Academic Services

Academic Services.  SAS is part of the network of student resources and advisors within Academic Services. The Academic Services Office coordinates a cohesive network of student leaders, staff, and faculty who provide academic advising and support services for undergraduate students.  In addition to SAS, the other units that make-up Academic Services include: academic advising, fellowships, the Myra Kraft Transitional Year Program (MKTYP), pre-health advising, and the Student Support Services Program (SSSP).  SAS provides referrals and closely collaborates with these other units in the department.

Roosevelt Fellows.  Roosevelt Fellows are junior or senior peer mentors who offer one-on-one academic advising and events throughout the academic year. Your Roosevelt Fellow will be able to provide a student's perspective on academics at Brandeis.

Brandeis Undergraduate Group Study (BUGS) Tutors.  BUGS is a program in Academic Services open to all Brandeis undergraduates which offers tutoring at no cost to students.

 

The Writing Center offers feedback from experienced and supportive graduate-student consultants who will address macro-level writing issues (e.g., structure, scope, organization, style), and micro-level concerns (e.g., punctuation, semantics, syntax, vocabulary).  The Writing Center offers feedback for both face-to-face appointments and asynchronous appointments using their e-tutoring document drop. To schedule an appointment, log into your WCOnline account (or you can create one if this is your first time making an appointment).


English Language Programs (ELP) provides English language services to all students, staff, and faculty at Brandeis. They offer critical reading and analytical writing tutorials with a trained tutor. This is a great way for students to improve their papers for UWS or any other writing intensive courses. ELP tutorials are a regular weekly commitment (50 minutes) with the same tutor, so that you build your critical thinking and analytical writing skills systematically while improving sentence structure and grammar. To sign-up, you can either complete the online enrollment form or email ELP directly (elp@brandeis.edu).

The Student Accessibility Support Fellows are in place to support their peers in their adjustment to college life, both academically and socially. SAS Fellows are current Brandeis University undergraduate students who have had experience effectively navigating campus resources. During office hours, SAS Fellows help to create a welcoming, stigma-free campus community that promotes disability awareness so that all students have an opportunity to flourish and embrace their differences.

The Brandeis Campus Accessibility Committee (CAC) is an interdisciplinary group of students, staff, and faculty from all over the University who work together to identify and address accessibility concerns. For more information or to inquire about becoming a member of the CAC, contact Cara Streit, Director of Student Accessibility Support, at CaraStreit@brandeis.edu

The Brandeis Counseling Center (BCC) provides counseling for students in times of stress and encourages them to ask for help with their most immediate concerns.  The BCC provides a variety of services such as: individual therapy, group therapy, workshops and discussion groups, etc.  Their contact information is bcc@brandeis.edu (non-urgent email) or 781-736-3730 (front desk).  The BCC is located in Mailman House.

781-736-2265
brandeisombuds@brandeis.edu

University Ombuds is a confidential, independent, impartial and informal resource for all members of the Brandeis Community including undergraduates and graduate students, faculty, staff, and alumni. The Ombuds support individuals by providing a safe space to talk confidentially about difficult situations. The Ombuds meets personally with individuals to actively listen to concerns and discuss options and resources for conflict resolution. The Ombuds can help individuals evaluate options to address concerns, help identify others who can help, explain University policies and procedures, facilitate communication between people, discuss ways to resolve problems informally, and explain options for taking action.

 

The Hiatt Career Center has lots of great online resources on their website for employment rights, disclosing a disability with an employer to request accommodations, and networking!  Check out Hiatt's Students with Disabilities resource.

Also, you can subscribe to the DEI Career Connection Groups which is a bi-weekly email with career opportunities and positions that are specifically welcoming for diverse populations, including individuals with disabilities. Sign-up for the newsletter.

Brandeis has a number of resources developed around creating accessible websites. This Web Accessibility website provides guidance and standards for Brandeis websites, as well as additional guidance on creating accessible documents and other types of digital content.

We encourage you to check out the Making Digital Materials Accessible online course.  This is a self-paced, LATTE course that goes over topics such as "Digital Accessibility 101" and "Fixing Inaccessible Materials."

The Brandeis Library is dedicated to providing access and services to all members of the Brandeis community.  If faculty have direct questions and/or need any instructional support, please reach out to library@brandeis.edu. 

Kurzweil 3000 is an assistive technology, text-to-speech software, that supports in making course curricula accessible and is free for all Brandeis students, faculty, and staff.  SAS and Library Services have a user-friendly Kurzweil 3000 guide for all Brandeis community members. If you still have any questions on how to use the software, please reach out to SAS (access@brandeis.edu).

If you are a faculty or staff member and are seeking accommodations, please visit Support at Brandeis for more information.

Brandeis also has a group for disabled staff and faculty members and peers who support them. The group discusses disability-related issues that arise from work and the workplace and provides support and advocacy where needed, while also encouraging self-advocacy. At times, the group might focus on issues or themes associated with state or national circumstances or events, particularly as these affect staff members and faculty with disabilities on campus. Interested participants should contact Mel Ptacek. 

Quizlet: This app/website provides a tool for practice tests or quizzes. You can create your virtual flashcards. Then, your virtual flashcards lead you to use other options, such as practice quizzes of multiple questions and matching games.

Google Calendar: This app/website is a virtual calendar. You can set alerts when you schedule events, assignments, or projects deadlines. Whenever an email with an event attached is sent to your Gmail, it can automatically go into your Google calendar if you set it that way.

Remember the Milk (RTM) To-Do List: A to-do list app that alerts you of your tasks and assignments or projects based on upcoming deadlines. The app automatically sets you up with a RTM email address, so each email sent to this special address is automatically converted into a task, and added to your Remember The Milk account.

24me: This app has a virtual calendar, to-do list, and notes including weather and directions with various modes of transportation. The app syncs with Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, and iCal.

My Study Life: This program is a mobile app and desktop website. Your dashboard tracks your exam/quiz dates as well as your assignments for completion. It shows you how many days before the deadline. It will alert you when the deadline is due via your computer and/or your phone.

Todoist: Helpful for students who want to plan not only their school work, but errands, travel, and other tasks as well.  In “Settings,” you choose whether you want to receive push notifications, email notifications, or both AND choose how much time beforehand you want to receive the automatic reminder.

Trello: A project management app that lets you organize to-do lists and projects into visual boards. Each board in Trello allows you to create lists inside, and these lists have cards.. You can attach files to each card, as well as add labels, task lists, commenting among many other features.

Flora: Free version of the Flora app is useful when you want to stay off your phone with a set timer to focus on your tasks. You grow a virtual tree every time you accomplish your goal. If you pick your phone up before the time is over, your virtual tree dies. As you complete many goals, you have created your virtual forest.

SelfControl App: This app only works for Apple products and blocks you from accessing any websites of your choice until your set time block set is lifted. This app is perfect for preventing someone from going onto social media instead of working on a paper.

Pomodoro Timer: Helps you effectively manage your time and work on a task without distractions. Each Pomodoro is a 25-minute cycle followed by a 5-minute break. After the fourth Pomodoro, you will take a 15-minute break. If you prefer, you can customize your timer to meet your needs if you focus better with shorter or longer periods of work and/or breaks.

Grammarly: This program works well as an add-on for computers and checks basic grammatical mechanics, tones, or spelling errors for writing papers or emails. However, it does not help with topic organization and clarity.

Google Voice Typing: This feature only works when you use Google Chrome for Google Slides and Google Docs. You can turn on the microphone feature under tools to speak into. The computer will convert your speech to type for you.

Microsoft Word Dictation Feature: This feature in Microsoft Word can type what you say and you can also use punctuation commands. The feature can support nine languages including: Chinese, French, German, Italian, and Spanish (Mexico and Spain), and English (the United States, Canada, and the UK).

Magnifying Glass + Flashlight (Apple): This app works for the iPhone. You can zoom in and brighten the images. Also, you can adjust the screen to a dark contrast black mode.

Magnifier + Flashlight (Android): This app works for Android phones. You can zoom in, use lighting controls, and your flashlight to get a better image or activate the negative color mode on the screen. You can screenshot the image so you can read, save, or share it.

Kurzweil 3000: Kurzweil 3000 is an assistive technology, text-to-speech software, that supports in making course curricula accessible and is free for all Brandeis students, faculty, and staff.  There is a desktop version (which you can download from ITS’s website), an online version, and a web extension for Firefox and Google Chrome.  SAS and Library Services have a user-friendly Kurzweil 3000 guide for all Brandeis community members. If you still have any questions on how to use the software, please reach out to SAS (access@brandeis.edu).

Recently, we have been promoting the online version of Kurzweil 3000- they had an update that improves the functionality online over the downloaded software. You can watch this instructional video to get started once you have created your username and password to log in.

Speechify: This software can read messages, documents, news articles, and social media on your computer, phone, and tablet. You can maintain a free trial of Speechify by skipping credit card information.

Natural Reader: This website can read aloud your course readings (you can either upload the document or copy/paste the text onto the actual website) and it could also be helpful to allow you to listen to your paper drafts for revision. You can adjust the computer voice tone with a choice of high or low-toned voices.

TTSReader: This website and its free app version is similar to Natural Reader and can read aloud your papers or your course’s reading materials, from PDFs to ebooks. You can adjust the reading speed.

Nagish: This is a free Apple/Android phone app that provides automatic text-to-speech and speech-to-text options when initiating or receiving phone calls. While speaking during the call, you can use your own voice or even type out your message on your phone for the caller to hear a natural-sounding automatic voice. While listening during the call, you can use the speaker as well as read the captioning. Although this conversion can lag for 3-4 seconds, and the automatic captioning can contain some errors, it is a good app for supporting communication access in situations when a phone call is required.

MathType: This software add-on for Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel), Google Docs, and Mac Office Software (Pages, Key Note) converts math and science equations into an accessible format that can be read by a screen reader such as Jaws, Read Aloud, and Voice Over.

Math Assistance from Microsoft OneNote: This program requires a Microsoft OneNote account. Write or type any math problem and Math Assistant in OneNote can solve it for you—helping you reach the solution quickly, or displaying step-by-step instructions that help you learn how to reach the solution on your own. After solving your equation, there are many options to continue exploring math learning with Math Assistant.

Khan Academy: This website provides many free videos that demonstrate various math subjects, such as algebra, pre-calculus, and calculus in a verbal and captioning format to refresh any lessons and/or clarify course materials. It also includes other science subjects, such as physics, chemistry, biology, and electrical engineering.