Defining Terms, Sessions, and Session Time Periods

Select the category that best describes the term. You can modify these translate values.

Enter the first and last official dates of the term. The system uses the term begin date as the effective date of the term. The term begin and end dates are important because they determine, for example, the courses that are available for the term and the status of a student's academic program and academic plan. These dates are referenced throughout the system.

Enter the academic year to which the term belongs. For example, 2004 indicates that the term belongs to the 2004−2005 academic year. You must associate each term with an academic year for reporting and financial aid accumulation purposes. However, you can modify the financial aid academic year for individual students.

Enter the holiday schedule for the term. Define holiday schedule values on the Holiday Schedule Table page in HRMS.

Enter the default session code. This value is used throughout the system to supply the session code associated with the term, although the value can be overridden. The default serves as a data entry aid.

Enter the standard number of weeks of instruction for classes offered in the term. The Instructor Workload feature in Student Records uses this value when calculating faculty workload. Financial Aid uses this value when building terms and projections.

Select the dates to print on student transcripts for this academic career and term combination. The value of this field appears by default, based on the corresponding field value from the SA Options (student administration options) page of the Installation Table component. Any modification to these translate values requires substantial programming. Values are:

Do Not Print Any Dates: No dates are printed on student transcripts.

Print Class Dates: To print class dates on student transcripts for the specified transcript type, select this value and the Print Class Dates check box on the Enrollment/Statistics page of the Transcript Type component.

Print Session Dates: Select to print session dates on student transcripts.

Print Term Dates: Select to print term dates on student transcripts.

Enter the date on which the term is 60 percent complete. The system uses this date when computing refunds for students. In the U.S., most academic institutions stop issuing refunds at this point.

Select to enable the Dynamic Class Dates feature for all sessions scheduled in this term. The system migrates the value of this check box to the corresponding field on the Session Table page, where you can override the selection for a specific session.

Enter the date to be used as the deadline for term activation in a given term. The date appears by default from the Academic Career Table page. The deadline can be modified on the Term Table, but must be equal to or after the term start and before the Term end date.

Enter the type of session that you are defining for the term. To schedule open entry/exit (OEE) class sections for a course within the specified academic institution, academic career, and term combination, you must define one OEE session per combination. The system restricts the scheduling of classes within an OEE session to only the courses available in OEE format, as defined on the Offerings page of the Course Catalog component.

When you define an OEE session, the system automatically selects the Use Dynamic Class Dates check box and makes it unavailable, because the calculation of dynamic class data for an OEE class section requires the use of the Dynamic Class Dates feature. The system also makes several date fields unavailable because the dates do not apply to OEE class sections.

You can modify these translate values and their descriptions, with the exception of OEE, for which you can modify the descriptions only. Any modification to this code requires substantial programming.

Enter an enrollment control session to limit to a single session's enrollment limit the number of units that a student can take for all sessions within a term.

For example, suppose that the following three sessions and corresponding enrollment unit limits exist for the fall term: a regular session with an 18-unit limit, a 12-week session with a 6-unit limit, and a 6-week session with a 3-unit limit. To limit the total number of units that a student can take in all three sessions to 18 units, make the regular session the enrollment control session. This limits the student to a maximum of 18 units in the fall term—regardless of the session in which the student registers for courses. The system still enforces enrollment limits for individual sessions. In this example, a student can take a maximum of only 6 units for the 12-week session and 3 units for the 6-week session. However, if a student takes the maximum units for the 12-week and 6-week sessions, the system limits the student to 9 units in the regular session because the student cannot exceed 18 units for all three sessions.

Enter the holiday schedule for the session. Define holiday schedule values on the Holiday Schedule Table page in HRMS.

Select to enable the Dynamic Class Dates feature for all classes scheduled within the session.

Enter the default begin and end date for classes offered in the session. When you define class sections, the system migrates the session begin and end dates to the class start and end dates on the Basic Data page of the Schedule New Course component. You can override these dates for the class section.

Enter the first and last dates on which students can enroll in classes for the specified session. The enrollment engine prevents students from enrolling in classes before the date that you specify. This field is required for OEE sessions but optional for all other sessions. The first date to enroll must be on or before the start date of the first enrollment appointment within the session. The last date to enroll must be on or after the end date of the last enrollment appointment within the session.

Enter the date on which students can perform enrollment functions in the session, term, and academic career combination without having an enrollment appointment. The open enrollment date is tied to the academic career of the course as defined in the Course Catalog component. For example, if the academic career, term, and session combination is graduate, fall, and regular, then the open enrollment date affects the courses defined under the graduate career in the course catalog for this session.

Enter the final date on which a student can be placed on a wait list for the session. The enrollment engine assigns a student to the wait list for a class if the class is full and the user selects the Wait List Okay check box for the enrollment request.

Enter the standard number of weeks of instruction for classes offered in the session. The Instructor Workload feature in Student Records uses this value when calculating faculty workload. Financial Aid uses this value when building terms and projections.

Enter the cutoff date for census statistics for the session. This field is for informational purposes only.

Enter the date on which you consider the session to be 60 percent complete. The system uses this date when computing refunds. In the U.S., most academic institutions stop issuing refunds at this point.

Enter the run date of the facility assignment if you are using the Universal Algorithm Schedule25 and Resource25 software to assign facilities to classes. This assists you in assigning facilities during class scheduling.