Students and families will receive the spring 2023 bill electronically via Nelnet this week. The due date is December 15, 2022. Students should access the Nelnet Student Account Portal, using the link provided in their Student Account worklet in Workday, to view e-bills and account transactions, make payments and manage monthly payment plans.

If students have not already done so, please complete the following steps to ensure account access:

1. Set-up Nelnet account - Students should log in to the Nelnet Student Account Portal to set up their student profile. Refer to the Nelnet - Account Access job aid for detailed instructions.
2. Add parent or authorized parties access - Students who would like parents, sponsors, or other third parties, to view their student account and make payments will need to set these individuals up as Authorized Parties in Nelnet. Refer to the Nelnet – Manage Payers job aid for detailed instructions. Students should not share their Nelnet log-in credentials with their parents. They must set up parents as Authorized Parties with their own log-in credentials. 

The Payroll Office has issued the annual memo regarding important calendar year-end paycheck and tax information for 2022.

The memo is available on the Payroll website, under Payroll Year-end Memo 2022.

Survey Closes Tomorrow: Please follow the link sent to your email to take the HEDS Diversity and Equity Campus Climate Survey. This survey is sponsored by the Office of the Provost and the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and is administered confidentially by the Higher Education Data Sharing consortium. Students, Faculty, and Staff have been invited to participate and only anonymized responses will be shared with the Office of Institutional Research for analysis. The results will provide insights into the perceptions of how Brandeis supports diversity, equity and inclusion, and community members' experiences with discrimination and harassment on campus. To locate the email with the survey link, search your inbox for: brandeis_university@hedsconsortium.org

Managing and protecting data is the shared responsibility of the Brandeis Community. The Brandeis University Data Governance Program provides our community with a management framework for the accessibility, integrity, accuracy, and security of data used at Brandeis.

The Brandeis University Data Governance Policy was approved last summer, following the program’s launch in Spring 2021— and continues to be built incrementally, through the creation of data-related protocols and standards. Data Trustees recently approved protocols for Data Access, Proxy Access, and Demographic Data. Data Stewards are now in the process of creating implementation plans for the new protocols.

You can learn more about the Brandeis Data Governance Program at the Data Governance website. For questions or suggestions, please contact Ian Rifkin at irifkin@brandeis.edu.

In the last several years, banks and credit card providers have seen a significant increase in potential fraudulent activity on credit cards. The Brandeis P-Card is a credit card through Wells Fargo.

In accordance with best practice, Brandeis has partnered with Wells Fargo to enable Fraud Alert notifications that will be sent out via email to the cardholder in order to ensure legitimacy of various P-Card transactions.

Whenever unusual activity is identified on your P-Card account, Wells Fargo will automatically send you an email alert asking you to verify the transaction as legitimate, or report it as fraud.

Please review our Guide on Fraud Alerts for any questions on concerns.

If you have any questions please reach out to us at: Procurement@brandeis.edu

The Alumni Association is currently searching for 2023 BOLD 9 honorees and needs your help. Launched three years ago, BOLD 9 honors young alumni making a difference in their chosen fields. Past honorees have included artists, activists, entrepreneurs, educators, influencers, and other leaders. To qualify for consideration, nominees must have graduated from Brandeis (with any kind of degree) between 2013 and 2022, be under 35 years of age, and embody Brandeisian values. 

Nominations are due December 9, at which point a selection committee will vet and identify honorees, who will be honored and celebrated in myriad ways throughout the year and across Brandeis communications channels. Please use this nomination form to submit candidates for consideration. Meet the BOLD 9 class of 2022 to get a feel for the types of honorees that have qualified in the past. 

Questions can be sent to Dave Eisenberg, at davideisenberg@brandeis.edu.

Brandeis is rich with religious diversity. The Christian faith spends four weeks in preparation for Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ, who is sometimes called the Light of the World. This preparation time, which begins on November 27, is called Advent, and may be celebrated by scriptural readings from the prophets, lighting candles, caroling, and reaching out to those in need. On December 3, Hindus will celebrate Gita Jayanti. This is the celebration of when Lord Krishna spoke the illustrious Bhagavad-Gita to his friend Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, north of New Delhi. This usually takes place in the early part of the month of December, and is considered the appearance day of the Bhagavad-Gita. For more information on these and other holidays, visit the Center for Spiritual Life's Guide to Religious Observances.

While we are approaching the end of the program, there is still time to earn points and to be entered in to gift card drawings before it ends! To join please visit The Health You page.

For December wellness activities dates and time please visit Living Well At Home. All classes are free and easy to access via Zoom.

• Guided Mindfulness Sessions
• Rotating Health & Wellness Topics
• Zumba Classes
• Yoga Classes

December Health & Wellness Topics

• Coming Back from COVID: A Look Forward to the Year Ahead
• Savory Holiday Recipes
• Tabata (Short spurts and high intensity challenges)

Activities and challenges in the program will end on December 15, and the program itself will remain available to you through December 22.

After that, the program will be unavailable for a short time, so that a new 2023 program can be built for you! Stay tuned for your new program to launch in January.

If you are having any trouble earning points or claiming gift cards, please contact LivingWellSupport@point32health.org before December 22. A representative will be happy to help you claim those hard-earned rewards!

Join us on Workday Wednesdays at noon throughout November and December for Workday demos and discussion. This is a great opportunity for faculty and staff to meet with members of the Workday team to learn more about topics, tasks, and processes.

Did you know you can customize your search preference in Workday? Or view your team’s absence balances? Learn to make the most of Workday at these upcoming sessions — What to Know in Workday Student for Academic Administrators and Department Coordinators, November 30; and Tips and Tricks for Workday — Finding Shortcuts and Optimizing Search, December 7.

Please visit the Workday Wednesday website for the meeting Zoom link — and to make suggestions for future topics.

The Thanksgiving holiday is an important opportunity for conserving energy at Brandeis. If you are leaving campus, the Office of Campus Operations requests you power down and conserve as much energy as possible.

For a list of suggestions please visit the Facilities website.

The financial aid renewal application deadline for the 2023-2024 academic year will be March 1, 2023. Students receiving need-based scholarship funds must submit the 2023-2024 CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE, the 2023-2024 Free Application for Federal Student Aid and copies of 2021 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 will be sent to students and parents during the intersession.

The Finance and Administration leadership team will be hosting its annual town hall on Tuesday, Nov. 29 at 2 p.m. in the International Lounge and via Zoom. This is a wonderful opportunity to hear directly from some of our senior managers on a wide range of topics. Registration is required. Questions may be submitted in advanced or during the town hall. The event will be recorded and posted on the EVP for Finance & Administration website for those who are unable to attend.

It’s also that time of year to nominate two outstanding Brandeis staff members for The Lou Ennis Staff Award (exempt staff) and The Louis and Helen Zirkel Staff Award (nonexempt staff).

This is your opportunity to nominate an individual who excels in the performance of his/her job responsibilities and goes above and beyond to contribute to the well-being and the vitality of the University and the Brandeis community. Nominees must be full-time employees and in good standing.

Nominations of staff members for both the Ennis and Zirkel awards should include significant contributions made during calendar year 2021 and/or 2022 (YTD). The winners of each award, and their supervisors, will be invited to attend the Employee Service Awards ceremony on January 9, 2023.

All nominations for the Ennis and Zirkel Awards are due to Human Resources on or before November 18, 2022. For more information and to access the nomination forms, please go to the employee recognition page.

If you have questions, please contact Human Resources.

The Office of the President and the Office of Human Resources are pleased to announce the university will be hosting the Employee Service Awards ceremony on January 9, 2023. During this event, we will honor faculty and staff who have achieved a 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35- or 40-year service milestone during calendar years 2021 or 2022. The event will include lunch and refreshments. Invitations to this event will be sent to eligible faculty and staff, and their managers, in early December.

The academic calendar for 2023-2024 has been approved and the dates have been posted by the University Registrar at Future Academic Calendar Highlights. In Fall 2023, Indigenous Peoples Day will continue as a class holiday, and please note that Spring 2024, due to the late Passover break, has an earlier start date (January 10, 2024) and end date (April 19, 2024) for classes than usual.

The staff calendar for 2023 has been updated and is available on the Human Resources website.