Students and families will receive the spring 2024 bill electronically via Nelnet next week. The due date is December 15, 2023. 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 -  Refer to the Nelnet - Add Authorized 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.

We will send a notification to students and authorized parties when the information is ready in Nelnet.

We are excited to share our new ITS Spotlight Series — to allow the community to get to know our ITS colleagues. We’ll feature a new ITS team each month with links to individual profiles that include fun facts, interests, and hobbies. Our first spotlight team is the ITS Help Desk in the Goldfarb Library.

The Help Desk is a centralized resource center supporting the needs of the Brandeis Community. Led by Chris Lowre, our team of desktop support specialists has 59 years of experience providing personalized customer service and technical assistance to students, faculty, and staff! To learn more about the Help Desk team and what they like most about working at Brandeis, please visit the ITS Website.

Looking to plan an upcoming event? Here are the general steps you will want to follow.

1. Fill out a Department Event request form - we recommend 4-6 weeks in advance
2. Discuss all of your event needs with your event manager (furniture setup, catering, technology, rental equipment, etc.)
3. Place your catering order (if needed)
4. Make any changes to your first draft of event details
5. Confirm all event details, provide a signature and a cost center

For more detailed timelines and important deadlines please visit the University Events website.

Did you know that you may be able to use your work-study allotment to engage in non-profit work? Students are especially encouraged to seek off-campus jobs involving community service activities. If you have a non-profit that you’re interested in working with please contact Kristyn Burke in Student Financial Services at kburke@brandeis.edu for more information on how to set up a partnership. Work study can cover 60% of your income for community service employment so the agency is only responsible for 40% of what you earn under your allotment. This provides a cost benefit to the agency while allowing you to gain valuable experience and skills in an area that interests you and supports our community!

Congress has instituted the FAFSA Simplification Act, which involves a major redesign of the processes and systems used to award federal student aid. Among these changes are fewer questions for students and families, the renaming of the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) to the Student Aid Index (SAI), a requirement for all students and contributors (i.e., parents and/or spouses) to provide consent for the FAFSA to pull tax data from the IRS, the elimination of siblings in college from the calculation of the SAI, and, in the case of divorced or separated parents, a redefinition of which parent is considered the custodial parent. Due to these changes, the FAFSA will not be available on October 1 st but rather in late December.

As these changes are implemented SFS will work to assist students and their families through this process. For more information about these changes, FAQs, and how you can prepare now, please visit our Changes to FAFSA website.

Sign up for one of our 30-minute, one-on-one financial literacy sessions!  We hope that you will take advantage of this great opportunity to ask questions about budgeting, managing debt, understanding your paycheck, W-2’s etc. Please click here to book an appointment today!

In recognition of the anniversary of last November’s shuttle accident, please join the Center for Spiritual Life in a moment of remembrance. We will gather on Friday, November 17 at 2:15 p.m. in Fellows Garden for a moment of silence to remember all those injured and impacted by the accident, especially Vanessa Mark, who passed away.

The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ODEI) is excited to announce a new initiative to assist university partners in strengthening and enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion for the Brandeis community.  With the generous support of the President’s Office, we are offering Presidential Mini-Grants to support DEI programming for your department.  

 We aim to support innovative programming that will advance DEI efforts which are connected to your departmental Anti-Racism plans, co-sponsored with other offices, and will engage students, faculty, and staff.  Since we would like to encourage as many partners as possible throughout the university, we are limiting the amount of each grant to $2,500 for each initiative/event.  All applications will be evaluated on the following criteria:

• Innovation to advance DEI
• Connection to Anti-Racism Plans
• Engagement with students, faculty, and staff
• Co-sponsorship (not a requisite though encouraged)

Our DDEI Offices will evaluate and determine recipients for these grants and we look forward to receiving your application which you can submit here! Please see the DDEI website for additional information and feel free to email any questions to diversity@brandeis.edu.

The Technology Help Desk is open for support for all technology-related issues at the following times:

• Monday - Thursday, 8 a.m. - 7 p.m.
• Friday, 8 a.m. - 6 p.m.
• Saturday and Sunday, 1 - 5 p.m.
• Thursday, November 23 through Sunday, November 26, Closed Thanksgiving

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. Please visit the ITS website for more information, including a detailed support schedule.

The security team plans to enable additional email protection in response to increased sophisticated phishing and other attacks. Proofpoint, our email security vendor, provides spam filtering and email protection. Beginning December 15, Proofpoint will provide additional visibility into phishing and other malicious email attacks by scanning incoming emails for known malicious hyperlinks. Proofpoint URL Defender automatically rewrites links found in incoming email messages to evaluate whether the linked content is malicious. Users will notice that URLs associated with embedded links will now be visible as text. For more information about Proofpoint URL Defender, including examples, please see the ITS website. If you have any questions or issues with information security, please email security@brandeis.com.

Staff and Faculty are encouraged to learn more about Brandeis Online during the upcoming information sessions. Sign up to learn more:

• 11/29 at noon: All about the online student experience at Brandeis Online- advising, career resources, and learning, RSVP
• 12/6 at noon: Admissions criteria and process at Brandeis Online, RSVP

The International Business School has partnered with Brandeis Online to launch a new part-time, STEM-designated Online Master of Science in Business Analytics program taught by the same world-renowned faculty as our in-person program. Eligible employees may receive up to 100% tuition remission. For more information, please contact Brandeis Online.

• Intro to 3D Printing with Flashforge, 10 - 11:30 a.m., Tue., Nov. 21
• Intro to 3D Scanning with Skanect, 10:30 - 11:45 a.m., Mon., Nov. 27
• Intro to 3D Printing with Flashforge, 7 - 8:30 p.m., Wed., Nov. 29

Training for faculty

• LATTE Content & Course Organization, 1 - 2 p.m., Wed., Nov. 22

• Finding Focus – Wednesday 12/13, 10 – 11 a.m.
• Live Webinars offered by New Directions

Financial Wellness Workshops

Please register on the training website for the following workshops (presented virtually):

• Breezing Through the Holidays – Tuesday 12/12, 9 – 10 a.m.

For more information please visit the HR Training Website or email us at farquhar@brandeis.edu.

Brandeis is happy to be hosting a family vaccination clinic on December 11 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Levine-Ross Rooms, Hassenfeld. Faculty and Staff are welcome to bring all family members, ages 3 years-old and up, for age and condition appropriate vaccinations.  Please review the vaccination information carefully and check your medical insurance plan pharmacy coverage ahead of time. Register online.

Learn more about vaccination clinics being offered by Brandeis.

Tufts Health Plan continues to offer free webinars 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.

December 15 is the deadline to participate in the Healthy You Program. The Healthy You program is designed to support your wellbeing! Start earning points for participating in a variety of informative, fun, and interactive online activities. The Healthy You digital engagement platform is easily accessible from most devices so you can participate and stay on top of your goals wherever you are!

For rewards and to get started go to Healthy You. Please visit Human Resources website to view more information and registration details.

The Brandeis staff-faculty disability and accessibility group will be holding our next meeting on Monday, November 20 at 2 p.m. via Zoom. If you'd like to join us or to know more, please contact us. For more information, visit our webpage.

Type 2 Diabetes is a serious condition, which according to the CDC affects about 37 million Americans, with 1 in 5 not knowing they have it. When not treated, diabetes can cause other serious health issues like heart disease, chronic kidney disease, and vision problems. Learn more about your blood sugar, diabetes, risk factors and preventative measures, as well as tools for maintaining healthy blood sugar levels by selecting "Spotlight on Workplace Wellbeing".

The Division of Emergency Management for Public Safety wants to remind our community of the importance of being prepared for all types of emergencies. As we look towards the holidays, being prepared for winter weather ahead of any potential storms is especially important. There are many resources available to understand the differences in terminology for storms, how to prepare at home, for travel, and what to do in an emergency during a storm. Visit ready.gov to learn more and start preparing today.

As we have communicated in email and via InBrief, the staff mid-year review was launched on Monday, November 13 and needs to be completed for all staff by Friday, December 8. Completing the mid-year review process includes the following steps:

1.  Staff complete their self-assessment in Workday and submit the assessment to their direct supervisor, so that the supervisor may complete their portion of the review and save the review in Workday.
2. The Supervisor meets with the staff member to go over the mid-year review and the staff member then completes the required attestation in Workday following this meeting.
3. The Supervisor submits the mid-year review in Workday following the employee meeting, which will complete the process.

Staff development and ongoing engagement with their managers is critical to our success and to staff retention. It is important that all staff members receive a mid-year review on or before Friday, December 8. If you have questions or need additional information, please visit the TAP website.

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 2023.

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.

The 2024 Holiday Schedule is available on the Human Resources website. If you have any questions, please contact human resources.

Brandeis University is pleased to offer a new Roth 403(b) contribution source effective January 1, 2024. Roth 403(b) contributions allow you to contribute after-tax dollars to the plan now, withdrawals from these funds will be tax-free when you become eligible or when you retire.

In preparation for the addition of the Roth 403(b) contribution, the current 403(b) Employee Basic contribution source and 403(b) Supplemental contribution source will be combined to one before-tax Employee Election source.

To ensure that all information is transferred accurately from the current sources to new sources, there will be a brief period of time when you will be unable to change your 403(b) supplemental deferral election on NetBenefits.

The “blackout period” will begin at midnight Eastern time on December 15, 2023 and is expected to end on December 31, 2023. During this time your benefit under the 403(b) will continue to be credited with gains and losses based on your investment allocations on file and will not be out of the market.

Participants in the Plan should watch out for notification from Fidelity this week. Visit the HR Benefits Retirement Saving Plan page for additional information.

Due to the Thanksgiving holiday the weekly payroll for the week ending 11/19/2023 will need to be completed early. Please be sure to have all hours for the week ending 11/19/2023 entered and approved by end of day Monday, 11/20/2023 to permit timely processing. Payment date will still be Friday, 11/24/2023. Any hours submitted after 11/20 may not be processed until the following pay period. Please reach out to payroll@brandeis.edu if you have any questions.

It is located on the Workday homepage under Announcements as well as the payroll website. Please reach out to payroll@brandeis.edu if you have any questions.

Winter is coming.... Let's do what we can to stay warm, and prevent slips and falls during icy or wet conditions. Keep yourself safe with the following suggestions:

• Look out for black ice, and remember that the indoor entrances can also be slick.
• Wear shoes with good traction and try carrying your belongings in a backpack instead of shoulder bags. This allows for better balance and keeps your hands free.
• Take the campus shuttle. Consider using the shuttle to stay warm, dry, and safe if you need to go between buildings around campus.
• If you get injured while at work, we want to know! Please contact Public Safety (6-3333) for immediate assistance, and take steps to keep yourself safe. All accidents and injuries should be reported to your supervisor and documented using this reporting tool.