As a junior at Brandeis, I’ve come to learn about a variety of programs and services that are interesting, useful and beneficial to undergraduates—but which are often underutilized by, or unknown to, the student body.
For instance, did you know that through a program called DeisBikes, you can rent a bike for an entire semester? DeisBikes offers semester-long rentals to students who are chosen from a lottery system at the end of each semester. If you only need a bike for one day, you can also take advantage of the daily rental system. DeisBikes offers an environmentally-friendly mode of transportation on campus that many students have never even heard of.
Students can also partake in the Take Your Professor to Lunch program. After filling out an application, students on a first-come, first-served basis will be provided a voucher by the university to treat a professor to either lunch or coffee. This is a great way to get to know a professor in a more informal setting, and the university couldn’t make it any easier by covering the monetary expenses.
Through the Waltham Group, you can also donate your unused guest meals to people with food insecurity in Waltham. The food goes to the Community Day Center, a Waltham organization that helps provide meals to people facing poverty.
The Rose Art Museum is chronically taken for granted. Many students may not know that they could be the lucky renters of professional paintings held in the Rose’s collection. For a fee around $10, any student living on campus is eligible to rent out a work of art from the Rose for the full academic year. In October, the museum will set aside a rental day when students can browse the collection at the museum and pick out a work of art on a first-come, first-served basis. After filling out rental agreements and learning how to properly handle the artwork, students can have a beautiful addition to their dorm for the rest of the year.
As a student employee of the Brandeis library, I can also attest that the library is full of a wealth of resources that are often underutilized by the student body. For instance, did you know that in addition to checking out books, you can also check out phone and laptop chargers, headphones and external DVD drives, just to name a few? Say you’re studying late in a poorly lit carrel—no problem, just head to the desk and check out a desk lamp for up to 24 hours. Laptop trackpad not working? Check out a Bluetooth-enabled mouse. Or, for a study break, check out one of the library’s newest collections—board games! Behind the Information and Borrowing Desk is a slew of popular games for rental.
The library also provides services for obtaining academic resources. First, Interlibrary Loan (ILL) is a free service that delivers books not available at the Brandeis library. This doesn’t mean you have to dip into your savings to buy a semester’s worth of books—instead, you can use ILL to order books from other libraries, in the Boston area or worldwide. You simply log in with your Brandeis username and password, request the books you need and then pick them up at the circulation desk when they arrive. While, unfortunately, you cannot request textbooks, ILL is a great service for humanities and social science classes that will save you some money—and will keep you from waiting in the mailroom line.
These are just a few of the countless little-known services offered to the student body, services students are already paying for. You should definitely take full advantage of these programs during your time at Brandeis.
