About Academic Programs (Majors)

Academic programs may be majors or other programs that represent a curriculum that generally contains a beginning (admission), classes, and an end (completion/graduation). In Campus Cafe, programs are referred to as Majors.

Prerequisites

A new academic program (major) may impact other parts of Campus Cafe depending on your institution's specific business practices. For example, if the major leads to a master’s degree, and you’ve never offered a master’s before, you’ll need to create a new degree. If the new program also brings its own tuition, you’ll need to create a new billing rule.

The considerations listed below are common but aren’t intended as a comprehensive list due to every institution having unique business practices and academic policies.

A new major may require:

• creation of new degree level (e.g. undergraduate, graduate, etc.)

• creation of a new degree (e.g bachelors, masters, etc.) that a student completing the major earns

• creation of core GPA if the major contains a specific GPA in addition to an cumulative GPA

• creation or adjustment of admission inquiry or application forms that list majors

• creation of a new degree audit

• creation or adjustment to classes where registration is restricted to specific majors (Major Restriction)

• creation of a new billing rule if the institution's tuition and fees are tied to student major

• creation or adjustment of financial aid cost of attendance if the institution's cost of attendance is tied to student major

• creation of adjustment of workflows/activities that relate to specific majors, inclusive of workflows/activities tied to admission marketing drip campaigns

Required permissions

Name part-time codes (enrollment load levels)

Enrollment load refers to the total number of credit hours, clock hours or courses that a student is registered for in a given academic period (usually a semester or quarter). This load can vary depending on the student, and your institution defines what constitutes a full-time load. In turn, this definition determines student financial aid eligibility, with students enrolled full time typically receiving more aid than students enrolled less than full time.

Campus Cafe calls these load levels part-time codes. By default, the labels are less than half time, half time, three-quarter time and full time. You can change these labels to align with your business processes. You can also add additional load labels if you need more thresholds or different labels for different academic programs.

While the labels will be available to all academic programs, you can configure each academic program with different thresholds. For example, 12 credits may be full time for your undergraduate political science major but students in your PhD political science program only need 9 credits to be full time.

Change labels

Change what the delivered enrollment loads are called.

1. Go to Admin > STParm.

2. In Search enter SBPTIQ.

3. Next to the label to change, click the pencil.
   
   

   Open

   

4. In Description and Long Description enter the name of the load.

5. Click Save.

6. Go to Admin > Refresh Data Cache.

Add label

If you need more labels for additional enrollment thresholds, you can add them. For example, perhaps you want a label called Full Time UG for undergraduate students and another called Full Time GR for graduate students. Remember, you can reuse the labels across academic programs each with their own thresholds so you don’t need to create labels specific for each academic program unless your business processes require it.

1. Go to Admin > STParm.

2. In Parameter Code enter SBPTIQ.

3. In Parameter Value enter a character to describe the load.

4. Click Add.

5. Enter a Description and a Long Description.

6. Click Save.

7. Go to Admin > Refresh Data Cache.

Name earned unit label

When a student completes a class they earn academic credit. At many institutions students earn credit, units, hours, etc. To accommodate your business practices and nomenclature, Campus Cafe lets you set this label.

1. Go to Admin > Custom Control.

2. In Search enter LABEL_CREDITS.

3. Click the pencil.

4. In Parameter Value 1 enter what you want to you want to label earned academic credit. For example, “credits.” We recommend you enter the plural. So “credits,” not “credit.”

5. In Parameter Value 2 enter how this label should be abbreviated. For example “crd” or “hrs.”

6. Go to Admin > Refresh Data Cache.

Create major

1. Go to Admin > Majors.

2. In Concentration, enter an internal code for the major. For example, BIO for biology.

   Open

   

3. Click Add.

4. Complete information about the major.

   • Description: A short description of the major. For example, Bio BS

   • Long Description: A description of the major. For example, Biology Bachelor’s of Science

   • Degree Level: The academic tier corresponding to the credential. May be used in the enrollment registration process and degree audit rules. For example, undergraduate.

   • Degree Awarded: Represents the credential earned. For example, Bachelor’s of Science.

   • Active Date: The first date the major was offered.

   • Active Code: Internal way of classifying the major’s status. Codes are added using STParm parameter code SJDELT. For example, you may configure options such as active or inactive.

   • Inactive Date: The last date the major was offered.

   • CIP Code: Classification of Instructional Programs code corresponding to the major. Used for financial aid and federal enrollment reporting.

   • Department: Department associated with the major. For example, Department of Biological Sciences.

   • Web Deg. Audit Alt. Major: Select to allow students to run a “what if” for this major on the degree audit. For example, if you selected this for your biology major, students pursuing your geology program considering switching to biology could see how their past classes fit into biology. You wouldn’t select this for your undeclared major or for programs that are no longer accepting new students.

   • IPEDS Code: Not in use.

   • Years to Complete: The typical number of years to finish the major if attending full time. This impacts the class level assignment process, expected gradation semester. For example, if your biology bachelor’s program usually takes four years, you’d enter a 4.

   • PT Years to Complete: The typical number of years to finish the major if attending part time.

   • Hide Transcript GPA: Select to suppress quality points and GPA on the transcript for students in this major.

   • Hide Core GPA on Transcript: Select to suppress quality points and GPA for the core GPA on the transcript for students in this major. For example, your institution might compute an overall cumulative GPA as well as a distinct GPA based on just classes in the core biology curriculum, exuding general education classes. Selecting this box would hide the GPA based on the biology classes.

   • Transcript Format Override: Select a transcript design for students in this major. Otherwise, the transcript will reflect the design selected on Reg. System Control.

   • GE Program: Select if the major is subject to the federal government’s gainful employment regulations. Informational only.

   • Credits to Graduate: The total number of credits required to complete the degree. This works in tandem with Credits per Semester to set a student’s class level (e.g. freshman, sophomore, junior, etc.). For example, if your Biology major requires 120 credits to graduate, enter 120.

   • Credits per Semester: Each row represents an academic year of the major. Each box on each line represents a semester within that year. Complete each box with the typical number of credits the student would complete each semester. For example, for a bachelor’s degree requiring 120 credits, you would enter 15 in the first box of the first row; 15 in the second box of the first row; 15 in the first box of the second row, 15 in the second box of the first row, and so forth. These fields, along with the Credits to Graduate field, work together to set a student’s class level (e.g. freshman, sophomore, junior, etc.).

   • Full Time Term Credit Hours: The number of credit hours per semester considered 100% enrollment intensity for financial aid. Enrollment intensity is equal to a student’s enrolled credit hours / Full Time Term Credit Hours. For example, if Full Time Term Credit Hours is 12 hours and a student is enrolled in 9 credit hours for a term, the student’s enrollment intensity is 75%.

   • Degree Seeking: Check if the program leads to a degree. This indicates to the National Student Clearinghouse process and the FISAP report that the program leads to a credential.

   • Common App Code: This is the corresponding major code from the Common Application that ties the Common Application major to the Campus Cafe major.

   • Program Length: The length of the program for financial aid and federal enrollment reporting purposes. Enter the value as measured in to the length type selected below. For example, if your four-year biology program consists of four, 30-week semesters, you’d enter 120 and in length type select weeks.

   • Length Type: How the major’s program length is measured (days, weeks, etc.) for financial aid and federal enrollment reporting. Select the value corresponding to the length type. Enter the actual number in the Program Length box.

   • Special Code: Used for federal financial aid and federal enrollment reporting. Refer to the U.S. Department of Education’s NSLDS Enrollment Guide for guidance on which code to select referred to as the Special Program Indicator.

   • Credential Level: Used to award and disburse federal financial aid, federal enrollment reporting and other reports throughout the system. Refer to the U.S. Department of Education’s NSLDS Enrollment Guide for guidance on which code to select.

   • Weeks in Academic Year: Weeks in academic year for federal financial aid and enrollment reporting and other reports throughout the system. Refer to the U.S. Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid Handbook for guidance on calculating weeks in academic year.

   • Clock Hour Indicator: Select if program is clock-hour based for financial aid, federal enrollment reporting and other reports throughout the system. Selecting this box also changes the semester transcript credits column to read hours instead of credits for students in this academic program. Selecting this box also tells the system to use the Clock Hour transcript format specified in Reg. System Control unless the format is otherwise specified in Transcript Format Override.

   • Hours to Complete: If program is clock-based for financial aid, enter hours required to complete. (Important) Financial aid packaging will fail unless hours are entered.

   • Hours to Complete Divisor: Not in use.

   • FinAid Semester Suffixes: Not in use.

   • Use Degree Start Date(Financial Aid): Not in use.

   • Cost Center: A maximum of four numbers associated with the accounting cost center of the academic program. The cost center is not tied to the Campus Cafe general accounting module and any value may be entered even if it is not a defined cost center. The field is informational only and may be used on select reports. Cost centers may not begin with leading zeros.

   • CTP program: Used for Financial Value Transparency and Gainful Employment reporting. Select Y to indicate the program meets the federal definition of a Comprehensive Transition and Postsecondary (CTP) Program.

   • Prison Ed: Used for Financial Value Transparency and Gainful Employment reporting. Select Y to indicate the program meets the federal definition of an approved prison education programs under 34 CFR Part 668 Subpart P.

   • Qualifying Grad Program: Used for Financial Value Transparency and Gainful Employment reporting. Select Y to indicate the program meets the federal definition of a qualifying graduate program.

   • Program Accredited: Used for Financial Value Transparency and Gainful Employment reporting. Select Y to indicate the program is accredited for purposes of FVT/GE reporting.

   • Accreditation Agency: Used for Financial Value Transparency and Gainful Employment reporting.

   • MSA State 1-4: Used for Financial Value Transparency and Gainful Employment reporting. The Metropolitan Statistical Area(s) for which the program prepares students to meets licensure requirements or prepares students to sit for a licensure exam.

   • State Licensing 1-4: Used for Financial Value Transparency and Gainful Employment reporting.

   • Liberal Arts Bachelor's Degree: Used for Financial Value Transparency and Gainful Employment reporting. Select Y if the program meets the federal definition of a liberal arts undergraduate degree for Financial Value Transparency and Gainful Employment reporting purposes.

   • Part Time Code: These five fields let you define the credit or hour thresholds for enrollment loads such as less than half time, half time, three-quarter time and full time. You can define the threshold label options (less than half time, half time, etc.) using STParm SBPTIQ. These enrollment loads are used for reporting and by financial aid.
     
     In the Part Time Code fields, set the credit or hour range for each enrollment load level. You can enter up to five characters, including a decimal point. Campus Cafe recommends you define ranges beginning with full time and moving downward with each load level, utilizing decimal points on the “to” range value to get close to, but not equaling, the next range’s “from” range value.
     
     Below is a typical setup for a credit-based, semester institution.
     
     

     
     If you’ve configured Custom Control GPA_PART_TIME to update the part time code automatically, the student’s part time code appears on their session data and is updated nightly or when someone visits the student’s GPA history or the GPA processor.

5. Click Save.

6. Go to Admin > Refresh Data Cache.

Change major

1. Go to Admin > Majors.

2. Optionally enter any filters to narrow your results.

3. Click Submit.

4. Next to the major to change, click the pencil.

5. Make your changes and click Save.

6. Go to Admin > Refresh Data Cache.

Delete major

Once created, majors cannot be deleted, although they can be set as inactive or have their descriptions adjusted.

1. Go to Admin > Majors.

2. Optionally enter any filters to narrow your results.

3. Click Submit.

4. Next to the major to change, click the pencil.

5. In Active Code select an option to indicate the major is no longer in use.

6. Click Save.

7. Go to Admin > Refresh Data Cache.