Department of Community Living

The Community Check-Ins Working Group is dedicated to creating time for Brandeis students to come together alongside members of Community Living to discuss the complex issues of racial inequality and injustice.

• Update 9/30: It is important that Community Living is continuing to listen to our students' needs, in our ongoing efforts to become an antiracist department. Every student’s experience is unique, and their stories are vital to shaping our understanding. Moving forward, we will be dedicated to creating time for Brandeis students to come together alongside members of Community Living to discuss the complex issues of racial inequality and injustice. Starting Friday, October 2nd, from 3-5 p.m. Community Living members will be at the Usdan tent to make space for our students' to voice their concerns, bring their ideas, and be heard by our staff members. You deserve to be continuously heard by us. We would like to create opportunities such as these, for both virtual and in-person dialogue, and depending on the student interest, we will be looking to create these opportunities at least once a month. To submit questions or topics you'd like discussed at this first Community Check-in, please submit this short form. We hope that these community check-ins will aid in our department's process of listening, identifying and acknowledging challenges, seeking solutions, and making change. Note: due to the first forum being in person, we will have to be mindful of the space and capacity of the Usdan tent.
• Update 8/28: The Community Check-in Working Group was developed and staff held their first meeting the following week. 

The Anti-Racism Working Group is focused on training for both our professional and student staff. 

• Update 9/30: The working group met, and reviewed inquiries on policy and enforcement concerns. A future meeting was set up for collaborative work with SRCS to address these concerns. Anti-racism programming outreach to colleagues at Brandeis continues to be a priority for further training and development of both the professional and para-professional staff. The AC staff is working on adding in elements of anti-racist work into their staff meetings weekly. The team is meeting early next week to outline options and test some strategies.
• Update 9/24: Currently this working group is focusing on developing anti-racism training for our professional staff. They are also starting to review policies set in place that are confusing and/or concerning.
• Update 8/28: The Anti-Racism Working Group was formed. Staff scheduled and held their first meeting the following week to discuss plans and goals for the committee.

Student Support Action Blueprint (SSAB) is focused on creating a more fluid, easy to understand collection of resources for residents living on campus.

• Update 9/24: SSAB is currently scheduling and holding meetings with campus partners to discuss the creation of policies. 
• Update 8/28: The SSAB was developed and held its first meeting.

The Communications Committee will work to share information via email, social media, and our website, providing updates on the work that our staff is doing. This committee will also manage our social media, focusing on what we are posting on our feeds and stories.

• Update 9/30: The committee helped create this webpage for continued updates to be posted and they will look to review survey results from the email Community Living sent to on-campus residents. 
• Update: 9/14: The "Meet the Staff" Campaign began on Instagram and Facebook. 
• Update 9/3: Community Living posted their response to the Black Action Plan on Instagram and Facebook.
• Update 8/28: The Committee was formed and held their first meeting, creating the "Meet the Staff" campaign.

This section will provide updates from Community Living that come from outside our various working groups.

• Update 9/23: A new position called Lockout Assistants, is being developed and investigated to help with lockouts that occur after the Community Living office is closed and Community Advisors are done with duty. This has the potential to remove the reliance on police officers responding to lockouts inside residence halls. 
• Update 9/21: Community Living posted the statistics from Health and Safety Inspections that occurred in Spring 2020 and Fall 2019 to our website. This includes information about what inspection violations resulted in a follow-up by the CA or a Community Standards Report submitted. 
• Update 9/16: Community Living now has the ability to plug and unplug residents' doors for various reasons. This was a function that was previously exclusive to the Brandeis Police Department.
• Update 9/1: Community Living meets with Care Team members to discuss new matrix for wellness checks. Edits and revisions are made and new matrix is sent to Divisional leadership for review and implementation through the Care Team network.
• Update 8/31: Through a partnership with Procurement, a new vehicle was confirmed for Community Living. The new vehicle will be a Toyota Highlander-Hybrid and that will replace the current Ford Explorer. The new vehicle is on order and will be delivered once it arrives for immediate use.
• Update 8/28: Community Living started looking into getting a different vehicle to replace the current Ford Explorer when the current fleet lease expires.
• Update 8/27: Community Living continues to advocate for scaling back "wellness checks" for any other reason that an immediate Health & Safety concern. Community Living has been left to do continued wellness checks at all levels making students feel unnecessarily policed by the University. A meeting was set up to establish new parameters for wellness checks and concerns related to student care.
• Update Fall 2019: Community Living created a Health and Safety Inspection Working Group. We piloted scheduling a 2-hour block of time where your health and safety inspection could be completed. In Spring 2020, we moved forward with sharing the schedule of inspections with residents via email and posted it on our website. The focus group of students made the recommendation that scheduling inspections was not important, but that sharing the inspection times with more detail was the most important piece of the process. The group suggested that modification for the Fall 2020 inspection cycle.