Community Living

Requests are reviewed by the Housing Medical Accommodations Review Committee. The committee includes staff representatives from the Health Center, the Brandeis Counseling Center, Student Accessibility Support and Community Living. When necessary, the committee may consult with staff from Facilities Services or the Office of Equal Opportunity. Any appeals to decisions are reviewed and decided by the Office of Equal Opportunity.

While decisions are made by the committee, the logistical piece of the accommodations process is managed by Community Living Staff. This means that all documentation is collected by Community Living, any meetings regarding the process will be with Community Living and communication regarding your request will come from Community Living staff.

The committee goes through a multi-step process when considering requests:

Step 1: Confirm that the Housing Medical Accommodations Request form has been submitted by the student and provides adequate information to understand the need and the reason for each accommodation.

Step 2: Confirm that the student’s medical care provider has submitted the Housing Medical Verification Form. 

Step 3: Qualified staff from the Health Center and Brandeis Counseling Center review the Verification Form and provide a recommendation to the review committee on the following factors:

• The Verification Form is from within an appropriate time frame (usually 6 months to a year from the date of submission, depending on the condition).
• Was the form filled out by a medical care provider with sufficient knowledge and expertise in the condition they are assessing?
• Are the symptoms described in alignment with their understanding of the condition being documented?
• Does the requested accommodation make sense as a treatment of the condition described and/or are there other alternative treatments that should be considered?

Step 4: The Review Committee considers the request and any additional contextual knowledge about the student, conditions or housing availabilities to be considered

Step 5: The Review Committee determines if the accommodation being requested is considered a reasonable accommodation and if housing options are available to meet the requested accommodation.*

Once the Review Committee has made a decision, you will receive an email from Community Living staff. If your request is approved, you will be asked to set up a meeting to discuss the available housing options that meet your approved accommodation(s). 

If your entire request or any part of your request is denied, you will be sent an email by Community Living staff and be asked to setup a meeting to discuss the reasons for the denial and options moving forward. Sometimes these options will include re-submitting additional information or documentation for the request to be reviewed again, discussing any concerns around an accommodation request, or discussing the process of room selection outside of the accommodation’s process. 

Please know that the accommodations process works best when there is a dialogue between the students and staff. We are limited on our ability to run a fully interactive process given staffing limitations and the number of requests. However, if you have questions or concerns about the process or your request we encourage you to reach out and we will be able to set up a meeting to discuss the concerns or questions. The best way to contact us is by emailing housingaccommodation@brandeis.edu.

When determining the appropriate spaces to offer a student approved for accommodations, the following factors are considered:

• What housing is available that meets all (or as many as possible) of the student’s approved accommodations?
• Is the housing appropriate for their age and class year?
• If receiving an accommodation before room selection takes place, Community Living considers what housing that meets their approved accommodations needs would likely have been available to them in the room selection process based upon their room selection number.*
• Are there other factors to be considered, such as cost or gender restrictions?

*Please note that the accommodations process is not competitive. One student’s approval of their accommodation is not compared with the need of another student and there is no prioritization given between students based on their need. If the need is approved, they are given equal consideration. However, we can only offer the housing we have available. That is why it is always in the student’s best interest to apply for accommodations before room selection takes place when we have the largest number of available rooms of multiple configurations. We do hold rooms for ongoing accommodations after room selection, but they are limited and not guaranteed.

Yes, you can choose your roommate if you are in a bedroom housing more than one student (a double space) or you can choose one suite-mate. However, this does not extend to choosing all of the students who live within a suite. Housing accommodations are approved for only the individual student and does not extend to the housing of others.

We do take the room selection number of accommodated students into consideration when determining what housing to offer. If the student has a room selection number that we can confidently predict will allow them to pull in a full suite to their preferred housing, we will discuss with that student the merits of foregoing their accommodation in favor of using the general room selection process for their housing.

If a student forgoes their accommodated housing, they can always reapply for an accommodation. However, the offering of housing at that point will be determined by the rooms available after room selection has closed.