Smeal Update: July 17, 2020

Strategic Plan on track to be submitted early

We’re making good progress on polishing language in our next Smeal Strategic Plan as we near completion. We anticipate submitting the plan to Old Main today, which is two weeks ahead of schedule.

Cianci named Smeal’s pandemic safety officer

Rebecca Cianci, assistant dean for administration, will serve as Smeal’s pandemic safety officer (PSO), a role essential to each academic unit’s implementation of the University-wide pandemic response effort. Although somewhat new to this post, Rebecca has served as an active, valuable member of the college’s fall semester planning taskforce. She has begun to collaborate with her fellow PSU PSOs to share best practices.

Gartner ranks Penn State No. 1 again

Penn State Smeal has once again garnered the top spot in Gartner’s rankings of North American graduate supply chain programs. Penn State was ranked No. 3 in undergraduate supply chain education.

Governor’s July 15 order won’t impact Back to State plans

The University is working with the Wolf Administration on its Back to State plans and has confirmed with the Pennsylvania Department of Education that the order limiting indoor gatherings to fewer than 25 people does not apply to classrooms. Other indoor gatherings, however, cannot exceed 25 individuals and must adhere to masking and social distancing requirements. The University will continue to work closely with the Wolf administration on its return-to-campus plans and is prepared to shift quickly as the pandemic and resulting orders and guidelines evolve, all with a focus on the health and safety of Penn State campuses and surrounding communities.

Updates from Penn State

Penn State faculty at all campuses are encouraged to complete this brief survey about the kinds of instructional development that will best support their teaching in Fall 2020.

The “Keep Teaching” website has updated Return to Resident Instruction guidance.

For the duration of the pandemic, Penn State University Libraries is licensing more e-books, and it scourse reserves materials will be available to students mostly online.

Presented by Penn State Teaching and Learning with Technology,Engaging Students Series virtual workshops are designed to help faculty make course revisions to support student success in synchronous and asynchronous remote learning environments. Several workshops are scheduled in July and August.

Visit https://www.research.psu.edu/COVID_return_researchfor more information regarding Penn State’s return-to-research plans.