Semesters (Terms)

About Semesters (Terms)

Semesters allow the academic calendar to be divided into smaller units. Depending on the institution a semester may be called a term, quarter, module or session. In Campus Café, semesters may be further divided into subsemesters for more refined management. Individuals can only be admitted to a semester, not a sub-semester. Registration, grade entry and grade viewing can be controlled using sub-semesters.

Impact of Semesters

Prior to creating semesters, it is important to consider the impact of semesters on other modules:

• Inquires: Applicants can express interest in starting at a specific semesters. They cannot express interest in a specific subsemester.
  
• Admissions: Applicants apply to semesters. They cannot apply to subsemesters.
• Billing: Billing occurs at the semester level. All billing rules apply to all enrollments in the semester. Billing cannot be run at the subsemester.
• Financial Aid: Financial aid is awarded by semester and academic year, which is a combination of semesters. Financial aid packaging is not run by subsemester.
• Courses: Individual class sections are always tied to a semester. They may optionally also be affiliated with a subsemester.
• Registration: Registration can be controlled at the semester or subsemester level.
• Grade Entry: Entry of grades by instructors may be controlled at the semester or subsemester level.
• Transcripts: For credit schools (non clock hour), classes are grouped by semester with the semester description appearing as the header. Subsemesters do not show on a transcript.
• People Finders: Finders show resulting students or courses based on criteria. Finders look for information based on semester, not subsemesters. (The course finder allows searching by subsemesters.)
• Reports: Many delivered reports utilize the semester as a criteria or resulting piece of data.
• Third-party systems such as a learning management system (Brightspace, Canvas, Moodle, etc.), student refund system or attendance system that are term-based and may connect to data based on term.

Quick Start Video: Create a Semester 

Instructions: Create a Semester

Configuring the semester allows institutions to set start and end dates along with other rules associated with the semester. Semesters can be set up by site.

1. Navigate to Admin > Semester Dates.
2. Click Add > you will be taken to the Semester Dates Detail screen.
3. Select the Semester (this list is from the STParm parameter code "SMDESC").
4. Select Sub Semester, if applicable (this list is from the STParm parameter code "RCSUSM").
5. Enter the Site Number, if applicable.
6. Select the Major Code, if applicable (this list is from the majors created on the Admin > Majors screen).
7. Click Add.
8. Enter the following information based on your institution's policies:
   • Start Date: The day that semester (or cohort) starts.
   • End Date: The day that semester (or cohort) ends.
   • FT Credit Threshold: The number of credits enrolled for that term that will make an undergraduate student be considered full-time.
   • HT Credit Threshold: The number of credits enrolled for that term that will make an undergraduate student be considered part-time.
   • Grad FT Credit Threshold: The number of credits enrolled for that term that will make a graduate student be considered full-time.
   • Grad HT Credit Threshold: The number of credits enrolled for that term that will make a graduate student be considered part-time.
   • Last Add Date: The last date students can enroll in a course (or enter the cohort) for that term.
   • Enrollment Verification Date: This is the same as a Census Date which is usually the day after the last date you can drop a course. This is used to determine/report on financial aid.
   • Last Drop Date: The last date students can drop a course (or drop the cohort) for that term without penalty (financial or grade).
   • Last Drop Days(opt): The number of calendar days from the Start Date that students can drop a course (or drop the cohort/program) for that term without penalty (financial or grade).
   • Last Withdrawal Date: The last date that students can withdrawal from a course (or withdrawal from the cohort/program) for that term and still get a "W" grade.
   • Last Withdrawal Days(opt): The number of calendar days from the Start Date that students can withdrawal from a course (or withdrawal from the cohort/program) for that term and still get a "W" grade.
   • Session Meetings: The number of meetings needed for that term (Ex: Schools that don't have traditional semesters might require the student to meet 12 times to meet program requirements).
   • Ending Semester Suffix: Obsolete field.
   • Program Length 150% Date: The date, assuming the student took full time semesters, that would be the end of 150% of the program's length. (Ex: A 2 year degree would be 60 credits. If a student starts in Fall 2023, the 150% date would be the last day of the Spring 2026)
   • Refund 1-6 Date: The dates from the Start Date that tuition would be refunded.
   • Refund 1-6 Days: The number of days from the Start Date that tuition would be refunded.
   • Refund 1-6 Percent: The percent of tuition that would be refunded based on the corresponding dates or days from the Start Date.
   • Expected Grad Sem for Year 1-8: The semester a student would graduate if they took a 1-8 year program and started in this term. This shows up in the student's academic record. These fields work in conjunction with the Years to Complete configured on the major detail page. If the Years to Complete for the major selected on an application is 1, the system will assume the expected graduation semester entered in the Expected Grad Sem for Year 1 box. If the Years to Complete for the major selected on the application is 2, the system will assume the expected graduation semester entered in the Expected Grad Sem for Year 2 box and so forth. The expected graduation semester shows on the student’s degree record and is used for financial aid, federal enrollment reporting and day-to-day reporting.
9. Click Save.

Campus Cafe Recommendations

• Naming Conventions: For semester or quarter-based institutions, Campus Café strongly recommends following a parameter convention where the parameter code is YYYY## where YYYY represents the four-digit aid year and ## represents the semester, with 10 representing fall, 20 winter, 30 spring and 40 summer. For example, Fall 2019 would be 202010, Winter 2020 would be 202020, Spring 202020 would be 202030 and summer 2020 would be 202040.
• Transfer Credits: To hold transfer credits, Campus Café recommends creating a semester with the code 190101.
• Test Credits: Campus Café recommends creating a semester with the code 190001.
• Semesters appear on the transcript in ascending numerical order by semester codes.