Glossary of Terms
Academic Career (Undergraduate, Graduate) A grouping of all academic work undertaken by a student at a school that the school groups into a single student record.
Academic Group (BILSA, LAE, BRB, RLN, XUGRP, XGGRP ) Applies to a course or a class. Usually defined as a college or campus within a university. Sometimes, units such as distance education are defined as an academic group if classes are offered separately from the standard colleges or schools.
Academic Institution (UWPLT) A separate university or college. Most clients define only one institution, but you may define a separate one for extended or adult education, provided it is run independently and course work is not shared with the central school, except as external transfer credit.
Academic Organization (UWP, EMS, MATHEMATIC ) A node on the academic organization tree structure. At the lowest level, an academic organization is usually similar to an academic department. At the highest level is UWP alone, which accounts for all nodes below.
Academic Plan (Major or Minor) An area of study (for example, major, minor or certificate ) within an academic program.
Academic Program (BILSA, LAE, EMS, BRB, RLN, XUDE, XADE, XGDE) The program within an institution to which a student applies, is admitted, and ultimately graduates. There may be a different one for every area of study and degree offered at the graduate/professional school level.
Academic Session (Full semester or 8-weeks) A class scheduling/enrollment control time period within an academic term. All classes are offered within a session and a session belongs to a term for billing and other administrative purposes.
Academic SubPlan (Emphasis) An area of emphasis associated with an Academic Plan (for example, Mathematics-Actuarial Studies Emphasis. Teacher licensure is usually a subplan associated with a particular plan. (Licensure is not a certificate.)
Academic Term (Semester) An administrative time period within which sessions are defined, students are billed, and statistics are accumulated for individual students as well as for the entire school.
Academic Year (School Year) Each term is associated with an academic year for purposes of reporting and financial aid accumulation. Accounting is done at a term level and then summarized into a fiscal year that usually parallels an academic year. The Academic Year is defined to be the year at the end of the academic calendar.
Account Number A unique identifier that establishes a charge grouping for a customer. A customer may have multiple accounts defined per account type. The number is sequential, following the account prefix, unless an account is created by term.
Account Status Status of an account, such as active, current or closed.
Account Type Classification of the account (for example, a tuition account or a phone account). Account types are arbitrary, and the connection to student records is through the account type that is listed for tuition accounts.
Address Type An address type is a name which is given to a physical address.
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Billing (BILL) – No Longer used, Do not Use
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Business (BUSN) – this is the address assigned to a person indicating their place of employment.
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Deceased Addr Pointer (DECS) – this is the address assigned to a person who has passed away. This address will be added with a current effective date and the address of UW-Platteville Registrar’s office will be used: 101 Brighman Hall, Platteville, WI 52818
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Home (HOME) – this is the student or employee’s home address. This is the location the individual considers home for legal and official purposes even though they may be temporarily living somewhere else. This is the one address value that will be required in the system. If there is only one address, it must be entered under the “HOME” value.
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Local Campus Address (LOCA) – this is the local address for a student who is not living in campus housing nor at their permanent home address.
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Mailing (MAIL) the address at which a student receives letters, packages, etc. This could be the same or different than their home or local address.
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Office Address (OFFI) – this is the address assigned to a person who is employed at the university. Typically this is only assigned to Faculty, Staff, LTE, and so on.
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ITS Maintained Address (OITA) -- this is the addressed maintained by OIT.
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PAC Maintained Address (PACA) – No Longer used, Do not Use
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Resident Hall (RES_) -- this is the address assigned to a person living in a residence hall.
Address Usage An address usage is a grouping of address types. The grouping has a specific (for example, grade mailing) or generic (for example, selection order) purpose.
Admit Term (Semester student is admitted) The first term in which an applicant is expected to enroll in an academic program.
Admit Type (New Freshman, ReEntering, Transfer) Admit type helps distinguish first-year from transfer applications.
Application Center (UGA, UGI, XDLU, XDLI, XDLG, XDGI) A place where admission applications are processed. Typically, the application center codes mirror the academic career codes. An application center provides the capability for academic careers with decentralized application processing to track what office is handling a specific application.
Applied Date Date that the transaction was applied and cross-referenced to another item.
Bill Date Date that the particular item appeared on a bill.
Billing Cycle Unique grouping of customers who are billed together and share a common bill and due date. Customers should not be in multiple billing cycles unless accounts are billed separately. A billing cycle is associated with a formula to calculate the customer groups, but can be overridden at the customer level.
Business Unit (UWPLT) Independent processing unit such as a university or a subset of a university that is independent with regard to one or more accounting functions. In Student Financials, it is Cashier’s that accumulates charges, bills customers, applies payments, and collects overdue balances. A business unit may be associated with several academic business units plus several financial aid business units. The Student Financials business units comprise individual entities for reporting purposes. Student Financial business units map into a single GL business unit. A GL business unit may have multiple Student Financial business units.
Campus (MAIN, DIST, BRB, RLN) A separate campus within the same institution. Campuses use the same course catalog and produce a common transcript if a student changes campuses but not career levels (i.e. Undergraduate vs Graduate). Campuses are usually associated with a separate physical administrative location.
Campus ID – UW-Platteville will store the student’s Campus ID number in this field. A new Campus ID number is automatically created by the Campus ID office. This field should not be confused with the ID or EMPLID fields. There are two different numbers.
Class A specific offering of a course component within a specific academic term.
Class Number A single number (usually 4-digit) that represents a Subject-Catalog #-Section specific to an academic term.
Course A course offered by a school, usually described in the course catalog. A course has a standard syllabus and credit level, although these may be modified at the class level. Courses can contain multiple components such as lecture, discussion, and lab.
Degree (BS, BA, BBA, BFA, MS) An academic award earned by a student as a result of completing all requirements of an academic program/plan that offers the degree. Degrees are usually earned upon program completion. Can be intermediate certificates earned by the student prior to program completion (Graduate career only).
Effective Date Effective dates in tables allow for audit trails and also allow processing to occur in the past and future.
Electronic Address The system allows several electronic addresses for individuals in the database. The institution will support two types of electronic addresses: Campus and Home. The electronic address assigned to students by the Information Technology Services will be carried as a Campus type. During the time a student is enrolled the University will use the campus electronic address when electronic mail is sent.
Ethnic Data The information listed in the ethnic data fields will be recorded using the following definitions:
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Black: black, not of Hispanic origin: A person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa
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Asian or Pacific Islander: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, or the pacific Islands. This area includes China, Japan, Korea, the Philippine Islands, and Samoa.
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Southeast Asian is a sub-category of the Asian category. It will be used for persons who were admitted to the United States after December 31, 1975, and who are either former citizens of Laos, Vietnam or Cambodia or whose ancestors were or are citizens from these three countries who were admitted to the US after December 31, 1975. This sub category will be entered under the “ethnic detail” hyperlink.
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American Indian or Alaskan Native: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North America and who maintain cultural identification through tribal affiliation or community.
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Hispanic/Latino: A person of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race.
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White, not Hispanic origin: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, North Africa or the Middle East.
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N/A or Race Unknown: A person who has not self-identified as belonging to one of the above groups.
Facility ID A unique identifier for each room on campus. A unique ID is assigned to each room/building combination on campus. This is NOT the same as the room number.
FA Item Types Different types of Financial Aid funds.
FERPA The Federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, as amended in 1974. The purpose of FERPA is to afford specific rights to students concerning their educational records, including the right to review education records and the right to have specified control over the disclosure of information from these records. The Act requires post-secondary educational institutions to define a policy regarding the release of personally identifiable student information, including a definition of "directory" or public information.
Finance Charge Accounts may be assessed late charges based on total balance due or may be assessed on a percentage of overdue balance.
Financial Aid Year An awarding cycle with defined disbursement periods. Like the Academic year, is defined based on the last award period.
Fiscal Year Accounting period for which financial statements are prepared and compared to prior periods.
Institution (UWPLT) Institution is the highest level of academic structure. It offers different careers and programs and processes differently than other collections of careers and programs running on the same database.
Item Effective Date Effective date (or accounting date) of an item posted to a customer’s account.
Item Line Lowest level identifier on an account. A line item is a transaction on the account. It is summarized at the item level and account level.
Item Number A high level key in account processing. An item on an account is a transaction grouping that contains the same term and same item type. Tuition and fees are calculated at the item level and payments are applied at the item level.
Item Type Identifier that classifies an item on a customer’s account. Item types allow schools to uniquely categorize a customer’s bill. The determining factor for creating an item type or using an existing item type is the mapping to the GL and how a breakdown occurs on a customer bill.
Location Location is a physical place or address, usually associated with a building cluster or campus. Some clients have only one location, but most have satellite locations where classes are offered. In Student Financials, location is the physical register number at a window.
Name Type A name type is a label assigned to an individual’s name. Degree name type (indicating the name that a graduate wants printed on the diploma) and maiden name type are two examples.
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Primary Name is the full name that is associated with the student record. Historical primary names will be available though effective dated rows. The primary name will be used in all formal documents, such as transcripts, grade report, fee bills, etc. In order for the system to accept a single name (like “Prince”), the name will be entered in the “last name” field with a period (.) entered in the “first name” field. Searches are most often done on last name vs. first name and it will be more likely to obtain a match if the name is loaded in that field. The system will not allow just “last name” to be populated without a first name therefore, the use of the period (.) will be used to populate that field.
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Former Name is any historical name used by the individual in the past and will be generated for converted records.
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Preferred Name may be used with informal communication. The name fields may be edited. E.g.: A student’s primary name may be Robert, with a preferred name of Bob.
National ID This is the field in the system where we will store the student’s Social Security Number (SSN) or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN).
Operator Person’s ID that is assigned to a particular register and transacts business with the system.
Payment Priority Payment priority of a specific payment that satisfied a particular charge. The priority list is used to determine a refund to a particular payment item type if a charge is adjusted downward. This structure is represented by a tree.
Recruiting Center A place where recruiting is administered. Normally, the recruiting center codes mirror the application center codes. A recruiting center provides the capability for academic careers with decentralized and/or regional recruiting to track what office is handling a specific prospective student.
Requirement Term Determines the catalog requirements the student follows for their Academic Program (as reflected on the student’s Academic Advisement Report). Generally this is equal to the student’s admit term, but a student may opt to move up to a newer catalog. Students may not mix catalogs.
Security Group The group that controls the entry of a particular item. Security in Student Financials can be at the item type level. The group is a node on a tree which translates to a group of operator IDs.
SetID (UWPLT) Collection of tables used to group general processing type tables.
Term (Semester) An administrative grouping for course offering, selection, and tuition generation. It is a period of time that a school has determined as an instructional accounting period.
Need help?
If you have questions, please contact the ITS Help Desk at 608.342.1400 or helpdesk@uwplatt.edu. You may also visit the Help Desk on the first floor of the Karrmann Library.