Defining Traditional Academic Calendars

This chapter provides an overview of academic calendars and enrollment request processing for drops, and also discusses how to define traditional academic calendars.

Understanding Academic Calendars

Academic calendars are systems by which you define the landmark dates that drive much of the day-to-day business at the academic institution. Each academic calendar contains cancel, withdrawal, and drop deadlines along with other landmark dates that vary, depending on the academic calendar type. As you define academic calendars, it is important to consider how the dates in these calendars affect all of the business processes (such as class enrollment, tuition refunds, and statistical reporting). All applications in Campus Solutions use the academic calendar dates in many of their business processes.

Campus Solutions enables you to create two types of academic calendars. The type that you create depends on the academic structure and business needs of the academic institution. For a traditional approach, you can create academic calendars with static landmark dates based on the term and session structure. For a flexible approach, you can create academic calendars with which you dynamically calculate landmark dates for individual classes or students.

A traditional academic calendar is based solely on term and session structure. For each academic career at the academic institution, you must define at least one academic calendar. Thus, you can potentially have as many academic calendars as you have academic careers. For each academic calendar, you must define the cancel, withdrawal, and drop deadlines for each session within each term of an academic career. Because each academic career within an academic institution has its own academic calendar, you can define different landmark dates for each academic career. To associate a traditional academic calendar with a student, you must activate the student into a term within the student's academic career, which in turn ties the appropriate academic calendar to the student. Thus, the dates on the academic calendar for that academic career and term combination drive the student's academic program. Academic calendars are a prerequisite to term activation. You use the Academic Calendar component to define traditional academic calendars, based on the term and session structure.

Note. If you use dynamic academic calendars, you must still set up traditional academic calendars for academic career and term combinations to activate students into terms and to enter landmark dates that dynamic academic calendars do not define.

Understanding Enrollment Request Processing for Drops

When processing enrollment requests with an enrollment action of drop through the Quick Enroll, Enrollment Request, and Block Enroll components or through self-service, the enrollment engine must determine the drop deadlines, reasons, grading bases, and grades with which to update the impacted student enrollment records (STDNT_ENRL).

The enrollment engine determines drop deadlines, grading bases, and grades differently depending on the class enrollment type (traditional, dynamic date, OEE).

When requesting to drop a traditional class enrollment, the enrollment engine:

Determines the deadlines according to the values set on the Academic Calendar 2 page.
Determines the grading scheme and grade, if applicable, according to the value set on the Grading Scheme Table page.

If there is no grade set on that page, the enrollment engine uses the grading schemes and grades set on the Session Calendar 2 page.

When requesting to drop a dynamic date class enrollment, the enrollment engine:

Determines the deadlines according to the values that the Dynamic Class Dates COBOL/SQL process (SRDYNADT and SRPCDYNP) calculates and displays on the Dynamic Class Data page.

If you have not calculated the academic calendar dates for the class, the enrollment engine determines the deadlines according to the values set on the Academic Calendar 2 page.
Determines the grading scheme and grade, if applicable, according to the value set on the Grading Scheme Table page.

If there is no grade set on that page and you have calculated the academic calendar dates for this class, the enrollment engine uses the grading schemes and grades set on the Dynamic Date page of the Academic Program Table component. If there is no grading scheme and grade set on that page, the enrollment engine uses the grading scheme and grades set on the Session Calendar 2 page.

If there is no grade set on that page and you have not calculated the academic calendar dates for this class, the enrollment engine uses the grading scheme and grades set on the Session Calendar 2 page.

When requesting to drop an OEE class enrollment, the enrollment engine:

Determines the deadline according to the values that it calculates upon enrollment and displays on the Student Enroll OEE page.

If the deadlines have not been calculated, the request fails.
Determines, if applicable, the grading scheme and grade according to the value set on the Grading Scheme Table page.

If there is no grade set on that page, the enrollment engine uses the grading schemes and grades set on the Dynamic Date page of the Academic Program Table component. If there is no grading scheme and grade set on that page, the request fails.

Regardless of the class enrollment type, the enrollment engine determines the reason according to the enrollment action reason that you enter on the enrollment processing page. If you do not enter a value on the enrollment processing page, then, for drop transactions during the drop retain record period only, the enrollment engine uses the reason set on the Session Calendar 2 page. Otherwise, the engine assigns no reason.

If the institution wants to retain student enrollment records during the drop delete period, you can associate time periods to enrollment action reasons on the Enrollment Action Reason Table page. When you create an enrollment request with an enrollment action of drop, you can then select an enrollment action reason that has a time period associated with it. For these requests to drop that are during the drop delete period, the enrollment engine retains the impacted student enrollment records so long as the time period has not passed.

Note. The enrollment engine does not prevent enrollment request transactions after the drop deadlines. If you submit a request to drop after the latest drop deadline, the enrollment engine displays a message that the latest drop deadline has passed and continues with the processing.

Defining Traditional Academic Calendars

To set up traditional academic calendars, use the Academic Calendar component (ACAD_CALENDAR_TBL). Use the SSR_ACAD_CALENDAR_TBL component interface to load the data into the table for this component interface.

This section discusses how to:

Describe academic calendars.
Set up term landmark dates.
Define self-service graduation terms.
Set up session cancellation and withdrawal dates.
Set up session drop dates.

Pages Used to Define Traditional Academic Calendars

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Term Calendar 1	ACAD_TERM_CAL1	Set Up SACR, Foundation Tables, Term Setup, Academic Calendar, Term Calendar 1	Describe academic calendars for an academic career.
Term Calendar 2	ACAD_TERM_CAL2	Set Up SACR, Foundation Tables, Term Setup, Academic Calendar, Term Calendar 2	Dates on this page are informational only and are not required. When you perform a term withdrawal or cancellation, the Stud Records Term Withdrawal COBOL/SQL process (SRPCWDPR) uses dates defined for the session, not the term.
Term Calendar 3	ACAD_TERM_CAL3	Set Up SACR, Foundation Tables, Term Setup, Academic Calendar, Term Calendar 3	Set up term landmark dates for students who are active in the specified term for the specified academic career. These landmark dates are for class enrollment, graduation, statistical reporting, and transcript purposes.
Term Calendar 4	ACAD_TERM_CAL4	Set Up SACR, Foundation Tables, Term Setup, Academic Calendar, Term Calendar 4	Define valid graduation application dates for each term. The system uses the date range to control the values that students can enter in the Expected Graduation Term field on the Apply for Graduation – enter Graduation Term page.
Session Calendar1	ACAD_SESN_CAL2_TBL	Set Up SACR, Foundation Tables, Term Setup, Academic Calendar, Session Calendar 1	Set up the class cancellation and withdrawal deadlines and data that the Stud Records Term Withdrawal process uses when a student cancels or withdraws from a term or session within a specified academic career.
Session Calendar2	ACAD_SESSN_CAL_TBL	Set Up SACR, Foundation Tables, Term Setup, Academic Calendar, Session Calendar 2	Set up the session drop deadlines that the enrollment engine uses when a student drops a class within a particular session of an academic career.

Describing Academic Calendars

Access the Term Calendar 1 page.

Academic Calendar

Enter a code that represents this academic calendar. If you have multiple academic careers that use the same academic calendar, set up the academic calendar for each of those academic careers, entering the same academic calendar code for each academic career.

Setting Up Term Landmark Dates

Access the Term Calendar 3 page.

Confer Date

Enter the degree conferral date that the system uses for students who are active in the specified term for the specified academic career and are graduating at the end of the specified term. The system uses this date when you post degrees.

Census Date

Enter the official cutoff date for census statistics for the term.

Fully Enrolled Date

Enter the date on which the students who are active in the specified term for the specified academic career are considered fully enrolled in the specified term. As of this date, the students' coursework appears on their transcripts when you enter the Obey Enrollment on Transcript Date check box on the Enrollment/Statistics page of the Transcript Type component. This date is also used for financial aid load calculations and billing purposes.

Show Enrollment on Transcript

Enter the date on which the in-progress enrollment appears on transcripts for students who are active in the specified term for the specified academic career. When you define transcript types, you can indicate on the Transcript Type – Basic Data page whether the transcript processes should obey this date and display in-progress enrollment information.

Show Statistics on Transcript

Enter the date on which academic statistics appear on transcripts for students who are active in the specified term for the specified academic career. When you define transcript types, you can indicate on the Transcript Type – Basic Data page whether the transcript processes should obey this date and display term statistics.

Fully Graded Date

Enter the date on which the system considers a student fully graded. The student must be active in the specified term for the specified academic career. The system populates this value by default for students on the Term Control Dates page in the Term Activation component. In addition, the system populates this value by default to the STDNT_CAR_TERM record when you run the Term Activation process or the Term Activation Update SQR process (SRTRMAC). When you define transcript types, you can indicate on the Transcript Type – Enrollment Statistics page whether the transcript processes should obey this date and only display classes considered fully graded. In other words, the system prints only those classes with fully graded dates less than or equal to the run date.

Student Attribute Value for Cohort

Currently not in use.

Defining Self-Service Graduation Terms

Access the Term Calendar 4 page.

Setting Up Session Cancellation and Withdrawal Dates

Access the Session Calendar1 page.

Note. For academic institutions that offer an open entry/exit (OEE) session for a term, you are not required to define an OEE session calendar because the cancel, withdraw, and drop information is part of the Open Entry/Exit Dynamic Date rule.

Session

Enter the session within the term for which you want to define the specified academic calendar for the specified academic career.

Cancel

Deadline	Enter the last date on which students within the specified academic career can cancel their enrollment in a class for this session. Penalty grades are not assigned to cancellations.
Reason	Select the reason value that you want the Student Records Term Withdrawal process to assign to impacted student enrollment records.

Withdraw without Penalty

Deadline	Enter the last date on which students within the specified academic career can withdraw from a class within this session without any grade point average (GPA) penalty.
Reason	Enter the reason value that you want the Student Records Term Withdrawal process to assign to impacted student enrollment records.

Withdraw with Penalty

Deadline	Enter the last date on which students within the specified academic career can withdraw from a class within this session with penalty. If a student withdraws from the class after the withdraw-without-penalty deadline but on or before the withdraw-with-penalty deadline, the class appears on the student's transcripts and affects the student's GPA in proportion to the value of the withdraw-with-penalty grade. The refund impact is based upon the refund dates and periods as defined within Student Financials.
Grd Basis (grading basis)	Enter the grading basis from which you want to choose the withdraw-with-penalty grade.
Grade	Enter the grade that students within the specified academic career receive for a class within this session if the student withdraws after the withdraw-without-penalty deadline but on or before the withdraw-with-penalty deadline. The grade for the class appears on students' transcripts and affects their GPA accordingly.

Withdraw with Greater Penalty

Deadline	Enter the last date on which students within the specified academic career can withdraw from a class within this session with greater penalty. If a student withdraws from the class after the withdraw-with-penalty deadline but on or before the withdraw-with-greater-penalty deadline, the class appears on the student's transcripts and affects the student's GPA in proportion to the value of the withdraw-with-greater-penalty grade. The refund impact is based upon the refund dates and periods as defined within Student Financials.
Grd Basis (grading basis)	Enter the grading basis from which you want to choose the withdraw-with-greater-penalty grade.
Grade	Enter the grade that students within the specified academic career receive for a class within this session if they withdraw from the class after the withdraw-with-penalty deadline but on or before the withdraw-with-greater-penalty deadline. The grade for the class appears on students' transcripts and affects their GPA accordingly.

Setting Up Session Drop Dates

Access the Session Calendar2 page.

Drop (Delete Record)

Deadline

Enter the last date on which students within the specified academic career can drop a class within the specified session and have their enrollment record for the class deleted from the student enrollment table (STDNT_ENRL). The dropped class does not have any GPA penalty. The refund impact is based upon the refund dates and periods as defined within Student Financials. When you are using one of the enrollment pages to drop a student from a class during this period and you add an enrollment action reason, the enrollment engine automatically retains the student enrollment record.

Fully Enrolled Date

Enter the date on which the students who are active in the specified session for the specified academic career are considered fully enrolled in the specified session. As of this date, the students' coursework appears on their transcripts. This date is also used for financial aid load calculations and billing purposes.

Drop (Retain Record)

Deadline

Enter the last date on which students within the specified academic career can drop from a class within the specified session without having the class appear as a drop on their transcripts and without any GPA penalty. If a student drops a class after the drop-and-delete-record deadline but on or before the drop-and-retain-record deadline, the system retains the student's enrollment record, sets the record to dropped status, and designates the reason. The refund impact is based upon the refund dates and periods as defined within Student Financials.

Reason

Select the default reason for the class drop. You can modify these translate values.

Drop with Penalty

Deadline	Enter the last date on which students within the specified academic career can drop a class within the specified session without having any GPA penalty. If a student drops the class after the drop-and-retain-record deadline but on or before the drop-with-penalty deadline, the system retains the student's enrollment record, leaves the record as enrolled status, and assigns the drop-with-penalty grade that you specify on this page. The refund impact is based upon the refund dates and periods as defined within Student Financials.
Grd Basis (grade basis)	Enter the grading basis from which you want to choose the drop-with-penalty grade.
Grade	Enter the penalty grade that students within the specified academic career receive for a class within the specified session if they drop the class after the drop-and-retain-record deadline but on or before the drop-with-penalty deadline. The grade for the class appears on students' transcripts and affects their GPA accordingly.

Drop with Greater Penalty

Deadline	To specify a greater level of penalty, enter the last date on which students within the specified academic career can drop a class within the specified session without greater penalty. If a student drops the class after the drop-with-penalty deadline but on or before the drop-with-greater-penalty deadline, the system retains the student's enrollment record, leaves the record as enrolled status, and assigns the drop-with-greater-penalty grade that you specify on this page. The refund impact is based upon the refund dates and periods as defined within Student Financials.
Grd Basis (grade basis)	Enter the grading basis from which you want to choose the drop-with-greater-penalty grade.
Grade	Enter the grade that students within the specified academic career receive for a class within the specified session if they drop the class after the drop-with-penalty deadline but on or before the drop-with-greater-penalty deadline. The grade for the class appears on students' transcripts and affects their GPA accordingly.

Confer Date	Enter the degree conferral date that the system uses for students who are active in the specified term for the specified academic career and are graduating at the end of the specified term. The system uses this date when you post degrees.
Census Date	Enter the official cutoff date for census statistics for the term.
Fully Enrolled Date	Enter the date on which the students who are active in the specified term for the specified academic career are considered fully enrolled in the specified term. As of this date, the students' coursework appears on their transcripts when you enter the Obey Enrollment on Transcript Date check box on the Enrollment/Statistics page of the Transcript Type component. This date is also used for financial aid load calculations and billing purposes.
Show Enrollment on Transcript	Enter the date on which the in-progress enrollment appears on transcripts for students who are active in the specified term for the specified academic career. When you define transcript types, you can indicate on the Transcript Type – Basic Data page whether the transcript processes should obey this date and display in-progress enrollment information.
Show Statistics on Transcript	Enter the date on which academic statistics appear on transcripts for students who are active in the specified term for the specified academic career. When you define transcript types, you can indicate on the Transcript Type – Basic Data page whether the transcript processes should obey this date and display term statistics.
Fully Graded Date	Enter the date on which the system considers a student fully graded. The student must be active in the specified term for the specified academic career. The system populates this value by default for students on the Term Control Dates page in the Term Activation component. In addition, the system populates this value by default to the STDNT_CAR_TERM record when you run the Term Activation process or the Term Activation Update SQR process (SRTRMAC). When you define transcript types, you can indicate on the Transcript Type – Enrollment Statistics page whether the transcript processes should obey this date and only display classes considered fully graded. In other words, the system prints only those classes with fully graded dates less than or equal to the run date.
Student Attribute Value for Cohort	Currently not in use.