Glossary
Common terms used in the Student Information System.
Academic Terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Academic Year | The annual period for academic operations, typically August to July |
| Term | A subdivision of the academic year (semester, quarter, trimester) |
| Sub-Term | An accelerated session within a term (e.g., 8-week session) |
| Course | A unit of instruction in the catalog (e.g., BIOL 101) |
| Section | A specific offering of a course in a term with meeting times |
| Class | Historically, cross-listed sections that met together. Retired from the interface in July 2026 when scheduling became section-centric — sections that must meet together are now linked directly through section scheduling. The class_id column survives on course_sections for historical rows |
| Credit Hour | Unit measuring academic workload (typically 1 hour = 15-16 class hours) |
| Bulletin/Catalog | Official publication of academic requirements for a year |
| Catalog Year | The year of requirements a student follows |
Degree Terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Degree | Credential awarded upon completion (B.S., M.A., etc.) |
| Major | Primary field of study required for degree |
| Minor | Secondary field of study (optional) |
| Concentration | Specialization within a major |
| Requirement Block | Group of related degree requirements |
| Degree Audit | Comparison of student's work against requirements |
| What-If Analysis | Hypothetical degree audit with different programs |
| Waiver | Exception to a requirement |
| Substitution | Alternative course satisfying a requirement |
| Credential | Colleague's record of one degree conferred in one major (ACAD_CREDENTIALS). A double major is two credentials for the same degree and commencement |
| Graduation Record | The SIS record of a conferred degree. An imported record corresponds to one Colleague credential (migration 301), so a double major has two records of the same degree. Its confirmed date is Colleague's conferral date (ACAD_DEGREE_DATE), or the date a registrar confirmed it in the SIS |
Registration Terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Enrollment | Registration in a course section |
| Registration | Process of enrolling in courses |
| Add/Drop | Period when courses can be changed without penalty. It ends on the term's add/drop deadline, the last day both to add and to drop |
| Drop | Leaving a section on or before the term's add/drop deadline; it does not appear on the transcript |
| Withdrawal | Leaving a section after the add/drop deadline and on or before the later withdrawal deadline (results in a W grade) |
| Hold | Block preventing registration or other actions |
| Waitlist | Queue for a full section |
| Override | Permission to bypass a registration restriction |
| Prerequisite | Course required before enrollment |
| Corequisite | Course required at the same time |
People Terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Person | Base record for any individual in the system |
| Student | Person enrolled in courses |
| Faculty | Person teaching courses |
| Advisor | Person advising students |
| Applicant | Person applying to a program |
| Registrar | Administrator managing academic records |
| Campus Assignment | A dated link between a student and a campus, on the student record's Campuses tab. A student can hold several at once, one marked primary. Mostly imported from Colleague's home locations; registrars can manage them (migration 303) |
Grading Terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Grade | Assessment of performance in a course |
| GPA | Grade Point Average |
| Term GPA | GPA for a single term |
| Cumulative GPA | GPA across all terms |
| Quality Points | Grade value × credit hours (Colleague STC_GRADE_PTS) |
| Attempted Credits | Credits the student registered for, counted even when withdrawn (Colleague STC_ATT_CRED). Stored per enrollment on student_section_enrollments.credits_attempted; Colleague posts it at term end, so it is 0 for an in-progress term |
| Earned Credits | Credits actually completed, pass/fail included (Colleague STC_CMPL_CRED) |
| GPA Credits | The GPA denominator: credits whose grade carries grade points, so pass/fail, audit and withdrawn credits are excluded (Colleague STC_GPA_CRED). GPA = Quality Points ÷ GPA Credits. Routinely smaller than earned credits — a 0.1-credit S-graded course earns 0.1 credits on 0 GPA credits. Note the trap: the aggregate columns students.credits_attempted, student_term_enrollments.credits_attempted and student_academic_levels.credits_attempted hold this figure, not attempted credits |
| Pass/Fail | Alternative grading mode (P or F) |
| Audit | Attending course without grade |
| Incomplete | Temporary grade pending completion |
| Transcript | Official record of coursework |
Billing Terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Tuition | Primary charge for instruction |
| Fee | Additional charge (technology, activity, etc.) |
| Billing Method | How charges are calculated (per-credit, flat) |
| Payment Plan | Installment payment arrangement |
| Refund | Return of charges for dropped courses |
| Financial Hold | Block due to unpaid balance |
Admissions & Test Score Terms
Applications and admission decisions moved out of this system in August 2026; the test-score terms below still apply.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Superscoring | Practice of combining the highest section scores across multiple test dates to produce the best possible composite score (e.g., highest SAT Math from one sitting with highest SAT Reading from another) |
| FERPA | Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act; federal law protecting the privacy of student education records. Students must grant consent before records can be shared with third parties, including parents |
Financial Aid Terms
Financial aid is not administered in this system — it is handled elsewhere and the module here is deliberately unreachable. These terms are retained because they appear in the retained financialaid schema and in conversation, not because the SIS acts on them. See Financial Aid Administration.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| FAFSA | Free Application for Federal Student Aid; used to determine eligibility for federal grants, loans, and work-study |
| Award | Financial aid disbursement (grant, scholarship, loan, or work-study) applied to a student's account |
| Financial Estimate | Projected cost and aid calculation before official award packaging |
System Terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Role | Set of permissions (Student, Admin, etc.) |
| Permission | Authorization to perform an action |
| Lookup Value | Configurable reference data |
| Workflow | Multi-step process automation |
| Impersonation | Viewing system as another user |
| Session | Server-side authentication state created after login. Sessions have a default lifetime of 4 hours and a maximum of 12 hours. They are stored in Valkey/Redis and validated on each request |
| CSRF | Cross-Site Request Forgery; an attack where a malicious site tricks a user's browser into making unwanted requests. The system uses CSRF tokens in cookies and request headers to prevent this |
| Magic Link | A single-use, time-limited URL sent via email that authenticates the user without a password. Used for password resets and initial account setup |
| LMS | Learning Management System; an external platform (Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard, etc.) that the SIS integrates with for course content delivery, grade sync, and roster management |
| Proxy Access | A mechanism allowing authorized third parties (typically parents or guardians) to view specific student information. The student must grant consent, and access is scoped to specific data categories. Complies with FERPA requirements |
| Form Builder | A module for creating dynamic, configurable forms (e.g., admission applications, surveys) without code changes. Forms are built from templates containing sections and typed fields |