CaterTrax and Coupa Training - In-person Coupa and CaterTrax training is being offered on Wednesday, August 16 from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. Representatives from Procurement, Collective Catering, University Events, and University Services will lead the presentation and review the CaterTrax/Coupa integration process and how to navigate CaterTrax and successfully place a food order. Lunch and menu tastings will be provided! If you have not received an invitation and would like to join, please email campuscard@brandeis.edu and you will be sent an invitation. We look forward to your participation.

Mobile Ordering - Mobile ordering is getting an upgrade. Beginning Monday, August 14, mobile ordering will transition from Starship to "GrubHub". Enjoy even more customizable options from your favorite dining locations this fall. Additional information may be found here: Mobile Ordering and GrubHub.

To ensure the safety and security of our network, Brandeis will be implementing a change this fall to how guests access the Brandeis Guest Wireless Network. A member of the Brandeis community will first approve any network guest before they receive access.

Upon registration, guests must identify a Brandeis sponsor and include a Brandeis email. The sponsor will then receive an email to approve or deny guest access. Once approved, the guest will be able to access the network.

Additional information about wireless network connectivity is available on the ITS website. If you need assistance connecting to the Brandeis network, please contact the Help Desk by emailing help@brandeis.edu or calling 781-736-4357.

We are delighted to announce that Brandeis has officially transitioned the Faculty Guide to our new Faculty and Researcher Directory hosted by ScholarWorks. The Faculty Guide was switched off on July 26, 2023. Redirects have been implemented to ensure that, going forward, those visiting Faculty Guide pages will be redirected automatically to corresponding profiles on the ScholarWorks Directory.

The new Faculty and Researcher Directory hosts comprehensive profiles for faculty (those holding current appointments and emeriti), academic staff (principal investigators or other research staff designated “Academic Staff” in Workday), and postdoctoral scholars. It increases the visibility of Brandeis’s community of scholars, showcasing their expertise and rendering their achievements more discoverable. It also supports the safeguarding of scholarly identities through the provision of unique personal identifiers as part of the Open Researcher and Contributor ID or ORCID ID initiative.

The completed transition to the new Faculty and Researcher Directory marks the culmination of a longstanding exercise involving staff from several sectors of the university. Faculty/researchers who engaged with the profile roll-out process last year will already be familiar with the commitment of this group, which will continue to provide support. For anyone seeking help in (further) refining their ScholarWorks profile, please visit the ScholarWorks User Guide.

Open to all members of the teaching community:

LATTE Basics Workshops

• 11 - 11:50 a.m., Tuesday, August 15
• 2 - 2:50 p.m., Monday, August 21
• 10 - 10:50 a.m., Wednesday, August 30

Open to all graduate students:

• Graduate Writers Workspace (campus/Zoom), 1 - 4 p.m., Monday, August 14

The Information Technology (IT) Governance Program, established in 2020 under the sponsorship of executive leaders, provides a structure for the community to become more engaged in technology decisions while increasing transparency and efficiency. To better engage the Brandeis community in this program, the IT Governance Community Outreach initiative began in January 2023.

IT Governance Community Outreach provides students, faculty, and staff with the knowledge they need to stay informed about IT Governance through communication channels and engagement in governance with various academic, administrative, and operational technology committees. We invite all Brandeis community members to register for IT Governance Communications, which will enable you to receive timely updates by email.

For more information, to sign up for IT governance-related communications, or to learn about your committee representatives, please visit our IT Governance website. If you have questions about IT Governance at Brandeis, please reach out to Steve Knowles, Director of Strategic Outreach & Engagement for ITS.

Fall 2023 bills were released to students and families via the Nelnet Student Account Portal in early July. Bills were due on August 4. Registration holds have been placed on past due account balances and late fees will be applied soon.

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.

Review your e-bill and the Transaction Details in Nelnet. If you have questions about the balance or payment options contact Brandeis Student Financial Services at sfs@brandeis.edu or 781-736-3700.

The Supreme Court issued a decision on June 30, 2023 prohibiting President Biden from moving forward with his one-time student debt relief plan, which means that no debt can be discharged under this program. Interest on federal student loans will start accruing on September 1, 2023, and first payments will be due in October. When designing a new debt relief program, the Department of Education will consider ways to ensure that borrowers making payments do not reduce their eligibility for debt relief. Please visit the Federal Student Aid debt relief website for updates.

Brandeis will be making a critical improvement to our systems' security and user data protection. Effective Tuesday, August 15, our DUO Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) system will require re-authentication every seven days using the "trust this browser" option.

The Brandeis security team identified an urgent need to reduce re-authentication time to seven days, down from 15 days, in response to recent security incidents. Additional information about DUO Multi-Factor Authentication and best practices for using your device to authenticate is available on the ITS website. We appreciate the community's cooperation and support in securing Brandeis's network and systems.

If you have additional questions about DUO authentication, please contact ITS Security. If you need assistance authenticating to the Brandeis network, please contact the Help Desk by emailing help@brandeis.edu or calling 781-736-4357.

The Technology Help Desk is pleased to share Post-Summer Session 2023 support hours for all technology-related issues. From August 12, through August 30, the Help Desk will be open for support at the following times:

• Monday - Friday, 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
• Saturday and Sunday, Closed

The Help Desk staff is committed to providing high-level technology support and service to the Brandeis community. Our team of technology support specialists is located in the Goldfarb Library, Level 1. Community members can also get help by emailing help@brandeis.edu. For more information, including a detailed support schedule, please visit the ITS website.

Join us for a day of family-friendly fun at the Rose Art Museum with drop-in art making activities, lawn games, a close-looking tour, free ice cream by The Chillwagon, and a pop-up Family Storytime with our friends from the Waltham Library inspired by the exhibition Arghavan Khosravi: Black Rain.

Admission and activities are free and open to all, but space is limited; registration is encouraged.

The Department of Facilities Services will be performing its annual electrical shutdown Saturday, August 12, and Sunday, August 13 from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day. This work allows the Department of Facilities to exercise and test equipment that is vital to the electrical infrastructure supporting Brandeis University.

Only the following buildings will be affected:

• Aug. 12 - Chiller Plant, Foster Bio, Kosow, Crown Center, & Usdan
  • Aug 12 - The following buildings will have power but NOT AC (due to Usdan being down): Brown, Goldfarb, Schwartz, Swartz Hall, Olin-Sang, Golding, Lown, Mandel, Abraham-Shapiro, Rabb Graduate Center & Lemberg
• Aug. 13 - Rosenstiel, Edison Lecks, & Shapiro Science Center

Please contact Facilities Services at 781-736-8500 or visit the Department of Facilities Services website for more information.

Institutional Advancement, in partnership with colleagues in Finance and Campus Planning, has launched a committee to address all things related to named spaces, positions, and funds at Brandeis. The group is charged with evaluating new philanthropic naming opportunities, recommending minimum gift amounts for naming, and suggesting policies and best practices to ensure that the university's donor-named entities are appropriately valued, tracked, and stewarded over time.

Any inquiries or requests regarding naming are welcome. Please be sure to direct any questions regarding existing donor-named spaces on campus, or proposals to name something new. Reach out to namingopportunities-group@brandeis.edu.

As of May 11, 2023 the federal government ended the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency declaration, meaning COVID-19 surveillance testing, contact tracing and COVID-19 Vaccines and Boosters are no longer a requirement. In alignment with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Brandeis University has ceased our COVID-19 contact tracing efforts. Brandeis Faculty and Staff are no longer required to submit positive COVID test results to the Brandeis Contact Tracing Program (BCTP). If you test positive for COVID, please visit the Occupational Health page to learn about what next steps to take.

Although COVID -19 vaccines and boosters are no longer required, they are highly recommended by the CDC and are our best effort to keep helping ourselves and our community safe from infection. More information to come regarding vaccination clinics being held here at Brandeis campus.

We will open up parking permit applications on August 7, for the upcoming 23/24 Academic year. Any Junior or Senior students planning on bringing a vehicle to campus must register and purchase a parking permit.

To apply for a permit:

• Please go online to parking website and fill out the required information.
• You will be required to upload a picture of your vehicle registration and your driver’s license.
• Once purchased and all documents are checked by the Parking office we will issue a parking permit. This permit may be picked up in the Parking office, you may begin to pick up your permits on August 21 between 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Please note that only Junior and Senior Resident students and Commuter students are eligible to purchase a parking permit.

Students with out of state vehicle registrations are required to fill out a non-resident driver application. Please bring a copy of the completed form when you pick up your permit and we will collect them and supply a copy to the local police station.

This form, which states the following, may be found at Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles website: “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.”

Chapels Parking Permit Waitlist

As in previous years we will open up the waitlist for Chapels parking on September 18 through September 29, in the Parking Office. You must physically come to parking office to put your name on the list. We will then issue available Chapels permits in order of the waitlist.

Any student who has previously had a Chapels parking permit will continue to be able to purchase one until they graduate from Brandeis.

• Commuter and Chapels Permits: $120.00
• South Resident Permits: $250.00
• Foster Resident Permits: $250.00
• Charles River Permits: $100.00

Any questions please let us know at Parking@brandeis.edu.