2020-2021 Promotion and Tenure Guidelines materials, to demonstrate a good faith effort to provide high-quality instruction, regardless of delivery mechanism.

For those moving through a P&T review cycle or interested in fixed-term promotion in future years, please take the time to review this guidance regarding decisions to include SRTE data from this semester (Fall 2020) in your dossiers. For tenure-line faculty, once you make a determination regarding what data to include in your dossier, it will remain constant in all subsequent P&T reviews.

Feedback, please

As I mentioned in last week's email, our Strategic Planning Committee would like your feedback on the first draft of our college's five-year Strategic Plan by noon Friday, Dec. 4. The departments will be holding coordinated discussions over the next couple of weeks that you may wish to participate in prior to completing the 1st Draft Survey. We request that you complete the survey by noon on Friday, Dec. 4.

Facilities reminder

With the return to remote learning, our buildings will be locked starting Saturday, Nov. 21 and continuing through Jan. 11. Faculty and staff who come to campus must have their ID cards to enter the buildings. Those not already approved for return to work on campus need to fill out the Drop-in Request form, found here, before coming to campus.

Benefits enrollment

If you have not already done so, please be sure to complete your benefits enrollment by 5 p.m. this Friday, Nov. 20. To access resources that can assist in determining which health care plan may be best for you, check Penn State News.

In case you missed it

During the Nov. 13 meeting of the Board of Trustees, President Barron detailed in his report to the board the University's ongoing efforts in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Topics he covered include enrollment, the future of learning, finances, faculty and research. For details, check Penn State News. To view his full presentation, click here.

EOPC grants available

The Equal Opportunity Planning Committee (EOPC) is seeking proposals for EOPC funding to support the University’s diversity, inclusion and equity efforts and advance the University’s strategic plan (see “Advancing Inclusion, Equity and Diversity”) with investments in programs and ideas.

Funding from EOPC is intended to provide seed money for innovative pilot programs and existing initiatives that help create and support a climate of equity throughout Penn State. Funding categories include: campus climate, unit climate, curriculum, faculty and staff recruiting, faculty and staff retention, leadership development, student recruiting, student retention and graduation, and organizational change. The EOPC proposal form can be found here.

For submission deadlines, check Penn State News.

Alumni Magazine online

The fall edition of the College of Education Alumni Magazine has been posted on issuu.com, and there are a lot of great stories to share. You can read how our first-year students are coping, and how some of our faculty and staff have adjusted to the pandemic-altered environment. There also are stories about our diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, research, and ways our college is having an impact on the world around us.

As was the case in the spring, we did not publish a print version of the magazine. Instead, it's available as a digital magazine via issuu.com, where you can turn the digital pages online or download a PDF to print and read. Stories also are posted on Penn State News in the College of Education section.

For the full list of stories included in this issue, click here.

Happy Thanksgiving

While the pandemic has caused many of us to deviate from our traditional Thanksgiving plans, I wish for you a safe, healthy and happy holiday. I encourage you to unplug, rest and take some time for yourself to recharge.

Thank you for all you do!

Kim

Thank you

Roy Clariana, who has served as department head for Learning and Performance Systems for several years, is coming to the end of his term in that role and will be returning to the faculty in January. Susan Land, who was selected by the faculty, will serve as interim department head in the spring semester.

Please join me in thanking Roy for all he has done over the years for the department and for the college and congratulating Susan for her new role in the department and college.

Strategic plan feedback requested

The Strategic Planning Committee has completed the first draft of our college’s five-year Strategic Plan. This plan focuses on:

1. equity, inclusivity, social justice and anti-racism;
2. mental health and well-being; and
3. critical literacies.

These areas are interwoven throughout our four goal areas:

1. Community Enhancement and Development;
2. Transforming Educational Professionals;
3. Research Addressing Social Issues; and
4. Outreach, Dissemination and Partnerships.

In addition to the University values, we have added specific values for our college:

1. Anti-racism/Racial Justice;
2. Transformative Education for Social Justice;
3. Learning Across the Lifespan; and
4. Systemic Understanding and Awareness.

I realize this is a busy time for all of us, but I am asking you to please read the plan, and share your feedback from a college-wide perspective:

• Do you believe the focus of this plan is the right direction for our college?
• Do you believe this plan will place our college on a trajectory such that we will be widely recognized as a leader in transforming our educational systems to be more equitable and just for all?
• Do you see any major issues — including omissions — with the proposed values, goals and objectives?

The departments will be holding coordinated discussions over the next couple of weeks that you may wish to participate in prior to completing the 1st Draft Survey. We request that you complete the survey by noon on Friday, Dec. 4.

'How to Be an Antiracist'

Ibram X. Kendi, one of America’s foremost historians and leading antiracist voices, will discuss his book “How to Be an Antiracist” from 6 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 18. The free, live-streamed event will feature a moderated conversation with Kendi, followed by Q&A. A Penn State login will be required to view the live stream at https://www.watch.psu.edu/kendi/ online.

Our college is one of many sponsors of this event, and after the formal even ends, we will be holding a Community Reflections session at 7:30 p.m. The focus of the discussion, hosted by our Office of Education and Social Equity, is to apply Kendi’s talk to the context of our work and interactions in the College of Education. To register, please click here.

Transition to remote learning

As we head into the last week of classes before Thanksgiving break, please be sure to communicate with your students to ensure they have what they need to continue to be successful in your class after Thanksgiving. Whether your class is in-person, mixed mode or remote, remind your students that if they live in the residence halls, or if they are not returning to their off-campus residences after Thanksgiving, they need to make sure they take everything they need home with them for break, including technology, books and notes. There will be no access to residence hall rooms until January.

Templates to assist in your communications with students on this topic can be found here.

Summer schedule of courses

Given the continual changes that the COVID-19 pandemic continues to bring to our planning processes, the University is delaying the publication of the Summer Schedule of Courses in order to have the most complete picture of what summer 2021 might look like. The University will release more information about the summer 2021 course modes and schedule as soon as possible.

In case you missed it

If you missed the Dean's Equity Forum presentation by Dr. Mildred Boveda yesterday, or if you want to watch it again, you can access the recording here.

Dr. Boveda's talk on "Developing Intersectional Competence: Are General and Special Education Preservice Teachers Prepared to Respond to Multiple Differences?" was the first in the series for this academic year. The second presentation in the series will feature Marcus Jenkins, assistant professor in the Department of Education Leadership and Policy at the University of Arizona, starting at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 8. For details, check Penn State News.

Pandemic fatigue …

… it's real. Visit Penn State News for information and tips for overcoming it. If you find you need help, contact the Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Email your PIC, department head, direct supervisor, or me if there is anything you feel we can do to help you.

Thank you for all you are continuing to do!

Best,

Kim

Election aftermath

The fact that the results of this presidential election remain unknown is causing a great deal of anxiety among members of our college community. I would like to remind you again that now is the time we need to come together as a community to support each other.

Please care for yourself and reach out to family, friends and campus resources when you need them. If at any point in the coming days and weeks you experience feelings of stress and anxiety, I highly encourage you to access free counseling and support services through the Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Family members (spouses, partners and children) also are eligible to receive these services.

University-affiliated international travel suspended

As announced on Penn State News this morning, uncertainties across the world related to the ongoing pandemic — which have made travel difficult in many regions — have led Penn State leaders to suspend all University-affiliated international travel until further notice, and to also strongly discourage personal travel abroad by Penn Staters.

The provost has indicated that absent exceptional circumstances (particularly those related to the pandemic or to issues covered by FMLA), Penn State is not approving requests to work remotely while living in another country. Employees approved for University-affiliated travel are expected to return to the U.S. by their approved return date. While minor travel delays can be accommodated, those unable to return will not be permitted to continue to work remotely while abroad and will be placed on unpaid leave until they return to the U.S.

College strategic plan

The first draft of our college strategic plan will be coming out for review at the beginning of next week. This plan is the result of an incredibly dedicated, hard-working committee made up of faculty from across the college and led by co-chairs Jonna Kulikowich and Ed Fuller. Thanks, also, to Heather Decker, for her amazing ability to keep a large group of us on task!

Staffing schedules

With the holidays coming up and the switch to remote instruction, we are altering the schedule for those who have been working on- site this fall. The schedule from now through the start of spring semester is:

• Now through Nov. 20: Standard on-campus, fall operating schedule
• Nov. 23-27: All faculty and staff should be fully remote; please only schedule virtual meetings that are time-sensitive and mission- critical.
• Nov. 30 through Dec. 18: Departments/units supporting faculty will be staffed on campus by one member twice a week between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
• Dec. 21-23: All faculty and staff should be fully remote; please schedule only meetings that are time-sensitive and mission- critical, and hold them remotely.
• Dec. 24 through Jan. 3: Winter Break, no staffing expectations.
• Jan. 4-8: Departments/units supporting faculty should be staffed on campus by one member twice a week between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
• Jan. 11: Resume fall staffing on-campus schedule.

Please let me know if you have any questions about this schedule.

Alternative grading

After a special meeting on Oct. 29, the Faculty Senate voted to endorse a resolution drafted by student senators requesting the reinstatement of an optional alternative grading system for undergraduate students for the fall semester. The Senate then also voted to reinstate Senate Policy 49-70, which established the alternative grading system implemented during the spring 2020 semester. For more details, check Penn State News.

Technology needs?

Please consult with the Carrara Education Technology Center (CETC) before making any technology purchases. As our technology requirements continue to evolve, CETC can work with you to ensure the technology is the best solution to meet your needs. The preferred method of contacting the CETC team is to submit a help desk request to https://help.educ.psu.edu -> Technical Support -> Inquiry.

Employee opt-in testing

Beginning immediately and continuing through the month of November, all faculty and staff employees who are in the Return to Work database may take advantage of a new process for voluntary asymptomatic COVID-19 testing. Employees wishing to initiate this process may do so by clicking here. Test kits will be mailed to home addresses and the test will be completed under virtual observation with Vault Health to complete the process.

Participation in this testing is voluntary and does not replace mandatory surveillance testing. If you are experiencing any COVID-19- like symptoms, please stay home and call your health care provider to arrange for a symptomatic test as you will not be eligible to participate in the voluntary testing process.

Please note – walk up testing sites will close at the end of the day Nov. 11. Those wishing to receive a voluntary test after that date must use the above mail in process.

Communicate with students

Instructors currently teaching in-person or mixed mode courses are encouraged to communicate with students to prepare them for the transition to remote learning via a series of templates that have been created by the Faculty/Student Communications Team of the Enrollment Management Committee, a group composed of instructors and staff members from instructional design, advising and communications. The templates are meant to assist instructors in providing key information to students that will help them be successful in their studies as they move online. The templates can be found here.

Additional information about "return to remote" resources can be found on Penn State News.

Classroom use after Nov. 20

At University Park, general purpose classrooms will be closed during the Thanksgiving Break, from Nov. 21 to Nov. 29. General Purpose Classrooms in Thomas, Willard, Boucke, Osmond and Hammond Buildings will reopen for student study use on Nov. 30 through the end of finals week on Dec. 18. Instructors needing to use classrooms in other buildings, or to reserve a GPC in the five open buildings, should work with their academic scheduler.

If you are alone in the classroom, you do not need to wear a mask. Masks must be worn in the presence of others, and shared equipment such as microphones, keyboards, and other items should be wiped down in accordance with Environmental Health and Safety “Guidelines for Cleaning Computer Products.”

Dean's Equity Forum

The first speaker in this fall's Dean's Equity Forum, Mildred Boveda, assistant professor of special education and cultural and linguistic diversity at Arizona State University, will speak on "Developing Intersectional Competence: Are General and Special Education Preservice Teachers Prepared to Respond to Multiple Differences?" Her presentation will be from from 4 to 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12, with informal conversation to follow from 5:15 to 6 p.m. Join via Zoom: https://psu.zoom.us/j/92156866107? pwd=aEhiejVJTzhuVm9HVjBVVzVpL0k4QT09 Password: 541398

Enjoy the weekend

We are having unseasonably warm weather this weekend, so do your best to take some time to get out and enjoy it.

All my best,

Kim

Black Lives Matter

I want to take a moment to reflect on the fatal and senseless shooting this week of Walter Wallace Jr. in Philadelphia. This is yet another reminder of the risks that Black members of our community face and its corrosive impact on our country and our society. These incidents affect all of us, but most directly our students, faculty and staff of color. We must and will stand together to become an anti-racist society - lives literally depend on it. Our hearts are with the Wallace family, the West Philadelphia community, and those who continue to experience trauma in the wake of these racist and brutal acts.

Vote ASAP

The Pennsylvania Department of State is urging all voters who have not yet cast their mail-in or absentee ballot to hand-deliver their voted ballots as soon as possible to their county election office or other county drop off location or drop box. Ballots must be delivered by 8pm on Election Day.

Voters should no longer use United States Postal Service delivery as it is too late to guarantee your ballot will be delivered in time. This guidance is in response to a decision on Oct. 28 by the U.S. Supreme Court that did not completely resolve whether mail-in and absentee ballots received after 8 p.m. on Election Day will be valid. In-person voting on Election Day is not affected by this change. For more information regarding this change, please visit VotesPA.com.

Drop boxes are county specific. Only ballots from the PA county in which the drop box is located will be received. If your mail-in or absentee ballot is for a county different than your campus location, then you must return your ballot to the county office that sent you the ballot. If you have already placed a ballot in an incorrect county drop box, the county will mail the ballot to the correct county office.

If you have already placed a ballot in an incorrect county drop box, the county will mail the ballot to the correct county office.

If you are voting in Pennsylvania and will be quarantined or in isolation due to COVID-19 on Election Day, you may submit an Emergency Application for an Absentee Ballot. You may designate an individual to serve as your Authorized Representative to deliver your application, receive, and return your emergency ballot no later than 8 p.m. on Election Day to the county office in which you are registered to vote. For those who have already requested but have not submitted a mail-in or absentee ballot, they may authorize a Designated Agent to deliver your mail-in or absentee ballot. For those registered to vote outside of Pennsylvania, please visit Vote411 to contact your county or state election office for more information.

For more information about voting, please visit PSU Votes.

Teaching through the election

Yesterday, Provost Nick Jones shared a list of resources to help faculty members, instructors and teaching assistants handle issues related to next week's election, and to encourage your students to vote. In case you missed his email, I'm including the resources here.

To amplify what Provost Jones said, one of the most important actions you can take is to support students’ engagement in the election by letting them know that you will allow them to make up coursework missed on Election Day. At its September meeting, the University Faculty Senate amended Senate Policy 42-27: Class Attendance by adding a section regarding Election Day:

“Instructors also should provide, within reason, the opportunity to make up work for students who miss classes on an election day due to participation in local, state, and federal governmental elections. Students should make every reasonable effort to inform the instructor prior to the election day of their anticipated absence in advance and make appropriate arrangements to make up work.”

Voting resources:

• Specific voting questions: contact the county election office
• Learn more about voting rights and report complaints about irregularities or voter intimidation: Pennsylvania Department of State.
• Voter helpline: Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law .
• Teaching Through the Election, 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. TODAY, Friday, Oct. 30.
• Teaching in the Post-Election Classroom, 3 to 4 p.m. Monday, Nov. 2
• “The Day After: Assessing the Post-Election State of the Nation,”the final installment of the "Toward Racial Equity" roundtable series, 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4.
• Teaching Through the Election, a guide that walks instructors, faculty members and teaching assistants though the options available to them for facilitating conversations that may arise.
• Penn State’s policies on academic freedom and political campaign activities.

Spring 'wellness days'

To support the mental health and well-being of students, faculty and staff during the spring 2021 semester, Penn State will hold three wellness days on which no classes will be held. The wellness days will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 9, Thursday, March 11 and Wednesday, April 7. The University scheduled these dates after receiving input from hundreds of instructors and students. Different days of the week were selected so that no course will be impacted disproportionately.

Wellness days, which will be in place for both undergraduate and graduate students and instructors across all campuses, will be non-instructional days during which no classes will be held, although University offices will remain open. In addition to no instruction, special programs will be developed by committees reflecting the depth and breadth of Penn State’s expertise to support and engage students, instructors and staff. Programs will span a range of topics, including physical and mental health, spiritual wellness and social connection.

For more information, check Penn State News.

Fall SRTEs

At the Faculty Senate meeting on Oct. 20, Provost Jones provided an update on how Student Ratings of Teaching Effectiveness (SRTEs) will be administered and used for the fall 2020 semester, noting that the recommendations were developed by a committee comprising administrators, faculty senators and a representative from the University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA).

At the Faculty Senate meeting on Oct. 20, Provost Jones provided an update on how Student Ratings of Teaching Effectiveness (SRTEs) will be administered and used for the fall 2020 semester, noting that the recommendations were developed by a committee comprising administrators, faculty senators and a representative from the University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA).

Changes to the SRTE Form include:

• Replacement of the overall instructor and overall course ratings (items A3 & A4).
• Revision of the University open-ended questions.
• A new single short form will be used by all courses; excluding courses that have already had SRTEs administered or that are currently collecting responses.
• For courses with forms already assigned but not yet administered, the forms will be replaced by the new short form.
• Unit-written questions in the Additional Questions section will not be transferred to the new form; Additional Questions are sometimes referred to as "departmental questions," which can be confused with Section B).
• SRTE results for fall semester will not include the mean (average) score. The mean will be replaced by two measures of central tendency that are less sensitive to outlier ratings (ratings that do not reflect the collective view of students). This includes all Fall 2020 courses administered using forms without the changes to A3 and A4 noted above and including other items.
• Results will be provided only to the instructors, not to administrators or review committees, and results will not be uploaded to Activity Insight. Faculty members are not required to include the Fall 2020 SRTE results in their annual reviews but may include them if they wish.

For more details on this and other topics the provost addressed at the meeting, check Penn State News.

AERA opportunities

AERA Open and Educational Researcher are seeking proposals for a special topic and special issue that focus on anti-Black racism in education. Please see below the calls for papers and information for how to submit.

• ·      Educational Researcher
  • Call for Proposals for an Educational Researcher Special Issue addressing Anti-Black Racism in Education. Deadline: Nov. 6.
  • ·      AERA Open
    • Call for Proposals for an AERA Open Special Topic addressing Sources, Conceptualizations, and Mechanisms of Racism/Oppression Impacting Education-Related Outcomes and Well-Being Across the Lifespan. Deadline: Nov. 6.
    • Call for Proposals for an AERA Open Special Topic addressing Intersectionality in Hispanic-Serving Institutions. Deadline: Nov. 15.

Walk-up and surveillance testing

The University’s testing protocols for students and employees, which include walk-up testing and random surveillance testing, will continue through Nov. 20. There will be no surveillance or walk-up testing from Nov. 21-29. All random surveillance testing will resume on campuses on Nov. 30 and continue through the remainder of the fall semester for employees working on-site.

For more information, check Penn State News.

United Way

The University's efforts in the United Way campaign kick-off this week with an email to all faculty and staff at University Park, asking for their support. Penn State annually contributes about 40% of the campaign funding for United Way agencies.

This year, with the unemployment and underemployment of many in the region, along with the pressures and challenges of the pandemic, the need for assistance among residents will be greater than usual.

A lot of the University's fundraising for United Way typically has involved events, which will not be taking place this year because of the pandemic.

To help reach the University's goal in assisting our neighbors – and in some cases our co-workers – I would like to encourage you to consider supporting the United Way by participating in payroll deduction. There is no minimum – and even $5 a paycheck adds up to help a child with school supplies or a family stretch its food budget to the end of the month. You can learn more and download the payroll deduction form here.

Enjoy the weekend — safely

While last weekend's large gatherings to watch Penn State football were predominately students, there also were many anecdotal reports of community members downtown for the game, and increasingly in supermarkets and other local businesses who are not observing the safety protocols.

A third wave of the virus is sweeping through the nation and the world, and our number of positive cases has risen here in State College as well. We need to remain vigilant. Now is the time to double down on our efforts in masking, social distancing and avoiding large gatherings.

Every single one of us needs to act responsibly and take these simple measures so that we can keep our local communities safe and minimize the increase of COVID-19 cases.

Best,

Kim

Election reminder

With election day in less than two weeks, many individuals in our community may be feeling anxious and overwhelmed no matter their political positions. A colleague in another college shared some valuable information and suggestions, and in turn, I want to share them with you as ways you can support and show compassion to students in your classes.

If your schedule allows, provide flexibility in deadlines for assignments and/or assessments, or consider shifting exams and major assignments so that these are not held on the days immediately after the election.

I encourage you to let your students know you recognize the election season may have put them under additional stress, but they should know they are not alone. Please share that if this is impacting their course work and they find they need flexibility in assignments, to let you know, so you can work with them and help them to be successful in your classes.

After the election, please continue to be flexible and empathetic because the election may directly impact students in a manner that they have not disclosed to you. You may consider starting your class with a simple statement of support to students.

Reminder: We need to create a classroom environment where every student, no matter their political beliefs, can learn and engage in discussions. Therefore, in our classroom spaces, the University expectation is that instructors will not impose personal opinions on specific outcomes of the election. For example, it would be inappropriate to come into class to either celebrate or to mourn the results of the election.

Please use me as a resource if you have questions about any of the above.

Transition to remote instruction

The University is holding a Transition to Remote Symposium from 10 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6. The symposium is intended to help instructors prepare for the planned pivot to remote instruction after Nov. 20. The symposium event will comprise eight 45- minute roundtable sessions on five focused topics. Each session will be offered at least once; sessions expected to be most popular will be offered twice. For more information, including the schedule of sessions, click here.

To encourage communication with students in preparation for the Nov. 20 transition to remote instruction, a series of templates has been created for instructors who are currently teaching in-person or mixed courses. The template emails will assist in communicating key information to students to help them to prepare to be successful in their studies as they make this transition. Please review these templates and begin communicating this information with your students as soon as possible.

Penn State IT is working to assist instructors and students with preparations for the remote teaching period. Information on technology resources and the Technology Loaner Programs is available on Penn State’s Keep Teaching and Keep Learning websites. For students, there is a limited supply of loaner laptops and mobile hotspots. For instructors who need assistance with digital annotation, there is a limited supply of loaner iPads. Instructors and students can access the Mobile Technology Request Form with their Access ID and password.

Wallet Hub

Every so often, representatives from Wallet Hub reach out to our faculty members, inviting them to write a column for their website. Typically, the columns deal with "Top Ten" or "Bottom Ten" lists. I ask that you please consider the following very carefully before deciding whether or not to answer their queries.

Wallet Hub is not an academic organization, or a news organization. Their site is a commercial site devoted to selling credit cards and loans to students. They publish these columns from legitimate faculty members to boost their site's reputation among the students they are targeting as customers. Publishing on their site does nothing to enhance your academic reputation, and does everything to build up Wallet Hub's reputation.

Our communications team does not share information about articles published on Wallet Hub, because of the nature of that website.

Box migration preparation

To prepare for next summer's migration of data from Box to Microsoft Office 365, I encourage you to begin cleaning your Box environment by deleting unused files, removing unnecessary shares, and updating the formatting of files and folders as needed.

At this time, the College of Education does not have a scheduled migration time. However, these steps taken now will ensure a speedier, more seamless migration when the time comes, and also will make accessing your data and working with collaborators easier post-migration.

Several how-to articles have been added to the IT Knowledge Base to assist you with these tasks. Please review the articles, along with the Migration Checklist, Frequently Asked Questions, and Resources and Training page available on the Box Migration tab on the Box at Penn State website.

The following articles are currently available:

• Box: Pre-Migration Preparation of Non-Person Account Folders and Files
• Box: Pre-Migration Preparation of Box Files
• Box: Pre-Migration Preparation Special Use Cases

Additional articles and resources will become available in the coming weeks. The goal for migrations is to have all units at the University migrated by June 30, 2021, to ensure the successful retirement of Box before the contract ends.

If you have questions or concerns about the migration process or would like to report a unique use case, please contact the Box Migration Team through the Box Migration and Retirement Form.

Cheer safely

As our football team prepares to play its first game of the season, I want to echo the letter President Barron wrote to the University community on Oct. 12.

As much as it's tradition to gather to cheer on the Nittany Lions, please, maintain the safety protocols in place. Keep gatherings small, socially distanced and within state regulations. Don't bring guests to town and limit your own travel.

It is especially important that everyone clearly understands that our efforts to achieve a downward trend in the number of COVID-19 cases in the region could be jeopardized if there is an influx – even a small influx – of visitors to town.

This is a time to show the nation and the world that we value and uphold our responsibility for the health and safety of one another, as we reduce travel and avoid large gatherings as we cheer on the team, for the benefit of all.

Enjoy the weekend

The weather in State College has been unseasonably beautiful these past several days, and this weekend should be nice as well. Take some time to enjoy the sunshine and warm temperatures while we can. Have a good weekend.

Be well,

Kim

Ask your students

Gathering feedback from students at this point in the semester can help gauge students’ learning and provides instructors with valuable data for making course adjustments. Students appreciate being asked for feedback, especially when instructors respond with changes to improve learning.

Surveying students is one method for gathering feedback. Penn State learning surveys specific to the four COVID instructional modes have been created for you to download into your Canvas course to collect student feedback on the learning modes. Click here for instructions on how to download them into your course. I encourage all instructors to deploy these surveys of students to help us better understand the learning needs of our students and our collective efforts to support their educational progress.

For information about other options for collecting midsemester feedback, see the Schreyer Institute’s Midsemester Feedback page.

Dean’s Equity Forum

Started last year, the Dean’s Equity Forum is a speaker series that’s mission is focused on the voices of external scholars who are working in critical social issues through education such as activism, equity pedagogy and participatory action as a learning context. Last we focused on bringing in senior scholars, this year, we are focusing on bringing in the powerful new perspectives of junior scholars.

I am excited to announce that this semester we will have two scholars presenting to our college. Mildred Boveda, a special education scholar from Arizona State University, will present her work on the preparation educators for diverse, equitable and inclusive practices on November 12 at 4PM. We are also arranging an hour for Dr. Boveda to have a more intimate conversation with faculty interested in her work.

We also have a second speaker Marcus Jenkins, a policy and practice scholar from the University of Arizona. Dr. Jenkins will present on Black Male Leadership, will be joining us on Zoom on December 8th at 4PM with a faculty/grad student conversation to follow.

Stay tuned for links to join these presentations and information to also share with your students.

Activity Insights

Department heads were informed last year prior to the career conference that the 19-20 year was the last year that paper-based records of activities would be accepted. Starting this year, all information for the career conferences must be submitted in Activity Insights. Please know, that we are only asking faculty to input information into Activity Insights from the current year for the 20-21 career conferences. This will be the process each year moving forward.

While I agree with you that the system is cumbersome, the lack of a persistent digital archive prevents us from being able to publicize the aggregate work of the college; uncover, track and reward "hidden work"; and identify themes across faculty, programs and departments. It also limits our ability to make sure resources are targeted in places to support the work of the college or have data to support our progress as a unit. In addition, without a process for updating the database annually, the burden on faculty going through P&T to do it all in a single year is oppressive.

Thank you for helping us with this important task.

International Education Week

International Education Week (IEW), Nov. 16-20, is an opportunity to celebrate the benefits of international education at our institution, in our cities and communities, and in this country. Penn State Global Programs is asking for interested units to submit their IEW program here.

The remote world in which we find ourselves provides a unique opportunity to come together as a University in support of international education. To that end, this year will be the first-ever University-wide International Education celebration.

Please submit your programing by the close of business on Thursday, Oct. 22. The form is simple and takes only about 5-10 minutes to complete.

On behalf of Roger Brindley, vice provost for Global Programs, I encourage the participation of everyone in the College of Education who is interested in some aspect of international education, including study abroad experiences and intercultural learning.

'Keep engaging' webinars

The “Keep Engaging” Fall Webinar Series will be delivered via Zoom, from noon to 1 p.m. every Monday through Nov. 16. The next webinar will be help from noon to 1 p.m. Monday, Oct. 19, on the topic of Barriers & Bridges to Success for Our Financially Insecure Students.

Back to State resources

You should have received an email from our HR consultant, Liz Cummings, this morning. If you missed it, I want to encourage you to go back and read it, as it includes information for how to navigate a return to work on campus. There are two videos linked from her email: one for employees and one for supervisors. More information is available in the email Liz sent.

Get your flu shot

Penn State Human Resources, in partnership with Health Advocate, has announced a three-pronged approach for the 2020 flu vaccine clinics throughout the commonwealth. Employees can choose one of three options to get a flu shot.

Stop. Smell. Be well.

With mounting scientific evidence that loss of smell is one of the most specific symptoms of COVID-19 infection, sensory scientists in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences have launched a webpage to encourage people to perform a daily smell test in an effort to help nip disease spread in the bud.

Researchers have found that certain cells at the top of the nasal cavity harbor proteins that the coronavirus targets when invading these cells. The local disruption that occurs is different from the loss of smell that occurs with the common cold, which is due to blockage of the nasal passages. With COVID-19, many patients lose the ability to smell without being stuffy or congested.

The Stop. Smell. Be Well. webpage urges page visitors to make smell checks part of their daily routine. The page suggests that people can use their morning coffee, food, flowers, perfume, shampoo, deodorant or any other familiar aroma to monitor their ability to smell. For more information, check Penn State News.

Have a safe and productive remainder of the semester!

Kim

Spring 'wellness' days

By now, we have all become aware of the changes to our spring semester calendar in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We will start a week later, on January 18th. Although the semester begins on the 18th, it is also Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and we will be observing this important day of reflection and service. To accommodate the later start, the University's spring academic calendar also eliminates spring break to reduce the possibility of spreading the coronavirus through travel. However, there will be "wellness" days built into the calendar to support the mental health and well-being of students, faculty and staff.

Wellness days will be non-instructional days for students and instructors and no classes will be held, although University offices will remain open. Special programs will be developed and delivered on wellness days to support and engage students, instructors and staff, and discourage travel outside of campus communities.

The dates and number of wellness days has not yet been determined, but a committee is being formed to identify the approach, including the number of days, the timing, and the types of activities that will support and engage students, faculty and staff. The committee is being formed by Andrea Dowhower, associate vice president for Student Affairs; Elizabeth Seymour, chair of the University Faculty Senate; and Michael Verderame, senior associate dean in the Graduate School.

For more information, check Penn State News.

Mask Up-date

As part of an ongoing town-gown partnership with State College Borough during the coronavirus pandemic, Penn State police officers will now enforce the State College Borough COVID-19 safety ordinance on the University Park campus. The municipal ordinance uses fines to enforce mask wearing, social distancing and gathering limits in State College Borough, and will be used specifically to support mask wearing and dispersal of large gatherings on the University Park campus, including for campus visitors.

This measure does not change Penn State's on-campus masking, social distancing and gathering requirements for students, faculty and staff that currently are in place. However, those requirements impose sanctions on academic standing and employment status for noncompliance. Enforcement of the borough ordinance on campus now enables the University to enforce compliance by visitors to campus.

For details, check Penn State News.

Walk-up testing moves to Pegula

With the onset of colder weather, Penn State’s walk-up COVID-19 testing location at University Park has moved from the HUB Parking Deck to the main concourse of Pegula Ice Arena, effective today (Friday, Oct. 9).

Penn State is offering asymptomatic on-demand COVID-19 testing for University Park employees who are listed in the University’s Return to Work database. The Pegula testing center is open for employees only from 9 to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday, or employees may walk up at any time during the center’s normal operating hours of 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.

Employees who are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 will not be tested at the walk-up testing site. Any employee who feels sick with COVID-19-like symptoms should stay home and call their health care provider to arrange for further evaluation.

This walk-up testing is voluntary and does not replace mandatory surveillance testing for either students or employees.

Employees should work with their supervisor to request time to obtain walk-up COVID-19 testing. Registration is not required, but employees who wish to be tested must bring identification and a smartphone and refrain from eating, drinking, chewing or smoking 30 minutes before arriving for their tests. The walk-up testing is free for employees.

For more information, check Penn State News.

Mark your calendar

Francesca Lopez, the Waterbury Chair in Equity Pedagogy in the College of Education's Department of Curriculum and Instruction, is hosting a webinar, “Student Resistance, Care and Belonging" at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22.

Dr. Lopez will explore the importance of emotional warmth in the classroom, in both K-12 and higher education settings. What does teacher caring look like? How can engaging in caring relationships promote student belonging? What is student resistance?

Registration is required. For more information, visit https://bit.ly/3iFPWbW

Nittany Deck facelift

Construction work started this week just outside the Nittany Deck to repair the deck’s façade. This work will continue for the next 3-4 weeks until work is completed. The sidewalks outside the Nittany Deck may be closed at different times as repair work moves along the outside of the deck. For questions, please call the Office of the Physical Plant at 814-865-4731.

Voting information and resources

• LLAED webinar: Our colleagues in Lifelong Learning and Adult Education are hosting a non-partisan election presentation to empower and educate voters so they feel confident going into this election. The presentation, scheduled for noon Monday, Oct. 12, includes information on how to check your voting status, update your information and confirm your polling place. While the presentation is geared toward students, it also is open to faculty and staff. Use psu.zoom.us/j/96591100355 to connect.
• On-campus resource: Penn State, in collaboration with The Centre County Board of Elections, has designated the Bryce Jordan Center Ticket Center on Penn State’s University Park Campus as a satellite elections office for the 2020 general election. All voters registered within Centre County can use the center to process mail-in ballot and absentee ballot requests, complete ballot packets, and submit ballots for secure processing. Voters are required to schedule an appointment in advance at centrecountyvotes.com/bjc. The office will be staffed by local government election employees, and parking at Bryce Jordan Center will remain free to voters during office hours.
• Key dates and polling information
  • Oct. 19 – Last day to register to vote in Pennsylvania
  • Oct. 27 – Last day to request a mail-in ballot in Pennsylvania
  • Nov. 3 – Election Day

For more information about voter registration and election resources at Penn State, including how to register, where to register, and how to make an informed decision, visit psuvotes.psu.edu.

Policy reminder

As we approach election day, I want to offer a timely reminder of the University's policy on political campaign activities. Certain types of politically related activities by the University or by University employees, in their official capacities, are incompatible with the University’s tax-exempt status under the law. The policy, AD92, describes the limitations on University involvement and the use of University resources in political campaign activities.

The policy states, "… employees and representatives, when acting in their official capacities for the University, may not, directly or indirectly, participate in, or intervene in, any political campaign on behalf of, or in opposition to, any candidate for elective public office. This includes campaigns at the federal, state and local level." For example, students and employees, when in their official capacity or as representative of the University, may not contribute to political campaigns; make public statements that support or oppose a candidate for public office; distribute statements prepared by others that support or oppose a candidate for public office; or allow candidates to use University resources without giving equivalent opportunities to other candidates."

For more information regarding Policy AD92, click here.

Your well-being matters

If you have not already done so, I strongly encourage you to get your flu shot. The vaccines are free for all Penn State employees, regardless of participation in a University- sponsored health care plan. For information, check Penn State News.

As the semester continues, workloads are growing for all of us – and with those growing workloads comes growing stress. Please remember, if you need it, help is available. Reach out to each other, both to seek help and to offer it. Contact the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) if you need counseling. Email your PIC, department head, direct supervisor, or me if there is anything you feel we can do to help you.

Thank you so very deeply for everything you do!

Best,

Kim

Fall meeting follow-up

I want to take some time to follow up on last Friday's fall meeting of the college. First, thank you to everyone who participated. And thank you also for your honesty in the poll we conducted. An overwhelming majority (60%) of you shared that you are tired (34%), anxious (18%) or worried (8%), and I hear you. So many have done so much more in the past six months, under very stressful circumstances, than has ever been asked before. Processes are changing at the University level, and we're being asked to adapt. Some things aren't working as smoothly as had been hoped, and that heightens our anxiety and worry. And there is seemingly no end in sight.

I sincerely wish I had a quick, easy solution to help move more of you into the "optimistic, encouraged and hopeful" categories. Please email your PIC, department head, direct supervisor, or me if there is something you feel the college can provide to help. We all need to be patient and flexible with each other – and with ourselves – during this prolonged disruption. Also remember that you can contact the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) if you need counseling.

I have heard from some of you that this is the first time you've seen the data I shared.

While we did not have time to "report out" from all of the breakout groups, I am grateful to all of you who took the time to have those conversations about the data I provided. I have heard from some of you that this is the first time you've seen the data I shared. I am also really excited that some departments have taken some time to dig deeper into the data and its interpretations within their specific contexts. I feel it's important that everyone in the college to have and to understand the information, so we can work together to steward our resources – financial and human – to provide the best education possible to our students, and also to ensure we have a positive work environment for all staff and faculty.

As you saw from the data, the shape of our college and its work has shifted overtime. I would like to make last Friday's meeting the start of a conversation and collaboration to find creative pathways forward that will further elevate our college and the impactful work we do.

Curriculum review

In our Equity Action Plan, we as a college committed to "conduct a critical review of the college curriculum regarding attention to race and issues of equity in undergraduate and graduate courses. We will make revisions to the curriculum as needed. In addition, we will provide support for instructors' use of, and teaching about, equity-minded and asset-based pedagogies."

This semester we are beginning to work on revising our processes related to curriculum development and review in the college so that diversity, equity, inclusion and belongingness are explicit components of our programs and courses.

This will be a collaborative effort across the departments and college. College Curricular Affairs (CCA) and department curriculum committees will partner with the Equity Team during the fall semester to develop new processes for review and approval of curricula. Based on our experiences this fall, CCA will make recommendations to the college for curriculum proposal requirements with respect to diversity, equity, inclusion and belongingness. New curriculum proposal requirements will be accompanied by professional development workshops/webinars for faculty to clarify expectations, provide exemplars from colleagues, and learn about equity- and asset-based pedagogies.

COVID-19 alerts – there's an app for that

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine are encouraging Pennsylvanians to download COVID Alert PA, a COVID-19 exposure notification app designed to help fight the spread of the virus. Penn State is asking community members to do the same and utilize the app to help support existing virus monitoring and contact tracing efforts at the University. Read the full story and get the download links on Penn State News.

Get out the VOTE!

Penn State encourages eligible students to be engaged citizens by participating in elections and understanding the issues that affect them today and in the future. Please encourage students to exercise their right to vote in this election. Students have the option to vote in their hometown or in their university community, where they live for most of the year.

Penn State Law has produced a 50-state non-partisan voting resource to help with mail-in, absentee, and in-person voting in all 50 states. Click here to access the site. To go directly to information for Pennsylvania, click here.

Student Affairs also has a voter registration and election information website that includes critical dates for voting in Pennsylvania.

EOPC funding available

The Equal Opportunity Planning Committee (EOPC) invites Penn State faculty and staff to submit proposals for EOPC funding to support the University’s diversity, inclusion and equity efforts and advance the University’s strategic plan (see “Advancing Inclusion, Equity, and Diversity”) with investments in programs and ideas.

Funding from EOPC is intended to provide seed money for innovative pilot programs and existing initiatives that help create and support a climate of equity throughout Penn State. Funding categories include: campus climate; unit climate; curriculum; faculty and staff recruiting; faculty and staff retention; leadership development; student recruiting; student retention and graduation; and organizational change. The link to the EOPC proposal form can be found on the website.

For additional information, check Penn State News.

Award call for nominations

Tracey Huston, vice president for Outreach, is seeking nominations for three University awards. These awards, established by Outreach in partnership with the Faculty Senate and the University Student Engagement Network, underscore Penn State’s deep commitment to outreach and engaged scholarship with its communities.

Information about these opportunities for recognizing exceptional faculty and engaged scholarship initiatives, along with nomination forms, can be found here.

The deadline for all three award nominations is Dec. 23.

Social media support and resources

Social media is a resource that enables faculty to more fully participate and lead in a global society. At the same time, some people use social media to target faculty and their research. The Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs has created a document designed to assist the Penn State community in responding to situations in which faculty members are targeted by individuals or groups outside of the University based on the content of the faculty member’s scholarship, teaching, opinions, clinical care, and/or service. It addresses potential concerns in such situations and informs the colleges and campuses about resources available to assist individual faculty members, academic unit executive officers, and other administrators. You can access the document here.

Huck Institutes lecture

Shirley Malcom, director of education and human resources programs for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, will speak on “Reimagining the University as a Place Where Inclusion Is the Norm: What Will It Take?” at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 13, via Zoom. Throughout her career, Dr. Malcom has focused her work on the lack of women, especially women of color, in science. She is a leader in efforts to improve accessibility of education and careers in science and engineering for girls and women. Her inspiring work has led to numerous honors such as the Humanitarian of the Year Award, Scroll of Merit, Woman of Valor, University of Washington’s Alumna Summa Laude Dignata Award, and the Public Welfare Medal, the highest award from the American Academy of Sciences. Join the event by clicking here.

Best,

Kim

Fall Meeting of the College

Our Fall meeting of the college is set for Friday, Sept. 25 from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. In addition to a review of our accomplishments from the past year, and planning around our future excellence, Kelly Wolgast, director of the Penn State COVID Operations Control Center, will join us for a portion of the meeting to update us and answer questions about the Penn State COVID response. Look for an email in the next few days with Zoom connection information.

University Town hall

Penn State leaders will host a virtual Town Hall event at 3 p.m. on Sept. 23 to answer University faculty and staff questions about the return to campus and Penn State’s ongoing response to the coronavirus.

The hourlong event will be streamed live at https://LiveEvents.psu.edu, and will be archived online for later viewing.

Joining Penn State President Eric Barron for the Town Hall will be:

• Nick Jones, executive vice president and provost;
• Dr. Kevin Black, interim dean of the College of Medicine;
• Lorraine Goffe, vice president for Human Resources; and
• Kelly Wolgast, director of the Penn State COVID-19 Operations Control Center.

Questions can be submitted in advance anonymously via Google Forms at: https://forms.gle/Jqpi8B5ojViHoet28.

For more information, check Penn State News.

CoE presence at Board of Trustees

The University Board of Trustees is meeting this week, and this afternoon, our own Peggy Van Meter will join via Zoom during President Barron's remarks to the board. Peggy is scheduled to talk about what it's been like to teach a class in the Bryce Jordan Center sometime between 1 and 2 p.m. although the timing could vary. Tune in here.

Community Survey results

The University recently released its Community Survey results in a story on Penn State News. This is the survey they launched in February to gauge faculty, staff and student experiences related to diversity, equity and inclusion.

My take-aways are that we as a University and a college have A LOT of work to do, and the data from our college is more representative of what the actual climate is because we are much more racially aware and actually "in the fight" to end systemic racism. These data should serve to feed our collective mission to shift our culture to one that is entirely inclusive and where every member of our community – faculty, staff, and students – feels a strong sense of belonging, personal safety and respected for the assets they bring to Penn State.

To view the survey dashboards and report, click here. Please take the time to look through the results, think critically about what they mean, and how we can move forward together. I look forward to conversations and joining you all in this work.

HHD's Lecture Series

I'm excited to share with you that the College of Health and Human Development's Dean's Lecture Series this fall will focus on "The Impact of Structural Racism and Racial Discrimination on Health, Wellness, and Well- Being." They are holding two events on the topic:

• Sept. 24, 4 p.m.: Screening of "The Skin You're In" and Q&A with the film's producer, Thomas LaVeist. Details and the link to the Zoom webinar can be found here.
• Nov. 12, 4 p.m.: Racism and Anti-Racism in Youth: A Developmental Perspective, with Deborah Rivas-Drake, professor of education and psychology at the University of Michigan. Details and information will be available here closer to the event.

We have our own lecture series, the Dean’s Equity Forum. This series will be run by the new advisory council established in this summer’s action plan in consultation with Office of Education and Social Equity. More to come as this committee gets formalized.

Promotion and Tenure

Several new FAQs pertaining to promotion and tenure were added to the University's 2020-2021 Promotion and Tenure FAQ document to provide guidance about processes in the midst of the pandemic. Please see FAQs #68, 70, and 71 for updated information about peer teaching reviews, an updated charge to the committee, and virtual meetings.

Activity Insights

Department heads were informed last year prior to the career conference that the 19-20 year was the last year that paper-based records of activities would be accepted. Starting this year, all information for the career conferences must be submitted in Activity Insights.

While I agree with you that the system is cumbersome, the lack of a persistent digital archive prevents us from being able to publicize the aggregate work of the college; uncover, track and reward "hidden work"; and identify themes across faculty, programs and departments. It also limits our ability to make sure resources are targeted in places to support the work of the college or have data to support our progress as a unit. In addition, without a process for updating the database annually, the burden on faculty going through P&T to do it all in a single year is oppressive. Thank you for helping us with this important task.

Spring course modes

I understand that folks are going through difficult decision-making right now about spring course modes. While I have stated that that I hope the college can marshal forward a substantive in-person footprint, I realize the best decision- making on this is at the individual and program level. Faculty within programs have the most nuanced understanding of the best mode of delivery for courses balancing both student's needs and the potential spring health climate. Thank you for all you are considering as you weigh the options.

Contact tracing update

Many of you have experienced lags in notification of from Student Affairs regarding your student's test results. This is very frustrating! The process was impacted by the decision to have contact tracers reach the student prior to sending faculty an email – which in some cases took several days. The process has now been revised to notify faculty before the contact tracers have made contact with the student. So, notifications should be timelier moving forward. Please continue to let me know when the process is not working so I can have evidence to bring forward to support my continued arguments to refine the process.

Also, as the University continues to address these complications in its contact tracing plan, two contact tracing student referral forms are now available; one allows students to self-report concerns and the other allows individuals to refer students who have tested positive for COVID-19 or who may have been exposed. Details of the updated procedures can be found on Penn State News.

Form , Forms, Forms…

I know there seems to be a proliferation of forms that must be filled out for various reasons related to COVID-19 policies, procedures and protocols. We have collected them all in one place on our website, to make it easier for you to find them. The forms are:

• Penn State Return to On-Site Work Request Form (University Approval)
• Drop-in Request Form
• Mission Critical Purchase Request Form
• College of Education Approval Request Form for In-Person Meetings and Events
• College of Education Non-Event Visitor Approval Form
• College of Education Travel Request Approval

Flu shots

The University has announced a three-pronged approach for the 2020 flu vaccine clinics for faculty and staff this fall, with information available on Penn State News. Additional information, including clinic schedules, registration information and how to obtain a voucher, will be provided via an email to your Penn State email address by early next week.

While it’s not possible to say with certainty what will happen in the fall and winter, experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) believe it’s likely that flu viruses and the virus that causes COVID-19 will both be spreading. In this context, getting a flu vaccine will be more important than ever. CDC recommends that all people 6 months and older get a yearly flu vaccine, because it is possible have flu, as well as other respiratory illnesses, and COVID-19 at the same time. Health experts are still studying how common this can be.

Getting a flu vaccine will not protect against COVID-19; however, flu vaccination has many other important benefits. Flu vaccines have been shown to reduce the risk of flu illness, hospitalization and death. Getting a flu vaccine this fall will be more important than ever, not only to reduce your risk from flu but also to help conserve potentially scarce health care resources.

For information about the similarities and differences between influenza and COVID-19, check the CDC website here.

Be well and remember to take care of yourself vigilantly!

Best,

Kim

Remember and reflect

Today is a day to pause and to reflect...

I think we all likely remember exactly where we were and what we were doing when we heard the news of the terrorist strike on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. We remember the emotions we felt at that moment, and in the days, weeks and months that followed – the fear, the confusion, the uncertainty that gripped us, along with the mourning over the incredible loss of life. Penn State has an archive of its coverage of the events from the University perspective, including a story about how classes were held, and how they focused on the events and the impact they had on students instead of the subject matter of the courses.

As I recall the response on my prior campus, as well as read about the response here at Penn State, I can't help but think of the similarities to what is happening in our nation today with the pandemic and the battle against systemic racism. How are we as a college community responding to these events? What are we doing to connect with our students to see how they are doing and how these events are impacting them? What are we doing as individuals to help find solutions? When we look back on this moment in time 19 years from now, how will we feel about our role, our words and our actions? Whether we are talking about the pandemic or systemic racism, will we be able to say we were part of the solution, or part of the problem?

Equity updates

In that vein, I want to thank all of the faculty who participated in the #Scholarstrike. Engaging our students in conversations about race, systemic racism and inequity over the course of those two days is a critical step toward thinking about how our curriculum can be used as a force of change. I would be really interested in learning more from you regarding how students responded and what you feel were powerful activities that really pushed deep reflection, perspective change and the empowerment of our students to be agents of change. Please share your thoughts with me at [email protected].

Class modes

I hope you have had a chance to read the email I sent yesterday regarding the need to choose course instructional modes by Sept. 25. In that email, I shared the considerations I am trying to balance as dean in formulating decisions for our college, our students and our community, both for our immediate safety and for the long-term stability of our college.

I ask that you also will weigh these factors as you talk with your PICs and make decisions regarding your mode of delivery for your spring courses.

Please also note, the calendar for the spring has not yet been set. The start and end dates, as well as the inclusion of a Spring Break will be determined closer to the end of the fall semester.

Advising request

Because of a compressed course registration schedule, Greg Mason, director of Advising and Certification, has requested that those of us teaching first-year seminars spread the word to our students that they can make Zoom advising appointments now via Starfish, but that the appointment should NOT be until the first two weeks of November.

Having freshmen schedule an appointment for November is important this fall, for two main reasons:

1. Course availability can change very quickly. Since these first-year students will not be able to schedule classes until mid-November anyway, it would be best to see them shortly before their registration date.
2. Given the compressed timeline this semester, it will be critical that our advising appointment time slots in late September and October be reserved for seniors, juniors and sophomores.

We have 1,500 undergraduates in the college at University Park, and five full-time advisers. Seeing students at the appropriate time of the semester allows us to ensure that there is equity of availability in our advising operations.

Students will be getting detailed information on this timeline soon, but passing the word along in your respective section(s) of EDUC 100 will help reinforce the message. Thank you.

Zoom changes

On Sept. 27, the Zoom vendor is implementing changes worldwide to enhance meeting security. 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 rooms enabled. Users can customize the waiting room to allow individuals within Penn State’s domain, or on an approved list of domains, to bypass the waiting room, and directly join the meeting.

Full details on meeting waiting rooms and passcode requirements are available on Zoom’s website. The announcement from Penn State can be found here.

Thank you

Next Wednesday, Sept. 16, marks six months to the day since we moved classes online due to COVID-19. Back then, I don't think any of us imagined that we would still be dealing with the pandemic at this point, with no immediate end in sight. Our health, that of our family and friends, balance work and personal life, managing the learning of our students and our children, and the list goes on…

The emotional and mental toll this has taken on all of us should not be underestimated. And we all carry this as we continue to deal with a lot that remains outside of our control. There is a sense of loss, I think, over our inability to interact with our colleagues in person, or to have the interactions we're used to having with our students.

At the same time, as I looked back at the emails I've sent to staff, faculty and students since Feb. 28, I see just how much we have been able to accomplish, and I am so thankful to all of you for all you have done to adjust, adapt and keep on doing what you do best.

Please, remember that if you need it, help is available. Reach out to each other, both to seek help and to offer it. Contact the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) if you need counseling. Email your PIC, department head, direct supervisor, or me if there is anything you feel we can do to help you.

Thank you so very deeply for everything you do!

Best,

Kim

Happy Friday! Now that we have rounded out the second week of classes, I want to thank all of you for the work you are doing to provide an excellent educational experience for our students – whether in person or remote. As we began to move into the full surveillance plan for testing, we have all noticed numbers ticking up and have had a few of our students test positive. Notification, whether from a student or from student services should be seen as a positive indicator that the system is working – we are removing those who can spread the virus from our shared spaces until they are no longer contagious.

The overall positivity count can be an anxiety inducing metric – I share this concern. Please remember, we have a layered system where behavior is the number one strategy for mitigating the virus – masking, social distancing and hand sanitization. While it is impossible to stop COVID-19 from being present on our campus, these three behaviors mitigate the spread of the virus. Please, whether on campus or off, continue to observe these vigilantly, and encourage others to do so as well.

Labor Day

I know this Labor Day weekend is unusual in that some of you will be working on Monday because classes will be held. Thank you to those of you who are teaching or staffing our spaces on Labor Day. Your continuing flexibility and willingness to do what's needed is admirable, and appreciated.

According to an article on Penn State News, employees who must work on this holiday will be eligible for compensation and compensatory time, as outlined in the “Holidays” section of Policy HR34 or the applicable collective bargaining agreement.

Only those whose presence truly is necessary should work on Monday. Anyone scheduled to work remotely should observe the Labor Day holiday, as usual.

From President Barron

President Barron sent an email to all University Park students this afternoon. In it, he addresses the rising number of COVID-19 cases on campus. I echo his request, to faculty and staff as well as to our student population:

"I ask that you not travel over this holiday weekend, have visitors from out of town or attend parties or barbecues. We must make every effort to mitigate the virus' spread, including continued masking and social distancing."

This weekend could make or break our efforts to have a sustained in- person component to the fall semester. In the Penn State News story President Barron referenced in his email, he further stated:

"Our ability to manage transmission and rate of growth of positive cases is critically important. Next week, we will assess data following the holiday weekend, and determine whether we need to take mitigation steps at University Park including temporary or sustained remote learning."

It is only through our collective efforts that we have a chance to control the spread of COVID-19 and keep levels of the disease low enough to be able to remain safely on campus this fall. As President Barron stated, "all it takes is everybody."

Contact tracing

There has been concern among faculty about the contact tracing process for those on campus who test positive for COVID-19. For some, the process has been frustrating, and I share your frustration.

The University has clarified the process, which they are enhancing, in an article on Penn State News and in the University FAQ. In short, Penn State’s contact tracing process prioritizes getting the COVID-positive individual into isolation. After reaching out to the individual who has tested positive for COVID, contact tracers contact those who have been identified by the COVID-positive individual as close contacts. Finally, contact tracers will notify others who might need to know, such as faculty members and instructors via an email from a “Student Support Services” address.

The University also will be rolling out electronic processes that enable someone to self-identify that they have tested positive for COVID or that they may be a close contact of a COVID-positive individual. This may shorten the amount of time that passes before a faculty member is notified of a positive case in their class.

#ScholarStrike

As incidents of racial injustice continue to occur to plague our nation, a growing movement nationally, the #ScholarStrike has evolved. This movement has created a space for academics to stand up against racism on Sept. 8 and 9.

I hope that you demonstrate your solidarity with this movement by choosing to use this time as a means to engage your students in learning and discussion of systemic racism and violence against Black members and all members of color in our local and national community. If you are struggling to identify how you might approach this task, I urge you to contact Maria Schmidt, Assistant Dean of Education and Social Equity, who will put you in contact with a member of our College’s Equity Team for guidance.

The University's Office of Educational Equity has developed a robust set of resources that are available to you as you consider how to engage with this topic or that may be of interest to your students.

The College's office of Education and Social Equity is also hosting a virtual screening of 13th a documentary by Ave Duvernay on 9/8 at 4:30. The film explores the history of racial inequality in the United States, focusing on the fact that the nation's prisons are disproportionately filled with African-Americans. Please see the flyer sent to you by Maria Schmidt for registration details to share with your students.

Another way to engage your students on this important topic is to encourage them to attend the Toward Racial Equity at Penn State roundtable at 6 p.m. Sept. 8. If you’re interested in providing extra credit for students who attend the roundtable, tell your students to login at https://www.watch.psu.edu/toward-racial-equity/students. Using that URL, the team at WPSU will be able to disaggregate students' participation by name, PSUID, student status (undergraduate or graduate), and major. They will then send you a spreadsheet with this information so you can credit those who attend.

I also understand there are members of our college staff who will be participating in some hours of professional development on the 8th/9th. To end the scourge of racism and police brutality on members on Black and all communities of color, it will take all of us – thank you for showing your solidarity.

For additional events, visit the University-wide diversity and inclusion calendar at http://equity.psu.edu/events.

Save the date – Fall meeting

In case you missed the email that went out on our faculty and staff listserv earlier this week, I wanted to remind you that our fall meeting of the college will be held via Zoom from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 25.

I haven’t figured out how to have a Creamery ice cream station for a Zoom gathering, but you can feel free to bring your own ice cream when we gather virtually!

In addition to my update on various areas of the college, I am hoping to have a robust conversation that depends on your participation, so please do plan to join us.

Stay safe

Whether you have a two-day weekend or an extended three-day holiday, please be sure to enjoy some down time where you can relax and rejuvenate safely.

Be well,

Kim

Week One is under our belt and we did an outstanding job for our students and our community!

Happy to be here

It is great to see our students back on campus, even in this throttled, masked, socially distanced way. They bring life and energy to our buildings, and I didn't realize just how much I missed them until they returned on Monday.

This semester, I am co-teaching an in-person, First-Year Seminar course with Annemarie Mountz. Our class met on Wednesday, and we both were very comfortable with the safety measures put into place. Our students could not have been more respectful and happy to be here. You could see their smiles in their eyes.

All of our students were in full compliance with all of the safety protocols, and fully engaged in the class. They even stood in a socially distanced line to get sanitizing wipes to clean off their chairs before they left at the end of class.

When we asked them about highs and lows for the past week, nearly all of them shared that the most positive thing for them was simply that they were here, in person, interacting with each other and with faculty. They want so much to be here on campus that they are more than willing to comply with the safety protocols that can keep them here.

Several other faculty members reported the same thing to me. I popped into several classes this week to great students and make sure everything was moving forward smoothly and safely. We all felt completely safe in the classroom environment, whether we were teaching 21 students in Health and Human Development Building, or 125 students in the Bryce Jordan Center.

Changes to course delivery mode

There have been some reports of faculty delaying the in-person component of their CM courses, or starting out their CP courses remotely when they should be meeting completely in person.

As Provost Nick Jones stated in an email that went out to all faculty, this is troubling and may not be done without consultation with your unit head. Students enrolled in CP and CM courses and moved to State College with the expectation of a certain type of delivery mode and to change so rapidly appears to be a "bait and switch."

Such a switch from in person to remote, and even delayed starts, may also put first year international students at risk since they need to take at least one in person course to legally remain in the United States.

Further, if students have no reason to be on campus for classes, they may not be part of the surveillance testing process, so it will be more difficult for us to identify new cases, quarantine and control the spread of the virus. This increases the risk level for us both campus and community.

We are all trying to thread an impossibly small needle where we balance the health and safety of students and faculty with the economic security of many employees on campus and our community whose livelihood depends on students populating State College. Because they had to go to remote status, UMass has indefinitely furloughed 850 employees, including dining hall workers and residence hall operations staff, with additional permanent layoffs on the horizon. These people lost their jobs because there are no students to house or feed and nobody using the classrooms they maintain. So we have to TRY… the only way to thread that needle is to try.

While of course it is possible for an instructor or faculty member to switch due to changing circumstances, this switch should not be done without due consideration of the impact and consequences to our students and our fellow employees, and must be done in consultation with your department head.

If you have not yet held your class in person, I urge you to do so before you consider a change of mode. If, once you have taught in person, you still have concerns about your health and safety, please raise these concerns with your unit head so they can be addressed.

Mandatory surveillance testing

There has been some confusion about the need to participate in the University's surveillance testing program. The University's FAQ and a story on Penn State News state clearly that if you are contacted about being tested, you are required to complete the testing. This is part of the layered approach the University is using to control the spread of COVID-19.

Students and employees – faculty and staff – who are learning, working or living on campus will be selected randomly and contacted by email and text message to answer a few screening questions and to schedule an appointment.

If selected, you are required to complete the free testing and should plan to do so within 48-72 hours after being contacted. Faculty and staff who don't participate will be referred to Human Resources.

Contact tracing

There also is some confusion about the contact-tracing process. If a student does test positive, faculty members will be notified that the student may not be present in class for a specified period of time. However, only those individuals who are determined to have been in close contact with that individual – defined as being closer than 6 feet for more than 10 minutes – will be included in the contact tracing and testing plan. Because masking and social distancing protocols are in place in classrooms, other individuals in the classroom will likely not need to be tested in these circumstances.

For more information about the plan, check the University FAQ and the story on Penn State News.

Anyone interested in learning about the training our contact tracers have, or the criteria they use for contact tracing, can participate in a 3-hour COVID-19 Contact Tracing course offered by the College of Nursing through the Penn State Extension website. The course is offered for free to anyone with a PSU email.

Managing the spread

We all need to keep in mind that as of this moment, there is no way for us to stop the spread of COVID-19. There is no treatment, there is no cure, and there is no vaccine to prevent it. We have seen and are going to continue to see cases of COVID-19 on campus and in our community.

The current strategy for any place, whether a K-12 school, a university, a city or a state, is not targeted at elimination, but rather a focus on managing it.

Our success depends on everyone – faculty, staff and students – working together to follow the plan.

As we progress through this semester, our goal is to identify positive cases and manage the spread by removing them from circulation as quickly as possible. As we move forward and test, the numbers of positive cases are going to go up. But the surveillance testing, contact tracing and immediate action to quarantine or isolate those who are suspected to have the virus or who have tested positive will help to reduce the spread. In response to social events over the past week at fraternities and East Halls, the university is also using a nimble system of “pop-up” testing centers in these locations. This process will continue if additional events occur moving forward.

Finally, there is increased evidence that the testing of waste water from facilities on campus will also be a significant factor in our layered plan to identify potential clusters.

Our success depends on everyone – faculty, staff and students – understanding this and working together to follow the plan.

New policy

A new Penn State policy, AD101 (COVID-19), outlines Penn State’s requirements and expectations with respect to masking, social distancing, surveillance testing, contact tracing, gatherings, and other COVID-related health and safety measures. In those few instances when an instructor or faculty member willfully refuses or chooses to not comply with these requirements, such as not wearing a face mask in instructional or research settings, encouraging students not to follow face mask wearing requirements, or refusing to participate in surveillance testing, guidance documents have been developed so that situations involving faculty members and instructors are handled fairly and consistently across all Penn State campuses.

Please see the Guidance on Instructor/Researcher Violation of Face Mask Requirements and Guidance for AD101 Violations for Faculty and Instructors for more details. Graduate students serving as “Instructors-of- Record” or Teaching Assistants (TAs) can find guidance here.

#COEStrong

Again, I want to thank all of you who did so much work to make this fall semester happen. So many people did so much, and I want you to know that your hard work is recognized by your fellow faculty and staff members, and also by our students. The reason we are being featured by the University's central communications unit, both on Penn State News and in the video they are making, is that our College is recognized centrally for the work that we did for our students. #COEStrong!

Be well,
Kim

Immeasurable Gratitude

I want to start off this email by thanking each and every one of you who worked so hard to get us to where we are today, ready to start our fall semester on Monday. While Monday is a big day, I would be remiss if didn’t take time to reflect on the past six months.

In an email to the college right before we when remote in March, I wrote “As we move into the practice of safe social distancing … please remember that we do not have to be disconnected. Reach out to people, including me, for support, co- problem solving or anything else that comes to mind. Stay safe, but also stay a community.”

I know circumstances have been very difficult on everyone. I don't think any one of us could ever have imagined the roller coaster ride we have been on together since the pandemic sent Penn State into remote status last March. But through it all, we did stay a community and we strengthened our resolve, our compassion and our responsibility to one another.

In the spring, we flipped to remote teaching/learning at the drop of a dime; adapted to new grading schemes with only a few weeks left in the spring semester; put together virtual commencements for spring and summer; and worked from home while being on lockdown managing our jobs and our families. As we progressed into the summer, we rearranged our portfolios and our classrooms; figured out how to de-densify our spaces; switched to a new budget model and SIMBA; and were able to maintain healthy enrollments for fall because our departments were generous with offerings of in-person classes.

That is not an exhaustive list, but rather some highlights of what we accomplished over the last six months. As each of those things was thrown our way due to circumstances that were beyond our control, we took deep breaths, rolled up our sleeves and made it all happen. We as a College rose to every challenge. While I don't think that any of us envisioned a fall semester like the one that starts on Monday, we are ready for our students to return, both in person and remotely. And we never could have gotten to where we are without all of the hard work, perseverance and teamwork exhibited by our faculty and staff.

We are ready.

We have implemented all precautionary measures as directed by the University, the state and the CDC. Students have enrolled and moved into our community. They are entrusting us to provide to them the best learning experience possible under the circumstances, and we are entrusting them to comply with health guidelines and requirements to keep us all safe. While we don’t know what lies ahead of us, I'm grateful to all of you who have done everything possible to get us to this point, putting forth our best efforts for our students.

I am so proud of my amazing colleagues in our College, and feel truly blessed to be your dean.

Racial Justice

In the midst of the pandemic disruption, the killing by police of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, along with other unspeakable tragedies, ignited a national awakening to the systemic racism that pervades our nation. In response, we in the College of Education issued our written commitment to equity, and drew up our Leadership Resolution and Initial College of Education Action Plan. These documents make transparent our commitment to combat and actively dismantle persistent, systemic racism. Many faculty and staff in the College have endorsed the resolution. I invite you to read it and if you agree, to click on the link to add your name to those already listed.

We already have begun to address the 10 commitments we made in the action plan, and more work will be done this semester and will continue until systemic racism is wiped from world. We are in the process of identifying faculty and others who will lead the efforts on some of these action items. If you are interested in assisting, please email [email protected].

Mask Up … or Pack Up

In advance of the start of fall semester, the University has launched a public health campaign, Mask Up or Pack Up. State College also adopted an ordinance to enforce masking and restrictions on gatherings. The intent of these actions is to reinforce the Wolf Administration and University safety guidelines, shift attitudes and behaviors of the hard-to-persuade, and make essential preventative behaviors widely practiced.

There is a direct expectation for everyone to take personal action to help create a safer environment on our campus and in our community. Unless you are inside your private office with the door closed, or in your vehicle, we all are expected to wear our masks and practice social distancing. That means inside buildings, and also outdoors anywhere on campus and in State College.

Sadly, there already have been very public examples of students falling well short of expectations – the now infamous gathering outside of East Halls, the interim suspension of a fraternity for a potential violation of COVID-19 rules regarding socials, unmasked gatherings outside the Creamery, and other reports.

Every such report makes my heart hurt, because it's putting into jeopardy our ability to enact all of the plans that we all worked so hard to put in place for fall semester classes. We all are in this together, and together is the only way we will make it through this pandemic.

It is my sincere hope that all members of our College community – faculty, staff and students – exercise their best judgement, make good decisions to minimize risk, and help protect one another.

Faculty and Staff Quarantine

We have heard from some students that their faculty members told them they would be away this week in advance of the start of classes on Monday, and those students are wondering why they must self-quarantine for a week before arriving, but faculty are not being held to that same requirement. Faculty and staff are being held to the same health and safety requirements as students.

If you are away this week, you have a responsibility to self-quarantine for seven days so you do not put your students and co-workers at risk. The University is quite clear on this matter, and there are penalties for faculty, staff and students who do not comply with the health guidance for working, living and being on campus. Read details, including compliance and enforcement measures, on Penn State News.

Quick updates

Below are links to information and resources you should read:

• New instructor guide combines safety, best practices information
• Campus community reminded of COVID resources, policies
• University community strongly encouraged to use COVID-19 symptom checker daily
• Students with incomplete pre-arrival COVID tests may have registration canceled
• President’s New Student Convocation to welcome Class of 2024 and their families
• Facilities FAQ — information about COVID-19 building safety including elevator and restroom use, air-handling systems and other topics, as well as Remote Learning Room locations for students, can be found here.

Be well

There is a lot of stress associated with the start of classes on Monday. Please take care of yourselves, both physically and mentally. Reach out to each other, both to seek help and to offer it. Contact the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) if you need counseling. Email your PIC, department head, direct supervisor, or me if there is anything you feel we can do to help you.

Thank you so very deeply for everything you do!

Best,
Kim

College of Education Update

Apologies in advance for the denseness of the information in this email and the directness of some of the information. There is a lot of confusion around a couple of topics, so I wanted to make sure the information is clear. Please also note that underlined text represents links.

Coming to campus

Any work by faculty and staff that can be done remotely should be done remotely.

There are some people who must be on campus to work. Our students have an expectation of an in-person experience for at least some of their classes, and so we have faculty who have stepped up and agreed to teach in person (thank you). We also have staff who must occupy our spaces on a rotating basis to support that in-person teaching mission. There have also been a few exceptions granted for research that cannot be conducted remotely (e.g., restricted data sets, field-based research).

We made a commitment to these faculty and staff to keep them as safe as possible, using a layered approach. Everyone must wear masks. Everyone must remain socially distanced. And we must collectively reduce the density of our spaces, which also helps reduce the number of people touching doorknobs and using restrooms, copy machines and other office equipment.

De-densifying our spaces means that nobody should be in our spaces unless they have an approved business need to be there to do something that they cannot do remotely. For faculty who do not have reliable internet connections we have set up Zoom rooms for that purpose. Contact Julian Morales to reserve Zoom room space if needed.

I am asking everyone to move forward exercising ethical responsibility for yourselves and for others in our spaces.

Forms, forms, forms

There has also been some confusion over which forms must be filled out by whom and for which purpose. There are several forms, so I will try to clear up that confusion here.

• Return to the Workplace
  • To be used for individuals who have a business need to be on campus on a regular basis, such as for teaching an in-person course or providing staff support in departmental spaces.
  • Only supervisors or department heads may fill out this form. Forms filled out by anyone else will be rejected.
  • If you feel you need to be approved for a regular presence on campus, speak to your supervisor or department head.
• Return to Research
  • To be used for individuals whose research cannot be done remotely (e.g., a restricted data set, or in person data collection).
  • If you feel you your research needs to be conducted on campus or in person elsewhere, contact Greg Kelly and he will facilitate the process with you.
• Drop in to a College of Education building
  • To be used for individuals who need to retrieve personal belongings or other items needed to facilitate remote work. Drop-in visits should be limited to an hour.
  • Individuals fill out the form, found here, stating the location, date, time and reason for the visit. The form should be filled out at least a day in advance whenever possible. Requests typically are approved within 24 hours.