Winter is approaching, and with it comes the threat of inclement weather that may affect our normal campus operations.

The safety of our students, faculty and staff is our first priority when reviewing the potential impact of weather on campus operations. Depending on the severity, we may close campus for the day, delay opening or close early.

When we decide to not open or delay the opening of campus, we will communicate this information in a timely manner, by 6 a.m. on the affected day, if not earlier. We will use the Brandeis Emergency Notification System, or BENS, to notify you by email, text and phone about any closings or delayed openings. Please take a few minutes today to review your emergency contact information in BENS to ensure it is correct, so that you are able to receive notifications by text or to a non-Brandeis email address or phone number.

Visit go.brandeis.edu/alerts for directions on how to check or update your information.

For more information please visit the Severe Weather website.

If you're looking to enhance your management and leadership skills in an academic environment grounded in social impact, we invite you to join us for an info session about the part-time Social Impact MBA at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management. Learn more about how you can obtain this degree while utilizing Brandeis’ tuition remission benefits.

To learn more about the event and register please visit the Heller Admission website.

As part of the ITS Security Initiative, ITS is rolling out Duo two-factor authentication. Passwords can be easily compromised due to phishing or malware. Duo Security protects your Brandeis account by requiring two forms of authentication to verify your identity when logging into Brandeis services: your Brandeis username and password, and a physical device such as mobile phone, tablet, or landline phone.

Staff are required to enroll by December 13. If you do not enroll in Duo by December 13, you will be unable to login into Brandeis services (such as Gmail or LATTE) and will be prompted to complete the Duo enrollment process.

We are targeting faculty and student worker enrollment to be completed by March.

For more information and to to enroll in Duo two-factor authentication please visit the IT website.

Procurement & Business Services is pleased to announce that we have upgraded our Amazon account in MarketPlace+ to Amazon Business Prime. Faculty and staff will now receive access to these new Business Prime benefits through the MarketPlace+ punchout and no action is required on your part. Business Prime provides free 2-day shipping on eligible Prime items, no matter the order size. You are no longer required to meet the $49 threshold. For items not eligible for free 2-day shipping, you will receive free standard shipping on eligible orders over $25.

Additionally, you will have early access to lightning deals on Amazon Business.

If you have any questions please email: procurement@brandeis.edu

Please note: as before, there are restrictions associated with Amazon Business purchasing. Preferred vendor contracts must still be used for their associated category.  For example, purchases for such things as Office Supplies must continue to use WB Mason.

Brandeis University as a non-profit organization is exempt from Massachusetts sales and use tax. The current Certificate of Exemption expires in January 2019. Massachusetts Department of Revenue will be sending an updated certificate to the university in mid-December, at that time Procurement will send the new certificate to current Brandeis suppliers.

More information will be provided when the updated certificate is received.

In keeping with Brandeis tradition and to assist you with your holiday planning, President Liebowitz has approved Dec. 24, 26, 27, 28 and 31 in addition to the Dec. 25 and Jan. 1 staff holidays.

The Human Resources Paid Time Off webpage reflect these discretionary days.