Get ready to make a splash and support a powerful cause. On Thursday, March 26 friends, students, and community members are invited to join us for the 2026 LETR Brandeis University Mobile Plunge benefiting Special Olympics Massachusetts.

This spirited fundraiser gives participants the chance to raise money, build awareness, and dive into a cold-water plunge right here on campus at the Brandeis University Student Center in Waltham, Massachusetts. Whether you jump in yourself or come out to cheer, your involvement makes a real difference in the lives of athletes across the Commonwealth.

Waivers: Anyone under 18 must have a guardian sign a waiver on site.

By raising $100 or more, you’ll receive the annual plunge shirt and help empower 20,000+ Special Olympics athletes throughout Massachusetts. Funds raised support year-round sports training, competition opportunities, and programs that foster inclusion, confidence, and community for individuals with intellectual disabilities.

This event is part of the statewide Polar Plunge series, where spirited volunteers and supporters from across Massachusetts jump into chilly waters to champion athletes and create a more inclusive Commonwealth.

Ready to plunge? Register or donate today, and be part of something unforgettable. 

Save the date for the fifth annual Brandeis Three Minute Thesis Competition! The competition challenges graduate students to effectively explain their research to a broad audience in just three minutes while using just one slide. Students can win up to $1000, and the winner can go on to the regional competition!

Graduate students from all four Brandeis schools will participate in the competition, with finals taking place on Friday, March 27 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. in Spingold Theater. All members of the Brandeis community are welcome and encouraged to attend and cheer on our competitors!

ITS is excited to announce the launch of our newly redesigned website, built specifically with you in mind. Our primary goal was to create a streamlined, easy-to-navigate experience that quickly guides students, faculty, and staff to the technology resources they rely on every day.

We’ve organized our most popular services so you can spend less time searching and more time getting things done. With this new design, you will find:

• Tailored Resources: Navigate dedicated sections curated specifically for students, faculty, and staff.
• Quick Solutions: Find immediate answers to your most common questions—whether you need to reset a password, connect to a campus printer, or request a computer repair.
• Direct Support: Easily find exactly where and how to ask for help when you need personalized assistance.

We hope this new hub makes navigating campus technology an easier and more efficient experience for everyone! To continue to receive updates on ITS, don’t forget to sign up for the Brandeis Technology Newsletter and follow @DeisTechNews on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X/Twitter and LinkedIn to stay up to date with ITS Tech Talks, technology news and helpful tips and tricks to making your use of technology more helpful and productive!

The School of Arts, Humanities, and Culture invites students to be part of the newly reimagined Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Arts 2026. This year’s theme, “Art Never Sleeps,” celebrates the persistence of creativity in all moments - even the dark and quiet ones. In that spirit, the festival will run continuously for 24 hours, from 6 p.m. on Saturday, April 18, to 6 p.m. on Sunday, April 19.

Attention Students: We are looking for musicians, actors, dancers, poets, and visual artists to bring this 24-hour celebration to life. Whether your work is traditional or experimental, we want to hear from you!

• Apply to perform: bit.ly/artneversleeps



• Questions? Email arts@brandeis.edu



Faculty and Staff: Please share this opportunity with your students and help us showcase the vibrant talent across all disciplines at Brandeis.

1098-T – This form provides information about educational expenses that may qualify for education-related tax credits. The Form 1098T is created for domestic students, and international students, with a Social Security number on file who also had qualified transactions. Active students with a form can view and print their 1098T from Workday within the Student Account application. The Form 1098T will be printed and mailed prior to January 31st to students with qualifying transactions who opted out of the electronic 1098-T option during onboarding. Students who have a 1098T but have graduated or withdrew and lost Workday access will be mailed a paper copy by January 31st. Please note the 1098-T will be issued to international students with a U.S. Social Security number. International students should select the electronic delivery. International students who update their Social Security Number after January 13th should complete a 1098-T request form.

W-2 - The Form W-2 includes earned wages & compensation paid through Payroll. Reports federal taxable income and withholding and state taxable income and withholding. This document has been produced and is available electronically in Workday. To access it, click on the Pay icon and then My Tax Documents.

1042-S - The 1042-S reports federal taxable income and withholding including fellowships, scholarships above the cost of tuition and required fees and/or specifically NOT for tuition and required fees, and compensation for non- resident aliens that is considered under a tax treaty (any amount of compensation outside a tax treaty limit would be included on a W-2). This document is issued by March 15 for the previous tax year and is available on paper only (mailed to the address on the Foreign National Form).

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 financial aid renewal application deadline for the 2026-2027 academic year will be March 2, 2026. Students who would like to apply for need-based scholarship funds must submit the 2026-2027 CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE, the 2026-2027 Free Application for Federal Student Aid, and copies of 2024 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 are being sent to students and parents this week. If you would like to meet with your financial aid counselor to discuss the renewal financial aid process, you may book a 30-minute appointment online.

The Brandeis Emergency Fund was created to assist currently active, high-need undergraduate and graduate students experiencing some kind of unexpected financial emergency when other resources are not available. The Fund focuses its limited resources on students with high demonstrated financial need (students with an EFC of approximately $20,000 or below, as determined by a financial aid application) who are experiencing unexpected financial emergencies for which no other funds are available. For information about eligibility criteria, examples of what can and cannot be considered, and the process by which to apply for emergency funds, please visit the Brandeis Emergency Fund website.

The French program of the Department of Romance Studies is hosting three free film screenings, all of which are open to the public.

The entire series is made possible by a grant from the Albertine Foundation/French Embassy.

For complete information, please visit the Romance Studies webpage.

• Research and Writing in the Archives, 11 - 11:55 a.m., Monday, March 2
• Data Analysis with R, 12:10 - 1:10 p.m., Monday, March 2
• Intro to 3D Printing with Prusa Mini, 12:30 - 2 p.m., Monday, March 2
• Getting Started with Qualtrics, 12:10 - 1 p.m., Wednesday, March 4
• Intro to Python, 12:10 - 1:10 p.m., Thursday, March 5
• Intro to 3D Printing with Prusa Mini, 12:30 - 2 p.m., Thursday, March 5
• Location, Location, Location!, 3 - 3:50 p.m., Thursday, March 5
• Intro to Vinyl Cutting and 2D Graphics, 5 - 6 p.m., Friday, March 6
• Text Analysis using R, 12:10 - 1:10 p.m., Monday, March 9
• Intro to 3D Printing with Prusa Mini, 12:30 - 2 p.m., Monday, March 9
• Moodle Gradebook Setup Workshop, 11 - 11:50 a.m., Tuesday, March 10
• Intro to Vinyl Cutting and 2D Graphics, 4 - 5 p.m., Wednesday, March 11
• Data Wrangling with Python. 12:10 - 1:10 p.m., Thursday, March 12
• Intro to 3D Printing with Prusa Mini, 12:30 - 2 p.m., Thursday, March 12
• Digital Scholarship Lab Training Weekly

Facilities Services is excited to announce that Asset Essentials will launch on April 22, 2026, replacing Maximo as the University’s facilities management system. Asset Essentials will streamline maintenance requests and include a mobile app for on-the-go access. More information about this collaborative project between Facilities Services and ITS will be available as we get closer to our April implementation date.

Duo Security is ending support for older versions of its mobile app to improve security. After March 31, 2026, Duo versions earlier than 4.85.0 will no longer work for multifactor authentication at Brandeis. Impacted users who have not updated their app by March 31 will receive a reminder email from the ITS Security Office. We recommend you update to version 4.85.0 (or later) prior to March 31 in order to avoid any issues logging into your Brandeis account. For more information regarding this update, please review the Duo information webpage.

Due to recent security policy changes implemented by Google, we have updated how the Moodle Communities environment integrates with Google Drive. These changes ensure that all users can continue to access our platforms securely and without authentication errors.

To ensure that Microcredentials students using external (non-Brandeis) Google accounts do not encounter "Access Blocked" errors during login, the Google Drive file picker has been completely removed on Moodle Communities. It is still available in Moodle LMS and in Brandeis Online.

We recommend the use of Box to upload large files or downloading Google files to a local device and then using the "Upload a file" option. For more information regarding this change, visit the Moodle Communities library guide. Please contact the Technology Help Desk (help@brandeis.edu or 781-736-4357) if you need assistance.

The University commissioned a project in summer of 2025 to consolidate four legacy instances of the Slate CRM for Graduate Admissions into a single Slate instance, aligned to the reorganized Schools. The project has completed a current state assessment phase and is in the middle of a future state design phase, which will end in early March. The deployment phase will run from March to July 2026 and is timed to support Graduate Admissions recruitment activities starting with the Spring 2027 term. Many staff members across the institution have been involved in these efforts since late August. Updates will be shared on this initiative as we prepare to launch the unified Graduate Admissions Slate system in the summer!