Winter Break Closure:

All shuttle services will end on December 20. There will be no shuttle services during the winter break, so please plan your transportation accordingly.

Spring 2024 Semester:

Regular shuttle services will resume on Wednesday, January 10, 2024. The Boston Cambridge Shuttle will resume on Friday, January 12, 2024.

Information and Updates:

Stay informed about any changes or delays by checking the transportation app TripShot for the most up-to-date information.

Thank you for your cooperation, and we wish you a restful and enjoyable winter break.

The Library building will have extended hours through Dec. 19:

• Monday - Thursday 7:30 a.m. - 2 a.m.
• Friday 7:30 a.m.  - Midnight
• Saturday 9 a.m. - Midnight
• Sunday 9 a.m. - 2:30 a.m.

View more library hours, including our intersession hours, and visit to pick up a book to read during winter break! Check out our Judges' Reads: A Popular Reading Collection on the first floor of the library, browse the distinctive collection online, or look for the Judges' Reads sticker while wandering the stacks! 

The Department of Student Engagement (DSE) is seeking dedicated staff and faculty to volunteer as advisors to our undergraduate student clubs and organizations. DSE views the role of advisor as one of mentorship, support, relationship-building, and knowledge-sharing as students transition in and out of their leadership roles. In addition to supporting the needs of the student club or organization, an advisor should serve as an intermediary with other university departments, creating consistent, clear expectations of policies and procedures across organizations. With the help of advisors, we hope to build a more cohesive student experience and develop strong leaders in all of our student organizations. Since Spring 2022, we have paired over 20 clubs with faculty and staff advisors! 

Club advisors will have the opportunity to form meaningful relationships with students and will be able to make a lasting impact on the Brandeis community by connecting with other faculty and staff members and supporting the role of students in co-curricular activities. Additionally, club advisors will be eligible to be nominated as Advisor of the Year at the annual Prizes and Awards Ceremony. 

For more information about club advising, check out the Department of Student Engagement Advising Plan. If you are interested in possibly serving as an advisor to an undergraduate student organization, please take five minutes to complete the Club Advising Interest Form. Please note that completion of the form does not guarantee you an advisor position, it is simply a tool to gauge interest. Thank you for your participation and support.

Undergraduate Commencement and Graduate Commencement ceremonies will be held on Sunday, May 19, 2024! The Seventy-third Commencement will build upon the success of the new model introduced in 2023 to honor and celebrate Brandeis’ newest graduates.

• The Undergraduate Ceremony will be held at 9 a.m., the Graduate Ceremony will begin at 2:45 p.m.. Processionals will assemble in advance and feature graduates, faculty, and dignitaries and honored guests.
• Both ceremonies will be held in Gosman Sports and Convocation Center
• Graduates who sign up to participate in the ceremony will have their individual names called as they cross stage and receive their diploma in front of thousands family, friends, and supporters.
• Graduates will again receive 6 guest tickets, with the possibility of additional from wait-list
• PhDs will receive their hoods as part of the ceremony in the afternoon.
• Additional details, deadlines, and information is forthcoming and will be posted on the commencement website as details are confirmed

Graduate Student Eligibility: Participation in the Seventy-third Commencement is limited to August 2023 and February and May 2024 degree recipients, Master’s students on track to complete their degree requirements for August 2024, and PhD students who have met all requirements of the degree (including dissertation defense, revision, submission, and acceptance by appropriate graduate school administrator).

University Events will be reaching out to directly to our Commencement partners and stakeholders with programming and planning deadlines starting in early January.

Please direct any questions to commencement@brandeis.edu

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.

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.

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!

The week leading up to Commencement is rich with celebration - recognizing special achievements and gathering together before the next phase of life, career, and pursuit of passions.
Following the inaugural Celebratory Reception program last year, the University Events will again coordinate the program. The options will be enhanced this year with additional flexibility based on feedback following the events of May 2023.

We have already reserved spaces to hold Celebratory Receptions across campus the week leading into Commencement and will coordinate with our university partners to ensure your event is a success. To notify University Events that your department is interested in hosting a celebratory reception please view the Commencement Celebratory Reception Planning Guide (web link coming) and then complete the Celebratory Reception request/registration form before January 26. We will collect responses through January 26 and carefully evaluate and assign spaces. In the inaugural year we were able to accommodate most programs with either their first choice for date & time or venue – many received top choice for both.

The Hiatt Career Closet is looking for donations of good-quality, professional attire to help Brandeis students in need. Please consider donating gently worn business professional or business casual clothing you no longer wear during this season of giving.

All donations go towards providing students with FREE attire for interviews, career fairs, networking events and other career-oriented activities and occasions. The entire closet relies on the generous donations of community members like you so students can feel prepared, professional and comfortable when making a first impression.

Hiatt accepts anything that is in good condition (no rips, stains, missing buttons or broken zippers) and cleaned prior to donating, but we are specifically in need of: blazers and sport jackets, feminine-style clothing (i.e. dresses, skirts, blouses) and dress shirts and ties.

All donations can be placed in the bins outside of the Hiatt Career Center in the Usdan Student Center which are available 24 hours a day/7 days a week. Donations are tax-deductible and a receipt can be provided during normal business hours by Hiatt’s front desk.

We are excited to share the next team spotlight in our ITS Spotlight Series. This month, we are featuring the Systems Engineering and Administrative Applications (SysApps) Team led by Matt Baumert. The SysApps team includes two groups — the Applications Team and the Systems Team. Together, these eleven systems experts work to manage the many applications and complex infrastructure that make Brandeis’s systems run. To read more about Matt and the SysApps Team, including what brought them to Brandeis and how they enjoy spending time outside the office, please visit the ITS Website.

The security team will 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 in incoming email messages to evaluate whether the linked content is harmful. 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.

To provide the highest level of service to the Brandeis community, ITS will implement TeamDynamix, a new service management solution, in January 2024. TeamDynamix (TDX) will replace JIRA, our current ticketing system, allowing support teams to identify and resolve issues more efficiently with a unified ticketing architecture and new features. Users can create a ticket using a Service Catalog, in addition to help@Brandeis.edu, to direct their tickets and shorten the path to resolution. Testing and demos to the Brandeis community are currently underway. To learn more about the Service Management project, including the timeline, please visit the ITS Website or contact the project team.

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 p.m. - 5 p.m.
• Wednesday, December 20 through Friday, December 22, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
• Saturday, December 23 through Monday, January 1, Closed Winter Break
• Tuesday, January 2 through Monday, January 8, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
• Tuesday, January 9, 2024, Normal Hours Resume

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 or calling 781-736-4357 (x6HELP). Please visit the ITS website for more information, including a detailed support schedule.

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

• Jan. 23 at noon: Brandeis Online: Programs, certificates, and growth plan, RSVP

Providing Effective Feedback webinar will be offered on Wednesday, 12/20. Register for morning session or afternoon session.

More Professional Development and Financial Wellness Workshops coming soon in the Spring…stay tuned. For more information please visit the HR Training Website or email us at farquhar@brandeis.edu.

The parking office will be closed on the following dates.

• December 20-23 and December 26-29
• We will reopen January 2nd, 2024

During this time Public Safety Dispatch can issue day passes, they are open 24/7.

For those students leaving a car on campus, please move your vehicle to the South lot before leaving for break. Please see the map and park in the area outlined in yellow. Please do not park along the wood line. Charles River Apartments residents can leave vehicles in this area for the duration of the break. If you have any questions, please contact Public Safety

We are pleased to announce that starting January 1st Brandeis will be partnering with KGA as our new Employee Assistance Program. KGA offers 24/7 access to a network of experts providing support for mental health, childcare, eldercare, legal, financial issues and more. KGA’s confidential services are available to you and your adult household members, at no cost to you. Keep an eye out for more information to come! For those using our current EAP, those services will continue through the end of the year or until you've concluded your existing case with New Directions. 

Tune-in for live Webinars with KGA staff to learn more:

• Session #1 (1/9 @ noon)
• Session #2 (1/10 @ 2 p.m. )
• Session #3 (1/17 @ 10 a.m. )

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.

View your vacation balance in Workday > Absence > Absence Balance.

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.

Remember to use your FSA by the end of the year 2023. Grace period runs through March 15, 2024. You are allowed to join and/or make changes only during open enrollment or a qualifying event.

Visit the Human Resources Benefits website for more detailed information about Flexible Spending Accounts and/or the FSA Store.

If you chose to enroll in the HDHP and HSA for 2024, you must spend your entire Health FSA account balance by 12/31/2023. You must have a zero balance before 1/1/2024 or you will not be eligible to participate in the HSA for 2024. Please visit Human Resources Benefits website for important IRS regulations.

In December be on the lookout for your new Harvard Pilgrim Health Care cards!  As of January 1, 2024 your current Tufts Health Plan will transition to Harvard Pilgrim Health Care health plan.

MyConnect, 866-623-0184 is a Member Advocate service and is your direct connection to Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. Visit the Human Resources Benefits page for more information. 

University Events maintains a set of dates held surrounding particularly active large institutional events including Commencement, Orientation, Family Weekend, and Alumni Weekend. These dates are selected to preserve infrastructure for event support on campus from several campus partners and to ensure that adequate resources are available for all scheduled events. Scaled blackout begins May 3, 2024 and all departmental or student events will be reviewed for availability of support before confirmation. Only Commencement related activities (Celebratory Receptions, Student Engagement Events, Shabbat Dinner, and the Commencement Ceremonies) will be permitted between May 8 and May 20. Please contact University Events with any questions.  

The normal services provided by University Events, including scheduling of various university support services (dining, facilities, MTS), rental and delivery of additional furniture or materials may not be available during scaled blackout dates and will be unavailable for full blackout dates between May 8 and May 20, 2024 due to the many production tasks and Celebratory Receptions across campus.

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.