Providing feedback on a regular basis is critical for the development, retention and success of our employees. Given the current external environment and the impact on our campus operations, providing feedback, being engaged and managing expectations with employees is vitally important during this period of uncertainty.

It is important to continue with the annual performance evaluation process which provides valuable performance feedback to employees. Performance reviews for the period July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020 are due to Human Resources on or before June 30.

For more detailed information please visit the Human Resources website.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act provides options for you to consider as you navigate financial decisions in the coming months. Brandeis University has chosen to adopt the following CARES Act provisions for our retirement plans:

• Penalties and withholding are waived for qualified distributions from retirement plan accounts
• Retirement plan loan limits have been increased
• Optional suspension of required minimum distributions (RMDs) for 2020

A detailed email has been sent to plan participants and can be found on the Human Resources website. As always, we recommend reaching out to your financial consultant to review your current situation - along with short - and long-term financial goals - before making any decisions.

It's fresh, it's fun, it’s customizable!

Sign up today for the brand new customizable Warner Farm CSA program, and receive a personalized box of fresh, delicious, locally grown vegetables, delivered right to the Brandeis campus. Our new CSA program offers the option to customize your shares and your delivery schedule, so you’ll receive all the produce you love and nothing you don’t! Choose from three sizes of vegetable shares, as well as fruit, flower, mushroom and egg shares. Deliveries take place from June through October every Thursday from 2:30-7 p.m. right to the Spingold Theater. It's the best way to eat healthy and local this season without breaking the bank! Visit www.warnerfarm.com/csa or email csa@warnerfarm.com to learn more.

Teladoc is a convenient and affordable way to access quality care for general medical, behavioral health and dermatology services by web, phone or a mobile app. Teladoc allows you to virtually connect with a network of board-certified doctors available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Virtual care allows you to see a provider in real-time through a secured two-way video. Brandeis employees that participate in Tufts Health Plan can access an array of services. 92 percent of issues are resolved after the first virtual visit. For more detailed information about how it works please visit the Teladoc website.

Did you know that phishing attacks are the most common way to access a protected network like the one at Brandeis? Phishing is a scam where someone sends you a message trying to get you to open a file, click a link, or follow provided instructions. Their goal is to steal your personal information or money. Although Brandeis ITS identifies and blocks thousands of phishing and other malicious emails every week, cybersecurity is everyone’s responsibility. ITS is excited to announce the launch of a phishing awareness program. The program is designed to help the community learn how to recognize, avoid and report malicious emails in order to protect the university and themselves.

In the upcoming weeks, faculty and staff will bargain to periodically receive an email that resembles a phishing message. The awareness program is a safe, educational environment for you, the recipient, to practice phishing email identification with no penalty if a link is clicked. If you open a link in one of these phishing simulated messages, you will be redirected to an informational web page with security information and an informational video. The expectation is that members of the campus community will recognize these emails as phishing attempts, not click on the links contained in them and report them to ITS. If a recipient suspects that an email is phishing — whether a training example from this program or a real threat — any suspicious message(s) should be forwarded to phishing@brandies.edu for the security team to review. These reports help the security team tune email filters to block future messages from the same sender.

Bright Horizons Back-Up Care provides access to back-up care for your children, adult and elder family members. During this unprecedented time, we want to make sure you’re aware of updates and enhancements to better support you.

• Additional Family Supports for Benefit Eligible Employees – With the current strain on working parents’ work/life routines, we want to remind you that you have a free premium membership ($150 value) to Sittercity, which provides access to a comprehensive database for finding sitters, nannies, elder companions, pet care, and housekeepers.

• Updates to COVID-19 Policies – For updated guidelines on back-up care related to COVID-19, visit: http://www.brighthorizons.com/covid19.

Please visit Human Resources website to view detailed information about the Dependent Care Resource & Referral Pilot Program.

Tired of getting emails that look like spam or newsletters? During this time of virtual living and working, phishing scams are rampant across the world. ITS strongly recommends all faculty, staff, and students enroll in Proofpoint, an email protection tool, to add a layer of security to your Brandeis email account. Proofpoint will help protect you by automatically filtering spam (e.g., marketing, cold sales, etc.) or bulk (e.g., newsletters, other mass mailings, etc.) messages from reaching your inbox. By default, both spam and bulk email are filtered but you can control what reaches your mailbox. Once enrolled, you will receive a daily digest at 8 a.m. ET containing any message(s) that have been filtered. This allows you to manage which message(s) and sender(s) you would like to receive in your inbox. Proofpoint will also scan any link(s) to a website within an email message to determine whether the site is known to be malicious and add a layer of security encryption to the URL.

To learn more, visit the email protection webpage on the ITS website which includes video tutorials, getting started guides and FAQs. For more information or questions, contact security@brandeis.edu.

As we use technology in our day-to-day lives, information security is even more critical in both our professional and personal lives. In an effort to protect university computing resources and data against malicious activity, ITS is working to ensure that all university-owned machines meet the security protection requirements outlined in the Written Information Security Policy. To date, ITS has deployed a suite of security tools and services to approximately 60% desktops and laptops. As a friendly reminder, ITS will continue to work with schools, departments, and centers and institutes to deploy the security protection software to machines that can be updated remotely. The suite of tools includes endpoint protection (enSilo; replaces Symantec and Malwarebytes), data backup and recovery (Code42 CrashPlan), and identity data protection (Spirion) software. To learn more, visit the Understanding Your Security Tools page on the ITS website. If you have any questions, please contact security@brandeis.edu.

If you didn’t know what or how to use Zoom before mid-March, we’re all familiar with the video conferencing tool now as we use throughout the day to virtually attend classes, meetings or social gatherings. Just how much Zoom-ing has the Brandeis community been doing? In the last 30 days - when we transitioned to a virtual way of learning, working and living - the community has held 24,615 meetings consisting of over 8,345,093 meeting minutes. With 270,423 participants in the US, the next top 9 locations by participants are Indonesia, 1272; China, 1216; Canada, 1174; Netherlands, 981; United Kingdom, 697; Israel, 652; India, 467; France, 463; and Germany, 388.

Due to the current situation, Institutional Advancement has made the difficult decision to cancel Alumni Weekend this year. While the weekend itself will not take place as scheduled June 5-7, reunions will be postponed to a later date, and a number of Alumni College sessions are being offered virtually. For more information, please refer to the Alumni Weekend homepage or email alumniweekend@brandeis.edu.

University Records Management (URM) would like to remind you that both electronic and paper materials used/created at home need the same protections as Brandeis records used/created on-campus. Be sure to consider how you are keeping, filing, and disposing of PII, sensitive, and/or confidential information. Contact URM at records@brandeis with any questions or for more information.

Brandeis celebrates the arts this year with Create@Brandeis: Living Room Fest. Students, faculty, staff and alumni will present performances and interactive activities ranging from improv comedy to artist talks to tap-dance lessons, with plenty of programs for children ages 3-11. All programs will be streamed or posted online on the Festival of the Arts website, where a complete schedule will be posted on April 24.

If you would like to propose a short program to be streamed or posted online, please contact Ingrid Schorr, Director of Arts Engagement, by April 17.

Human Resources is offering the following workshops:

• Managing Crisis in the Workplace -  Tuesday, April 28 10-11:00 a.m.
• Leading Employees Through Change – Thursday, May 14 10-11 a.m.
• Becoming an Effective Stress Manager - Monday, May 18 10-11 a.m.
• Work/Home/Self – Keeping Balance in Your Life – Thursday, May 28 10-11 a.m.

For more information and to register please visit the Human Resources Training and Professional Development web page. Please contact Cynthia Farquhar with any questions.

Starting in 2020, the Office of Human Resources rolled out new and revised policies, rewards and benefits programs. To help the community understand these changes, BUSAC and the Office of Human Resources co-sponsored sessions to provide an opportunity to discuss these policies and benefits and ask questions. Sessions were recorded and available online. For more information and to watch the videos please visit the Office of Human Resources website.

Denim Day began more than 20 years ago, after the Italian Supreme Court overturned a rape conviction. The justices felt that since the victim was wearing tight jeans, she must have helped remove them— implying consent. The following day, women in the Italian Parliament came to work wearing jeans to show solidarity. Since then, Denim Day has become an annual symbol of protest against erroneous and destructive attitudes about sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape.

The Brandeis community is invited to join a digital Denim Day this year on Wednesday, April 29.

Here are some ways to show solidarity on Denim Day with those who have experienced sexual violence:

• Wear denim. Denim jeans, jackets, hats – any and all denim is encouraged.

• Show your support on social media with the hashtag #DEISDenimDay. Share pictures of your denim and let survivors know that you support them. PARC will be reposting your messages of support all day.

The Office of Human Resources and Skill Path will be offering the following virtual full-day workshop:

• Essentials of Communication and Collaboration, Wednesday, May 6

For more information and to register please visit the Office of Human Resources Training and Professional Development Webpage. Please contact Cynthia Farquhar with any questions.