Today’s tip: Northwestern has relaunched its COVID-19 Dashboard, with enhanced testing data and reporting tools.

Better Zoom experiences

Zoom continues to improve, with forthcoming changes to security. Beginning Sept. 27, all Northwestern Zoom sessions will require either the passcode or waiting room setting to be enabled to increase protection against unwelcome disturbances. As you prepare, review other tips for preventing “Zoombombing,” including how to request a webinar license for meetings open and advertised to the public.

The Bienen School of Music has collaborated with several peer institutions on Zoom upgrades that will boost online music instruction.

A hack by McCormick professor Michael Peshkin will help teachers and students on Zoom recreate the experience of working on written projects together across a desk.

And, are you ready for a fresh Zoom look? Global Marketing and Communications has created a variety of University-branded templates to bring that Northwestern feel to your learning sessions, virtual meetings and more.

‘How do we stop the bleeding today?’

Sociologist Andrew Papachristos discusses the pandemics of gun violence and COVID-19. And he explains what “defund the police” means to him as a researcher. Read the IPR conversation.

New director of Northwestern University Press

Parneshia Jones, who has advanced Northwestern University Press as editor for the last two decades, will take the helm as its new director. The Evanston native and published poet will assume the new role Sept. 21. Read more about her.

Fighting for local news — and democracy

Today few Americans have print newspaper subscriptions, and many local news outlets have struggled to develop a digital audience. Challenges like these are among the intractable problems Medill’s Local News Initiative was created to help solve. The initiative, launched in 2018, joins experts in digital innovation, audience understanding and business strategy to bolster the sustainability of local news in America.

Sculptor seeks to reclaim a lost Iraq. Art theory and practice professor Michael Rakowitz discusses his work and its connection to his heritage in a recent New Yorker profile.