Kaltura has been selected as the university’s new digital media hosting platform to replace Ensemble Video, which will be retired in Fall 2022. The project to implement Kaltura is reaching its final stages! This is a full-featured digital media hosting platform that can be used to manage, store, and deliver videos across the web. Kaltura offers tools to help make videos accessible, interactive, and collaborative. Kaltura will be available to current students, faculty, and staff. If you are an existing Ensemble user, your videos have been transferred to Kaltura for you. In order to ensure a smooth transition from Ensemble to Kaltura, Media Technology Services and the Office of Communications will be reaching out to users directly in the coming weeks. For more information, please visit the Kaltura page on the ITS website to learn more about the transition from Ensemble to Kaltura. For questions, please contact Media Technology Services.

University Events and Facilities Services are launching a pilot program for all new on campus event space requests starting August 1, 2022 to make custodial fees for events more transparent and easier to estimate. Please visit the University Events website for additional information and frequently asked questions.

Library Summer Workshops - Open to all members of the Brandeis community!

• Researching in Archives, noon - 12:30 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 3
• Intro to 3D Printing with Flashforge, 10 a.m. - noon, Friday, Aug. 5
• The Beginnings of Brandeis: A History in Pictures, noon - 12:30 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 16
• Getting Started with Qualtrics, 1 - 1:50 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 16

Open to all members of the teaching community:

• LATTE Basics: Instructor Workshop, 3 - 4 p.m., Monday, Aug. 1
• Teaching with Archives, noon - 12:30 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 4
• LATTE Basics: Instructor Workshop, 1 - 2 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 10
• LATTE Basics: Instructor Workshop, 11 a.m. - noon, Monday, Aug. 22

All Brandeis Community members parking permits expire on August 31. We will open up the parking permit applications on July 11.

• You will be required to upload a picture of your vehicle registration and/or your driver’s license.

Students: Please go online to apply for your permit. Note: Permits will need to be paid at time of registration.

• You will be required to upload a picture of your vehicle registration and your driver’s license.
• Please note that only Junior and Senior Resident students and Commuter students are eligible to purchase a parking permit.
• Out of state students must bring a completed non-resident driver statement when picking up your parking permit, we will supply the Waltham Police with a copy.
• This form, which states the following, may be found at www.mass.gov/rmv/ : “It is unlawful for a nonresident student to fail to file a nonresident driver statement with the police department located in the same city or town as the school or college attended, in accordance with section 3 of chapter 90 of the Massachusetts General Lows. Failure to file such a statement in punishable by a fine to exceed $200.00.”

More info to follow regarding the permit pickup location. Any questions please let us know at Parking@brandeis.edu.

You are invited to participate in this year's Open Doors Host Program as a host! Open Doors offers incoming international students the opportunity to pair up with a "host" (Brandeis continuing students, staff, faculty, alumni, or other Brandeis affiliates) to learn more about U.S. culture, the Brandeis community, and the Waltham/Boston area.

Please note, Open Doors is not a homestay program. Rather, it is an opportunity to gain insight into another culture and to build a friendship.

As a host, you will receive your new student's information over the summer to begin an email exchange before they arrive on campus. There will be a Welcome Dinner and Orientation in early Sept. for hosts and students to formally meet. During the fall semester, the ISSO will reach out with ideas for activities that you and your student can do together. You can meet for coffee or lunch, go to an on-campus event, explore Boston together, invite them over for a holiday celebration, exchange your cultures and languages, or simply check in via email to cheer them on as they settle into their new home at Brandeis. The commitment is only for the Fall 2022 semester and contact with your new student after that is optional, although we encourage you to keep in contact with your student.

If you are interested in joining the program as a host, please see our Host FAQs page and sign up as soon as possible.

Traveling this summer and need to access Brandeis resources? Don't get locked out! Before you travel, ensure you can use DUO while away from Brandeis. Add a new device or modify existing devices at duo.brandeis.edu to ensure you can access Brandeis resources on the go. Need help? Check out our guide on the ITS Website or contact the Technology Help Desk.

If you’re traveling abroad for business or pleasure and will need to access Brandeis resources or will be taking a university-issued device with you, be sure to check in with the Information Security Office (security@brandeis.edu) to ensure there are no special security needs that apply to your situation.

The Fall 2022 bill is now available to students and families via the Nelnet Student Account Portal. Students can access their billing details by clicking the Nelnet Student Account Portal link found within the Student Account worklet in Workday. Students who have never accessed the Nelnet Student Account Portal before will need to set up their student profile (refer to the Nelnet - Account Access job aid for detailed instructions) before they can view the bill.

In order for parents, guardians, sponsors, or another party to receive the student's tuition bill, view the student account, and make payments, the student must add them as Authorized Parties in Nelnet. Once they are set up as an Authorized Party, parents/guardians can access Nelnet directly with their own usernames and passwords; they cannot use the student's log-in credentials to access the portal.

Facilities Administration partners are recognizing and celebrating the hard work and dedication of their essential employees on August 10 during an on-campus luncheon.

We are inviting our campus partners to send personal thank you messages to any facilities member or their department, which will be displayed at the luncheon.

We know this would mean a lot to the facilities employees to hear from campus members and partners. Please email your message to Facilities@brandeis.edu by August 8.

In late June, phase one of the Brandeis Advancement Customer Relationship Management (CRM) implementation went live for Institutional Advancement (IA). This replaces the Millennium system that the University was using since the early 2000's. The new suite of tools, hosted on the Salesforce platform, provides a modern, cloud-based and mobile friendly eco-system to support fundraising and alumni relations activities.

The core CRM tool is called Ascend, and it provides the foundational solution for constituent management activities. The Salesforce platform will also host an integrated suite of tools for advancement functions including Pardot for communications and direct marketing, Linvio for event management, Conga for document generation, and Tableau CRM for advanced reporting.

Over the upcoming weeks and months, phase two implementation work will continue as additional functionality is configured for IA. Concurrently, as we move into the fall, we will be expanding the rollout of the Brandeis Advancement CRM to additional departments/units on campus who engage with Brandeis constituents.

To learn more about the Brandeis Advancement CRM, visit the implementation website or email crm-help@brandeis.edu.

As a commitment to the Brandeis University Community to continue to improve the reliability the Brandeis University’s Fire Alarm Systems, we have scheduled our 2022 annual Fire Alarm Testing.

Testing is ongoing now through August 10. Please visit the Department of Facilities Services for reference to the schedule. Please check periodically as the schedule is subject to change depending on department or university events. Signage will be placed at the entry doors to the buildings during the test to notify those entering the buildings. Any questions regarding the testing, please email the Department of Facilities Services.

Beginning August 1, Information Technology Services will require off-campus faculty, staff, and students to use Pulse Secure to remotely access on-campus Windows, Mac, and Linux services and workstations. This change will specifically affect Remote Desktop and SSH protocols. This step is being taken to comply with audit findings from the University’s cyber insurance carrier as well as commitments to the Board of Trustee’s Risk Management & Audit committee and guidance from our external security consults. If you need assistance connecting to the Brandeis VPN Service, please visit https://www.brandeis.edu/its/services/network-connectivity/vpn.html or contact the Brandeis Help Desk by sending an email to help@brandeis.edu, or calling 781-736-4357 for more information.