This year’s Brandeis University Staff Advisory Committee (BUSAC) nominations and elections are coming up. We will soon send all staff who are eligible to be nominated and vote in elections an email confirming their eligibility and a nomination form. To be eligible you must be a benefits eligible staff member or post-doc, who started before Sept. 8, 2021. If you have not received this email by the end of the day on Feb. 23 and think that you are eligible, please email BUSAC@brandeis.edu so that we can investigate and include you in as part of the elections process. Nominations of members of underrepresented groups are strongly encouraged.

The purpose of the BUSAC committee is to improve the work environment for Brandeis University staff through discussions and actions that influence policy; develop and enrich staff; and promote ongoing, meaningful and deliberate improvements to the staff experience. All interested staff members are welcome to attend an open BUSAC meeting on March 3 from 2-3 p.m via Zoom.

Do you care about Dining on campus? If so, here is your opportunity to learn more about the five food service operators participating in the current RFP process. The five vendors will be presenting on campus at the following dates and times:

• Harvest Table, February 28, 10 - 11:30 a.m.
• Nexdine, February 28, 2 - 3:30 p.m.
• Sodexo, March 1, 10 - 11:30 a.m.
• AVI, March 1, 2 - 3:30 p.m.
• Bon Appetit, March 2, 10 - 11:30 a.m.

All presentations will be held in the Sherman Function Hall located in the Hassenfeld Conference Center and broadcast on the WebZoom platform. Please visit the dining RFP web page for additional information.

Falling in love or falling victim? They could be one and the same. With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, the ITS Security Office would like to educate the Brandeis community on an increasing phishing scam—targeted at those seeking love—known as romance scams.

Millions of people turn to online dating sites and apps (e.g., Match, Bumble) or popular social media sites (e.g., Instagram, Facebook) to meet someone. Instead of finding romance, many find a scammer posing as a potential suitor who’s trying to trick them into sending money. Romance scams have become more complex and difficult to recognize in recent years. In the first half of 2021, the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received over 1,800 complaints related to online romance scams, resulting in losses of approximately $133.4 million. Learn how to spot the red flags of a romance scam from the National Cybersecurity Alliance or the FBI’s article on Beware of Romance Scams. If you have encountered a possible romance scammer, report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

For general questions about security best practices at Brandeis, contact the Security Office at security@brandeis.edu.

Are you a member of Phi Beta Kappa and a faculty member? Are you not receiving emails from Julie Seeger and Wendy Cadge? Please contact Julie (jseeger@brandeis.edu) so you can be added to the mailing list and part of the selection process for Brandeis undergraduates this spring.

The Dean of Students Office is seeking nominations from faculty and staff of undergraduate or graduate students who have made outstanding contributions to the Brandeis community, including contributions of leadership, social consciousness and activism, community building, and service. While special attention will be paid to graduating seniors, several prizes will go to students in other class years.

Please complete the nomination form by Tuesday, March 1.

The selected students will be honored at a ceremony on May 5 and will be listed in the Commencement program. Please direct all questions to the Dean of Students Office at deanofstudentsoffice@brandeis.edu.

The Workday Team is pleased to announce Workday Wednesdays, a 60-minute session held on Wednesdays from noon - 1 p.m., that provides faculty, staff, and students (topic dependent) an opportunity to meet with members to learn more about a given topic, task or process in Workday. Upcoming sessions topics include Managing Programs of Study, Managing the Hiring Process, and Using Class Rosters and Enrollments Reports. Visit the Workday@Brandeis website for session dates, corresponding topics, and Zoom link (registration not required). March topics will be announced soon. To submit a suggestion or request a specific topic, please reach out using the suggestion box. For more information or questions about using Workday, please contact help@brandeis.edu.

Calling Brandeis Faculty and Researchers: Sign up for an ORCID iD! An ORCID iD is a unique digital identifier that definitively ties your scholarly work to you, and can help increase recognition of your research. Your ORCID iD moves with you throughout your career, improving attribution and visibility of your grants, research, scholarship and creative and entrepreneurial activities. The use of ORCID iDs is fast becoming standard in academia, and many publishers and funders now require them.

Currently, fewer than 20% of faculty members have associated an ORCID iD with Brandeis. We are asking faculty and researchers who haven’t already done so to register for an ORCID iD then connect it to your ScholarWorks profile by Feb. 28. Registration is free and takes less than a minute. For directions and complete information, please visit the Brandeis Libraries Getting Started with ORCID Guide.

The IRS Form 1098-T is used by students/families who file a US Tax Return (Form 1040 or 1040-SR) and claim an education credit. The Form 1098T was printed and mailed prior to January 31 to students who are U.S. citizens/permanent residents with qualifying transactions in 2021; specifically, if they opted out of the electronic 1098-T option during onboarding. If these students opted for an electronic 1098-T, this form can be accessed, viewed, and printed in Workday.

This form is also available to students who are non-U.S. citizens/permanent residents, by request, if they have a U.S. Social Security Number on file with the University. Requests must be made annually via e-mail to sfs@brandeis.edu. Visit the SFS website for detailed information about the 1098-T form.

The IRS has announced a temporary expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for the 2021 tax year. For 2021, the EITC is generally available to filers without qualifying children who are at least 19 years old with earned income below $21,430; $27,380 for spouses filing a joint return. The maximum EITC for filers with no qualifying children is $1,502, up from $538 in 2020. There are also special exceptions for people who are 18 years old and were formerly in foster care or are experiencing homelessness. Full-time students under age 24 don't qualify. There is no upper age limit for claiming the credit if taxpayers have earned income. In the past, the EITC for those with no dependents was only available to people ages 25 to 64. For more information, visit the IRS EITC Awareness Day announcement.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that effective Saturday, January 15, 2022, you will be able to seek reimbursement through your health plan for up to eight (8) at-home COVID tests per 30-day period. If your dependents are enrolled in coverage, you can also seek reimbursement for up to eight (8) at-home COVID tests per dependent per 30-days. At this time, you will need to pre-pay for testing kits and seek reimbursement by completing the Tufts Member Reimbursement Form for COVID-19 At-Home Testing. Please see the Brandeis At-Home COVID Test website for additional information.

If you have medical insurance coverage outside of Brandeis University, please check with your health plan provider for more information. Please continue to check the COVID-19 Response website for more details about COVID policies, protocols and guidance.

President Biden has announced an additional extension of the pause on student loan repayment, interest and collections, through May 1, 2022. For assistance in developing a plan to resume payments in May, student loan borrowers should contact their loan servicers directly.

Open to all members of the Brandeis community

• Excel with Excel: Overview, Tips and Tricks. Part I, noon - 1 p.m. Friday, Mar. 4, and Part 2, noon - 1 p.m. Friday, Mar. 11
• Data Wrangling with Stata - Online, noon - 1 p.m. Monday, Feb. 14 
• Qualitative Research Analysis: Intro to Atlas.ti 9 (Windows users), noon - 1 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 15 
• Bivariate Analysis with Stata, noon - 1 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 16 
• Getting Started on Your Fellowship/Partner Research Project, noon - 1 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 16 
• R : Intro to Tidyverse- Data Visualization, noon - 1 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 17 
• Introduction to Zotero, 10 - 11:20 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 17
• Bivariate Analysis with Stata- Online, noon - 1 p.m. Monday, Feb. 28 
• Qualitative Research Analysis: Intro to Atlas.ti 9 (Mac users), noon - 1 p.m. Tuesday, Mar. 1 
• Survey Research: Intro to Qualtrics, noon - 1 p.m. Wednesday, Mar. 2 
• The Beginnings of Brandeis: A History in Pictures, 3 - 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Mar. 3 
• Introduction to Arduino Electronics Workshop, weekly Mondays at 10 a.m.
• Digital Scholarship Lab Access Orientation, weekly Tuesdays at 11 a.m.
• Intro to 3D Printing with Flashforge, weekly Tuesdays at 10 a.m.
• Brandeis MakerLab, Automation Lab and Digital Scholarship Lab Tour!, weekly Thursdays at 9 a.m.
• Intro to 3D Scanning, weekly Fridays at 9 a.m.
• Intro to CAD with TinkerCAD, weekly Fridays at 10 a.m.

Faculty Workshops - Open to all members of the teaching community!

• LATTE Office Hours, weekly 10 a.m. Fridays
• Using the Jamboard software for Teaching, weekly at 10 a.m. on Thursdays

The deadline for faculty and staff to provide Brandeis documentation of your COVID-19 booster dose is February 15, unless you have an approved medical or religious exemption. Please review the COVID vaccination requirements for complete information on booster shot requirements, including a step-by-step guide to uploading your booster shot card. If you have not yet received your booster shot, the University will be hosting an additional booster shot clinic this month on February 16.

Human Resources is kicking off the following spring workshops to provide staff with key knowledge and tools. Staff can register for any or all of the following workshops:

Half-day Virtual Workshops Presented by Skill Path from 9 a.m. – noon on the following dates:

• Monday 2/28 – Building More Effective Work Relationships

Managing at Brandeis Nuts & Bolts Series (presented via Zoom):

• Tuesday 2/15 – Intro to Hiring and Recruitment Process at Brandeis, 2 – 3:30 p.m.
• Thursday 2/17 – Conducting One-on-Ones, 10 – 11 a.m.

To register or for more detailed information please visit the Human Resources Training and Professional Development web page.

Brandeis faculty, staff, and students should continue to direct all tech-related inquiries to the Help Desk by submitting a help request, sending an email to help@brandeis.edu, or calling 781-736-4357. The team has resumed their regular schedule of Mon-Fri, 8 a.m. - 7 p.m. and Sat-Sun, 1 - 5 p.m. with in-person support available by appointment only. Visit the ITS website to view the complete Help Desk schedule for the Spring semester including exceptions. A knowledgeable team of technology support specialists are ready to help you and will continue to adhere to university and health guidelines to ensure the safety of both the team and the community.

The financial aid renewal application deadline for the 2022-2023 academic year will be March 1, 2022. Students receiving need-based scholarship funds must submit the 2022-2023 CSS/Financial Aid Profile, the 2022-2023 Free Application for Federal Student Aid, and copies of 2020 student and parent Federal Income Tax Returns. Students who wish to apply only for federal sources of financial aid need only complete the FAFSA (taxes will be requested upon receipt of this application only if necessary). An e-mail detailing the renewal process was sent to students and parents during the winter intersession.