The Summer 2024 Employee Appreciation Series will be running through August 15, offering employees weekly special events as well as showcasing on-going services and happenings around campus. Every event offered during the Employee Appreciation Series is for all employees to join in, relax, and connect with each other.

Let's celebrate the talents, hard work and dedication of Brandeis Employees. Take some time to enjoy refreshments, activities and our community. Be sure to check out our events calendar regularly for more details.

ISSO Friends Program, where we match incoming international students with members of the Brandeis community. This is a great opportunity to make a friend, learn about each other’s culture and for the new student to feel welcomed.

All ISSO Friends will receive their new student’s contact information over the summer to begin an email exchange before they arrive on campus. We organize a Welcome Dinner in September for Friends and Students to formally meet. During the fall semester, the ISSO will reach out with ideas for activities that they can do together to help the student settle into their new home at Brandeis.

The commitment is for Fall 2024 and contact between Friends and Students after the semester is optional, although we hope you will build a lasting friendship.

We would like to invite all Brandeis community members to join our ISSO Friends Program and help us welcome our international students. Please see our ISSO Friends webpage for more details and sign up as soon as possible. We match Friends with new students on a first-come, first-served basis.

The Fall 2024 bill is now available to students and families via the Nelnet Student Account Portal and will be due on August 2, 2024. The link to the e-bill was sent by e-mail to students and their Authorized Parties. The e-mail came from our billing partner, Nelnet, from the email address noreply@campuscommerce.com with subject: BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY BILL AVAILABLE. If you do not receive the email, please check your spam filters.

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. The Fall 2024 e-bill (PDF) is only a snapshot in time; any subsequent charges, financial aid and/or payments will only be reflected in 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.

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 parking office is creating a Pilot Program for the Upcoming Academic Year. We will be holding a lottery for the purchase of Charles River Parking Permits. More information to come in a future InBrief. If you have any questions, please contact the parking office.

Brandeis is rich with religious diversity. Upcoming holidays celebrated by the Brandeis community include:

Ashura (July 16 sundown - July 17) The Day of Ashura is the 10th day of the Islamic month of Muharram. The Prophet Muhammad singled it out as a recommended fasting day and made it a meritorious act for his followers. He also recommended fasting the day before and after. Through fasting, all of one's sins for the previous year are forgiven. It is also a day singled out for charity, visiting the sick, and extra worship. It is narrated that many important events in sacred history occurred on the day of Ashura

For more information on these and other holidays, visit the Center for Spiritual Life's Guide to Religious Observances. Did we miss a spiritual observance that is important to you? Please reach out to slife@brandeis.edu.

Moodle Workshops

• Seats are available for upcoming Moodle Workshops hosted by the Library! Topics include restoring an existing LATTE course, building your new course in Moodle 4, and Moodle Gradebook.

• Intro to Soldering, Tuesdays in July 16, 3 - 4:30 p.m.
• Digital Scholarship Lab Open Hours, 11 a.m. - 1:30 p.m., Wed., July 17
• Digital Scholarship Lab Training, 11 - 11:20 a.m., Wed., July 17
• Intro to Vinyl Cutting & 2D Graphics, Wednesdays in July 17, 3 - 4 p.m.
• Getting Started with Stata, 10 - 10:50 a.m., Thu., July 18
• Digital Scholarship Lab Open Hours, 11:30 a.m. - 2 p.m., Thu., July 18
• Digital Scholarship Lab Training, noon - 12:20 p.m., Thu., July 18
• Python Workshop Series
  • Introduction to Python (1): Fundamentals, 11 a.m.- 12:30 p.m., Mon., July 22
  • Introduction to Python (2): Conditionals and Loops, 11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., Tue., July 23
  • Introduction to Python (3): Pandas, 11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., Wed., July 24
  • Introduction to Python (4): Matplotlib and Seaborn, 11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., Thu., July 25
• Digital Scholarship Lab Open Hours, 10 - 11:45 a.m., Tue., July 23
• Digital Scholarship Lab Training, 10:15 - 10:45 a.m., Tue., July 23
• Intro to 3D Printing with Prusa Mini, 2 p.m. - 3:30 p.m., Tue., July 23
• Intro to Soldering, 3 - 4:30 p.m., Tue., July 23
• Data Wrangling with Stata, 10 - 10:50 a.m., Thu., July 25
• Digital Scholarship Lab Open Hours, 11:30 a.m. - 2 p.m., Thu., July 25
• Digital Scholarship Lab Training, noon - 12:20 p.m., Thu., July 25
• CAD Office Hours, Mondays, 10:30 a.m. - noon

As we do every year, the Campus Planning & Operations division is recognizing and celebrating the hard work and dedication of our ~150 employees on August 20 during an on-campus luncheon.

We are inviting you, our campus partners, to send personal thank you messages to any of the Campus Planning & Operations members or departments. These messages will be displayed at the luncheon.

As a reminder, the departments within Campus Planning & Operations are:

• University Events
• Environmental Health and Safety,
• Facilities Services (Central Heating Plant, Custodial, Grounds, Operations & Maintenance)
• Capital Programs
• Campus Planning
• Administration and Campus Services (Bookstore, Business Ops, Card Office, Copy Center, Dining, Mail Service, and Transportation)

We know this would mean a lot to our employees to hear from campus members and partners. Please email your message to campusoperations@brandeis.edu by August 16.

With the implementation of Moodle to replace LATTE, we have created two Moodle environments. The first, Brandeis Moodle Courses, is the Moodle environment faculty, students, and staff will use to access for-credit courses in the Brandeis course catalog; Brandeis Moodle Courses will be used for all for-credit courses this fall.

The second environment, Brandeis Moodle Communities, is where non-credit courses and practice (or sandbox) courses will be housed. In addition, two Practice Courses are now available in Brandeis Moodle Communities for each active faculty and staff member to explore Moodle functionality. For information about Communities, please visit our Moodle News site, where you also can learn about our transition to Moodle.

The Technology Help Desk will be open Monday through Friday beginning July 1 through August 23. Virtual, phone, appointment and walk-in support will be available Mondays through Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Help Desk will be open Fridays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and offer virtual, phone, or appointment only support. Detailed information regarding Help Desk support hours can be found on the Help Desk Support Hours page.

Users may call 6-4357 (HELP) from a campus phone or 781-736-4357 from a non-campus line or open a ticket via an email to help@brandeis.edu; you may also visit our Brandeis TeamDynamix Service Portal to view our Technology Help catalog. To book an appointment on days without walk up support, please visit the Brandeis Technology Help Desk booking page. As a reminder, the Help Desk is closed weekends.

Harvard Pilgrim Health Care (HPHC) plan offer free fitness and wellbeing 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:

• HPHC Living Well at Home page
• Work Life Balance/ Well-Being Programming

Let's enjoy the summer sun safely. While some some sun exposure is needed for vitamin D production, overexposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun can result in sunburn, as well as lead to more serious health problems, including skin cancer, premature aging of the skin, cataracts and other eye damage, and immune system suppression. Take a moment to review ways to keep yourself safe and healthy this summer. Be sure to come to the Summer Employee Appreciation Series events and visit the Occupational Health booth to learn more!

Culinary Joy: Making Grocery Shopping and Cooking Fun

Sometimes the process of shopping for and cooking your own meals can feel like a chore! Join Heidi Roth a registered dietitian to discover ways to make time in your kitchen a source of creativity and joy.

Webinar on July 16, noon, Register