The Brandeis Sustainability Committee has created an incredible lineup of curricular and co-curricular opportunities for the year. Just a few upcoming highlights include the residency of Sojourn Theatre with the "Year of Climate Action / A Devised Participatory Performance (September 23-24);" a local environmental justice panel with Maria Belen Power of GreenRoots and Heller School alumni (September 28); and a series of dinners with Brandeis' Climate Organizer-in-Residence for the semester, Eben Bein of Our Climate (beginning October 4). And on September 13 & 15, we will host the Caterpillar Lab for hands-on learning about biodiversity and climate change. Underpinning these are exciting new ways that Brandeis is acting on climate change, including developing a decarbonization action plan, trialing new organic land management practices, and more. View our website for a full list of our current programming and subscribe to our newsletter or follow us on Instagram to stay up to date as new programming will continue to be announced.

On August 24, 2022, the Biden-Harris Administration announced a plan to provide targeted student loan debt cancellation to borrowers with loans held by the Department of Education (ED), as well as a final extension on the pause on student loan repayment, interest, and collections through December 31, 2022.

President Biden has capped the loan cancellation at $10,000 for single borrowers making less than $125,000, or households earning less than $250,000, during the pandemic. The relief includes current students and borrowers who have federally-held undergraduate, graduate, and Parent PLUS loans where the first disbursement was on or before June 30, 2022. (Borrowers who were dependent students in the 2021-22 year will be eligible for relief based on parental income, rather than their own income.) Borrowers who fall under the income caps, and also received Pell Grants, will receive an extra $10,000, totaling $20,000 in forgiveness. Current Brandeis students can view their loan and Pell grant information by going to Workday and selecting Student Financial Aid and then Financial Aid Portal.

ED will be announcing further details on how borrowers can claim this relief in the weeks ahead. Please visit the Federal Student Aid debt relief website for updates.

Brandeis University is committed to the health and safety of our faculty and staff. Human Resources, in partnership with Vaxinate Rx and Health Care Family Pharmacy, is pleased to announce that we will be offering vaccination clinics to our employees. This year's clinic will include the flu vaccination as well as the COVID booster listed below. The dates and times for these clinics are:

• 9/14, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
• 9/28, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
• 10/12, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
• 10/24, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
• 11/9, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

All clinics will take place in Hassenfeld, Levine Ross rooms 1 and 2.

For additional information and to register, visit the Human Resources webpage.

Once every two years, Brandeis University performs a physical inventory of capital equipment. This year, HCA Asset Management, will be returning to campus to inventory our equipment as well as replace our current tags with RFID (remote frequency identification) tags between October 31, 2022 and November 11, 2022. If you’d like to learn more about RFID tags and the inventory process, please join us in a virtual town hall on September 20 from 10-11 a.m. If you are unable to attend this session, we will also be having an additional session on September 22 from 2-3 p.m. Registration is required. Questions may be submitted in advanced to lsipla@brandeis.edu or during the town hall.

• Register for September 20, 10 - 11 a.m.
• Register for September 22, 2 - 3 p.m.

Eligible staff and faculty may enroll in Brandeis Graduate Professional Studies (GPS) master’s degree programs and receive up to 100% tuition remission. GPS programs are fully online and designed for working professionals. The most popular degree programs for employees are Project and Program Management, Digital Marketing and Design, and User-Centered Design. GPS offers four start dates throughout the year. The next application deadline is September 21. To learn more about the degree paths, contact Christie Barone, Director of Admissions.

Time off is an important benefit, and we encourage all staff to use their available time to rest and reenergize. Vacation time is meant to be restorative, is important for our well-being and can help improve productivity and creativity. It also can help reduce stress, help prevent burnout and promote work-life balance.

Brandeis offers a comprehensive benefits package, including a generous time-off program for staff. As we approach the fall, it is important for managers and staff to review vacation time balances. Managers should actively balance the needs of staff time off, with the operational needs of their department, and help staff find time to use available vacation days before the end of 2022.

While the University does provide a service-based vacation carry over policy, there are limits on the number of days that can be carried over from one calendar year to the next. Staff with high vacation balances may lose time, not including carry over amounts, if they do not use their available vacation days before December 31.

As a reminder, managers can review individual employee's time off balances in Workday under ‘Time Off’ and also review an absence calendar under ‘Team Absence’ that shows each employee's planned vacations and other absences (approved and unapproved). View the Benefits Eligible Staff Workday Time Off Categories.

As we begin a new semester, the Division of Student Affairs would like to share some exciting news! Over the summer, the departments formerly known as Student Activities and Community Service have collectively become the Department of Student Engagement. This change will allow us to streamline services and best support student co-curricular needs. Additionally, we implemented a new online platform for student organizations and engagement called Campus Groups. This new platform takes the place of Presence, which was previously used by clubs and organizations. All Brandeis students will be able to use the Campus Groups to join groups, see what their groups are up to, and register for events happening on campus. Faculty and staff have the opportunity to use this platform to learn more about student organizations and their events. You can access the site at brandeis.campusgroups.com. Feel free to reach out to the Department of Student Engagement with any questions.

As part of their semi-annual upgrade process this September, Workday will be enhancing the system’s homepage. After years of keeping their homepage static, Workday is implementing a new, mandatory homepage for all clients. You will see the new homepage when logging into Workday on and after September 7.

As a brief preview, a new menu at the top-left of your screen will house all your Workday applications, dashboards, and shortcuts. A list of the top three “quick tasks” users access the most will also be at the top of your homepage, while your Workday inbox will shift to the upper right-hand corner of your screen. The new Workday homepage also is more dynamic, shifting applications and messages to different areas of your screen, depending on your monitor/screen size and zoom ratio.

For more information on the changes coming to Workday and to Watch a Preview of Workday's Homepage Enhancements, please visit the Workday@Brandeis website or email help@brandeis.edu.

Reminder: Workday Wednesdays take place every Wednesday at noon via Zoom. These are sessions designed for users to ask questions and learn about different tasks and functions in Workday. To learn about upcoming topics, visit the Workday@Brandeis Workday Wednesdays page.

Share your expertise and help students succeed! Teach a six-week Life Skills module in spring 2023 as part of the Health, Wellness, and Life Skills component of the Brandeis Core. All Brandeis employees and graduate students are eligible to submit a proposal.

What life skills can you impart? Here are some examples:

• Financial literacy
• Career development
• Social skills/communication/team building/leadership
• Reducing carbon footprint
• Citizenship/civic engagement/community organizing
• Time management/study skills

If teaching a module's content is not already included in your job description, compensation for teaching a module is $480 per 6-week module.

To submit a proposal to the HWLS Committee, complete the New Module Approval Form, draft a proposed syllabus, and send these materials to Sarah Hall, shall@brandeis.edu by Monday, Sept. 19.

The Office of Finance and Administration will be selling tickets to the 2022-2023 Boston Celtics home games, available for purchase by faculty, staff and post-docs. For information please visit the Office of the Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration website.

We are making improvement to the Retirement Savings Plans! Effective, November 4, 2022, Brandeis will shift to a single provider of administrative services. All contributions (both yours and the University’s) will be directed to the investment options available through Fidelity Investments. The investment lineup includes mutual funds from several mutual fund companies (such as Vanguard and American Funds).

It is important that you have the information and resources you need to understand the upcoming changes and how they may affect you.

To learn more visit the Transition page for details on:

• Opportunities to sign up for-
  • in-person and virtual presentations
  • one-on-one meetings with Financial Consultants.

• Frequently asked questions
• Key dates
• Action steps

The Transition page will continue to be updated. The investment lineup changes will be updated on this site and communicated to you. Please stay tuned for additional information in the coming weeks.

Open to all members of the Brandeis community.

Data Services and Software

• Getting Started with Stata, noon - 1 p.m., Mon., Sept. 12
• Introduction to Python: Fundamentals and Data Analysis, 1 - 2 p.m., Tue., Sept. 13
• Qualitative Research Analysis: Intro to Atlas.ti 22 ( Windows users), noon - 1 p.m., Wed., Sept. 14
• Data Wrangling with Stata - Online, noon - 1 p.m., Fri., Sept. 16
• Introduction to Python: Fundamentals and Data Analysis, 1 - 2 p.m., Tue., Sept. 20
• Qualitative Research Analysis: Intro to Atlas.ti 22 ( Mac users), noon - 1 p.m., Wed., Sept. 21
• Intro to Bash for Scientific Computing, 1 - 2 p.m., Thu., Sept. 22
• Bivariate Analysis with Stata- Online, noon - 1 p.m., Fri., Sept. 23

Library Research Skills

• Getting Started on your Thesis or Dissertation, 9:30 a.m. - 10:20 a.m., Thu., Sept. 15
• Introduction to Zotero, 11 a.m. - 12:20 p.m., Thu., Sept. 15
• Find Funding Opportunities using Library Databases, 11 a.m. - noon, Thu., Sept. 22

MakerLab, Automation Lab

• Introduction to Arduino Electronics Workshop: Weekly Weds, 2:30 - 4 p.m.

Archives

• Teaching with Archives, 11 - 11:30 a.m., Thu., Sept. 15
• The Beginnings of Brandeis: A History in Pictures, noon - 12:30 p.m., Thu., Sept. 15
• Researching in Archives, 1 - 1:30 p.m., Thu., Sept. 15

Representative from Fidelity Investments and TIAA and are ready to help you

• Manage your retirement savings goals
• Review investment choices
• Build a plan that is easy to put into action

To register and for more details please visit the Human Resources Website.

Human Resources is pleased to announce that the implementation of Brandeis' Talent Advancement Program (TAP) is underway. This is a positive step forward in our commitment to foster a culture of engagement and to support staff professional development and career growth at Brandeis. At the core of TAP will be a robust, continuous and collaborative performance management process between staff and managers with a focus on frequent development conversations, supported by a Workday automated mid-year and annual review.

In the past, performance management for staff was administered manually and the process was not widely adopted or applied consistently across departments/schools. With TAP, this process will be automated and streamlined to create a standardized and consistent process for continuous performance dialogues and staff development.

If you have any initial questions before the next communication, please feel free to contact your HR business partners or Talent Development team listed below:

• Liz Tierney
• Suzanne Albright
• Katharine Colanton
• Leila Connolly
• Lisa Vigliotta

Brandeis Tufts Health Plan Members can be reimbursed for up to 8 at-home COVID-19 tests per member per month. Visit the Human Resources webpage for reimbursement form and additional information.

We have entered into the shoulder months for heating/cooling; the months whose temperatures range between 40 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Cooler mornings followed by warmer afternoons make maintaining temperature comfort in our facilities a challenge. Even if you are in a facility with air conditioning, the campus operates on a dual system which means our systems are either in heating mode or cooling mode; but not both. Currently, we are still in the “cooling” season but we will start to switch to heating mode on Sept. 21.

Consequently, during these shoulder months, there will be days when your office/room temperature is not as cool or hot as you want it to be. Most days, the outside temperature in the morning will be cooler than the temperature in your buildings so if you are warm, we recommended you open your windows, if you can, to help bring additional cooler outside air into your areas for additional comfort.

We understand that at times this may be uncomfortable but we ask for your patience during these New England shoulder months and this switch-over. Facilities will start this switch over in the Residence Halls, then move to heating the Science Buildings, followed by the Academic Buildings. The complete switch-over will likely take a month to fully complete.

For building temperature standards or energy conservation policies, please visit the Office of Sustainability webpage. 

Should you feel there is an issue with your heating system, please submit a service request on the Facilities Services website.

Create the Retirement You Want-Register

This program will be offered to Brandeis employees 50 and older and will include representatives from Fidelity Investments, TIAA and Social Security Administration. During this valuable session, you will be provided with information and resources to help set you on a path to a plan for successful retirement.

1. The Fundamentals of Retirement Income Planning Presented
2. Lifetime Income: Help Secure Your Retirement.
3. Estate Planning: Preserving Your Savings for Future Generations.
4. Social Security 101 – Everything You Wanted to Know

Institutional Advancement invites staff and faculty to join us for the first of a series of informal brown bag lunches about the upcoming campaign. No prior knowledge of campaigns is needed. Bring your questions and ideas and join us for a conversation about what's happening behind the scenes with campaign planning. This will be the first in a series of campaign brown bags, with different topics featured in each session. The first one will be held from 12:30 - 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 15, in the Shapiro Campus Center (2 floor multifunction room). RSVPs are appreciated, but drop-ins also welcome. Contact: Lauren Wilson, Development Operations, with RSVPs and questions. Light refreshments will be available, but please bring your lunch.

The free webinar series has been expanded to offer several programs each week, including regular sessions of guided mindfulness, Zumba, yoga and rotating health and wellness topics. For a list of topics and registration information, please visit Tufts Health Plan Living Well at Home page.

• September 14, Meal Prepping
• September 21, Managing Parent Overload
• September 28, No Idea What to Cook, Quick and Easy Menu ideas
• October 5, Cooking with Corn
• October 12, 10 Ways to Calm Anxiety or Anxious Thoughts
• October 19, Stress Management in the Digital Age
• October 28, Sweet Math: How to subtract added sugar from your diet

Please visit Human Resources website to view more information and registration details.

The Brandeis University Data Governance Policy, recently approved by the University Policy Committee, serves to officially establish the Brandeis Data Governance Program.

The program involves the overall management of the accessibility, integrity, accuracy, and security of data used at Brandeis. The program will be built incrementally, through the creation of data-related protocols and standards approved by the Data Trustees.

The policy document outlines the broader framework, roles/responsibilities, policy statements, and defining principles that will be reflected in all subsequent protocols developed for the program. The Data Stewardship Council will lead efforts over the upcoming academic year to build out additional protocols and to educate the community on our shared responsibilities for managing and protecting data.

You can learn more about the Brandeis Data Governance Program at the program’s website. If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact Ian Rifkin at irifkin@brandeis.edu.

Media Technology Services and the Office of Communications are excited to announce the launch of the Kaltura Video Platform, which is now available to the Brandeis community. Kaltura’s user portal is called MediaSpace. Accounts are available to all current faculty, staff, and students to host and manage video content on the web.

To access your Kaltura MediaSpace, go to brandeis.mediaspace.kaltura.com. Consider bookmarking this page. A link to the Kaltura MediaSpace can also be found on the Brandeis login page. The Kaltura MediaSpace is replacing the Ensemble video platform. Videos can now be uploaded to Kaltura.

Media Technology Services (MTS) and Digital Communications will be working with users and groups to assist with this transition. If you have Ensemble videos embedded on Brandeis websites, Digital Communications will be replacing those with Kaltura videos before the end of the fall semester.

MTS will be offering a series of open Kaltura training sessions to the community. Please consider signing up for a session to learn more and ask questions.

REGISTER FOR A TRAINING SESSION

Additional information about Kaltura including a Getting Started Guide is available on the Brandeis ITS Kaltura information page. To learn more about Kaltura and browse support articles, please visit the Kaltura Knowledge Center. Please email any further questions to mts@brandeis.edu.

Procurement and Business Services in conjunction with General Counsel recently reviewed and updated the terms and conditions for several of our contract templates. Including the Independent Consultant Agreement. We ask that you please ensure you are using the most up to date template by downloading the document from our Forms Website. The Independent Consultant Agreement is listed under the Accounts Payable Forms. If you have any questions, please contact Procurement Services.