About student filter (finder)

The Student Filter (finder) is a People Filter that provides a powerful way to search for populations of students that meet certain criteria. You can find all students who meet certain demographic criteria - like all students from Rhode Island - or all students who meet academic criteria - like all students with a 3.8 GPA or above in a certain semester. You can also layer these filters. For example to return all students with a 3.8 GPA or above from Rhode Island.

Additionally, you can use the Student Filter to take action on the group of students returned. For example, you can apply a semester status like dean’s list, add fees, enroll students or change their advisors. And by applying an activity to the students, you can trigger emails or record notes in batch.

What you’re able to see and do in the Student Finder will depend on your permissions granted by your system administrator.

Webinar recording

Go to the student finder

1. Go to Filters > Students.

Define criteria

Use fields to narrow or limit your results. Each field corresponds to a specific data element like the student’s name, state, GPA, major, etc. You can use fields together to build and statements such as the student must be from Rhode Island and a journalism major.

1. Go the the finder by clicking Filters at the top of the screen.

2. When you use a filter, it displays information about people such as their ID number, name, birthday, academic program, etc. The information you want displayed might depend on what you’re doing. For example, when running a filter to find students for state reporting, you may need their town. However, when running a report to find students eligible for Dean’s List, town isn’t relevant. Campus Cafe lets you change the information displayed as a Report Format, also known as a table configuration. You can save multiple formats to align with your different business processes. If you previously saved a Report Format you can select it now. If not, don’t worry, you can change the information (columns) displayed later.

   Open

   

3. Click >Add Fields.

   Open

   

4. In the Search box you can enter a criteria. For example State.

5. Select (check) each criteria (field) you want to use to limit your results.

6. Search for additional fields (criteria) if you need them and select them. For example Class Level if you wanted to limit your results to students from Rhode Island and who are sophomores.

7. Below where you selected your fields, click Filters.

8. You’ll now see the fields you selected.

    

9. For each criteria, first select the operator and to the right enter what you’re looking for. You can click the three horizontal lines to see your options.
   Common operators include:

   • Starts With means the results must start with the text you enter. For example, you could find all people with a last name that start with Barr.

   • Equal to means the results must match the text you enter exactly. For example, to find all people with the last name of Smith you’d select equal to and enter Smith.

   • Is One Of lets you select multiple options. For example, you could use Is One Of to find all students from Alaska or Alabama. Click the three horizontal lines, select the states and click Apply.

      

      

   • For numerical filters the options are equals (=), does not equal (<>), greater than  (>), greater than or equal to (>=), less than (<) or less than or equal to (=<). For example, to return students with a cumulative GPAs of less than 2.0, set the CUM GPA operator to < and in the enter 2.0 in the criteria box.

   • Some filters support ranges. For example, to return all students with a cumulative GPA of 2 to 3.00 in the first Cum GPA box choose >= and enter 2. In the second GPA box choose <= and enter 3.

   • Some filters are dependent on others. For example, to use the Single Semester columns (such as single semester GPA or credits taken), you must input a semester in the Single Semester box.

10. For a person to appear in the results all the fields must be true for them.
    In the example below for a person to appear in the results their last name must start with Barr and they must be from AK or AL and they must be a level 2 class level. They can be from AK or AL because for that specific field (state) we chose Is One Of.

11. Below your fields, set the # of Results and # Per Page. This controls the total number of results return and how many show on each page without having to click to the next page.
    In the example below we would see a maximum of 500 people returned, even if more met the criteria we set. 100 people would show per page.

12. Click Submit.

Save criteria 

Each time you run the finder, it returns the results that match the criteria as of that moment. For example, if you configure the finder to return all students from Alabama on Monday you may return 10 students. On Friday, you run the finder with the same criteria and return only 9 students. This is because during the week one individual’s address was changed and they now don’t live in Alabama.

If you often search for the students meeting a particular criteria, you can save your criteria. This way you don’t need to set the criteria every time you need to identify a certain population of students. For example, you may need to run a weekly report of students from Alabama for an outside reporting requirement. Once you set the criteria, which may be just state or state and additional criteria, you can save it.

Save a filter

1. Configure your fields as desired and click Submit.

2. In Save Filter As enter a name to identify the criteria. For example, Alabama Students.

3. Optionally, to allow others to use this same criteria when they run the Student Finder, select (check) Available For All Users?

4. Click Save Filter As.

Use a saved filter

Once you’ve saved a filter, you can use it later, even if you’ve logged out of Campus Cafe and returned the next day. If someone else has saved a filter and allowed others to use it, you can use their filter, too. This can help ensure that different people across your organization use the same criteria when answering a common question like how many students do we have from Alabama?

1. Go to the Filter.

2. At the top select a filter either from All Users or My Filters.

3. Once a filter is selected, the finder shows the resulting students who match the criteria. You can adjust the criteria by clicking Filters.

Show results based on list of IDs

As an alternative to defining criteria, you can upload a list of Campus Cafe ID numbers. You might gather the IDs from an export of activity tracking items or any list of ID numbers gathered outside of Campus Cafe. The ID numbers may appear more than once in your spreadsheet, but they will be de-duplicated when fed into the Student Filter. The ID number input list may then be further filtered using the filter fields on the finder. 

1. Create a spreadsheet with ID numbers listed in the first column. Campus Cafe ignores data in other columns.

2. Save the spreadsheet as a .csv file
   Important: The file name cannot contain any periods. The only period should be prior to file extension csv

3. Go to the filter.

4. Click Filters.

5. Click Browse and select your file.

6. Click Import.

7. Click Filters.

8. Adjust the Results to at least the number of IDs in your file.

9. Click Submit.

Result limit

To ensure quality system performance, Campus Cafe by default limits results to 100 total people and 100 students per page. You can increase this limit by changing the numbers in # of Results and # Per Page.

Add/hide columns to results (report format)

When you return results, you may wish to see more information about each student. For example, you may return students from Connecticut and Rhode Island and you want to see their full addresses.

If you export results, only visible columns appear in the exported file.

1. Click Column Visibility.

2. Click a column name to show or hide the column. Tip, you can search for a specific column by typing its name next to the magazine glass.

3. Rearrange columns by clicking and dragging the column to a new location.

4. Sort by column by clicking the column header.

Save report format (table arrangement)

The results grid, including the visible columns (data fields) and the column order, may be saved. This way when you run a filter in the future, you can have the same set of columns appear. Columns contain information like ID number, name, major, GPA, etc.

1. With the results loaded and the columns visible and arranged as desired, click the disk icon.

2. In Name of Table Configuration enter a name for the column arrangement.
   Tip: To make this the default arrangement, save it as *MY DEFAULT

3. Optionally select Make Available For All Users to make arrangement visible to others.

4. Click Save.

To launch this column arrangement in the future before running your filter, select it from Report Format.

To launch this column arrangement in the future after running your filter, select it from the menu under Results.

Launch person from result

Clicking the Launch Person link (assuming this column is visible) will bring you to the person’s profile that shows information about the individual and allows navigation to additional information and functions related to that individual.

Filter examples

You can use the Student Filter as part of many business processes whether it’s finding the number of enrolled students or seeing how many students from Rhode Island you have in your journalism program.

We’ve compiled some common searches as a starting point. You can modify these to meet your exact business needs.

• Find Enrolled Students

• Find Students by Current Academic Program (Major)

• Find Students by Academic Program (Major) During Specific Semester

• Find Students by GPA

• Find Students with Holds

• Find Students in Specific Course

• Find Students with Specific Class Grades

• Find Students Near Graduation

Amount due columns

You may want to use the Student Filter to return students who owe a balance. To do so, click column visibility and display one or both of these two columns.

• Amount Due assumes that outstanding financial aid will be disbursed. It subtracts the loan origination fee in the student's individual financial aid award. This is different from the billing statement that generates the origination fee based on the date of the student's first disbursement and fees supplied by Campus Cafe. For this reason, there may be differences between the amount due shown on the finder column and the billing statement.

• Actual Cash Balance assumes no outstanding financial aid will be disbursed.

Actions

Actions, such as applying activities or statuses, can be applied in bulk using the action buttons. Permissions control access to some buttons.

Photos

Permission #955

Click to display photos of the selected students.

Send email

Permissions #951 & #952

You can email the selected results on the by feeding the emails into an email program installed on your computer (e.g. Microsoft Mail) or through Campus Cafe. To use Campus Cafe to send email, you must have configured Campus Cafe to connect to your Google or Microsoft system. Campus Cafe sends the email to the student’s preferred email address.

Email using software installed on your computer

1. Select by checking the Selected checkbox the students you wish to email.

2. Click Email > For All Default.

3. Your computer’s email client opens and the emails will appear in the BCC line.

4. Compose and send the email as normal.

Email using Campus Cafe 

Ensure pop-ups are allowed for Campus Cafe.

1. Select by checking the Selected checkbox the students you wish to email.

2. Click Email > For All Client.

3. A popup appears. Compose the email and click Send.

Send text

Permission #1092

This feature requires you have a third-party contract with Message Media. Once enabled and configured you may send a text message from the Student Filter. Refer to the separate text messaging documentation for setup and detailed directions. It is recommended that the text include the name of the institution and/or sender to help the recipient identify the source of the text.

1. Click Text > For All.

2. Next to Member: Template Name click the magnifying glass to select a template. This template might contain boilerplate text for your message or be empty allowing you to write a message from scratch.
   
   

3. In Semester select the Semester this message is associated with or set to – choose one – if not attached to a semester.

4. Optionally add a internal Comment.

5. In Add Only For These People select one of the options:

   • All # People will send the message to everyone.

   • People Where Tracking Doesn’t Exist will send the message to everyone who doesn’t have the activity tracking template you selected already on their record.

   • People Where Tracking Doesn’t Exist in Semester will send the message to everyone who doesn’t have the activity tracking template you selected already on their record for the semester you selected.

6. In Type in a message below enter your text message. Note the counter shows when you’ve reached the 160-character max for a text message.

7. Click Submit.

8. Wait until Campus Cafe completes sending the message. Only users with valid mobile (MBL) phone numbers can receive a text message.

Example: Text message reminder of spring start

Below we send a text message to students reminding them when the semester starts. We first selected the Template A:TEXT. We selected the Semester Spring 2024 and in Add Only For These People selected People Where Tracking Doesn’t Exist In Semester. By selecting this option and a specific semester, we ensure these students only receive this reminder once, even if we later include these students in a set of results to text. This setup also means if one of the students in our current results already has the activity A:TEXT for Spring 2024 they won’t receive this message.

Download results

Permission #954

Use Download to export results with additional information (data fields) not shown in the results grid.

1. Click the Download icon.

2. Select (check) the data elements to download

3. Click Apply.

4. Click Download > For All.

The file downloads as a .tab file. This type of file may be opened in Excel:

1. Open Excel.

2. Navigate to File > Open.

3. Click Browse.

4. To the right of the File name box, select All Files (*.*) from the drop down.

5. Select your file.

6. Under Original data type, select Delimited.

7. Click Next.

8. Under Delimiters, select only Tab.

9. Click Next.

10. Click Finish.

Add activity tracking (send personalized emails/letters)

Permission #953

Use this button to add activities to the people you found in the filter. For example, you might want to place an activity on all the students who passed a recent licensure exam so you can report on them later.

When you create activities, you can have them contain a workflow that sends an email. If you assign such an activity here, the students will receive the email in the workflow. For example, you might select all students with a GPA of 4.0 and assign them an activity called Perfect GPA that sends them a congratulatory email.

1. Click +Add Activity > For All.

2. Next to Member: Template Name click the magnifying glass.

3. Next to the document required click Select.
    Tip: Use the search box in the upper right to find the desired template.

4. Optionally in Semester select the academic period associated with the activity. For example, if the Commencement activity is associated with Spring 2024, select that semester.

5. Optionally enter a comment that will appear in activity tracking results as First Comment.

6. If the activity you selected has a workflow configured with the action Assign User selected, when you add this activity, you’ll be assigned as responsible for its completion. To select a different person, choose that person in Override Assign To ID.

7. In Add Only For These People select one of the options:

   • All # People will assign the activity to everyone.

   • People Where Tracking Doesn’t Exist will assign the activity to everyone who doesn’t have the activity tracking template you selected already on their record.

   • People Where Tracking Doesn’t Exist in Semester will assign the activity to everyone who doesn’t have the activity tracking template you selected already on their record for the semester you selected.

8. In Editor Format select simple for a long comment that doesn’t include text formatting like bold or italics. Choose Rich to enter a long comment with text formatting.

9. In Due Date optionally select a date when the activity must be completed. If you don’t, Campus Cafe adds the due date based on how you’ve configured the underlying workflow and activity to compute the date.

10. Optionally, in Long Comment enter notes.

11. Click Submit.

Fees

Permission #1135

You can add a fee to the selected students. For example you need to add a Commencement fee to all students expected to graduate this semester. (Example filter of how to find students close to graduation.)

1. Select by checking the Selected checkbox the students you wish to add fee to.

2. Click Add Fees > For All.

3. In Billing Semester select the academic period in which to apply the charge.

4. In Transaction Code select the type of charge. For example Graduation Fee.

5. In Charge Frequency select choose the rule for the charge.

6. In Billing Amount enter the amount of the charge.

7. Click Submit.

Example: Graduation fee

Below we apply a $100 Graduation Fee (transaction code) associated with the Spring 2025 semester. In Charge Frequency we selected Once Per Lifetime to ensure the student is never charged the fee again. This way if a student we assigned the fee to here doesn’t graduate as expected in Spring 2025 they won’t be charged in the future semester when they actually graduate.

Update class levels

Permission #1281

Campus Cafe assigns students class levels such as freshman, sophomore, junior and senior based on rules you configure such as requiring so many credits to be considered a certain level. If you don’t use rules you can manually set the class level or assumed class level of students.

Setting class levels through this method doesn’t impact student financial aid awards if using the Campus Cafe financial aid module.

1. Select by checking the Selected checkbox the students you wish to change their class level.

2. Click Update Class Levels >For All.

3. In Student Codes Class Level select the new level.

4. In Session Semester Class Level you must select the academic period for which to apply this level. Remember, the student must already have a session row for this semester.

5. If you also want to set an assumed class level, in Student Codes Assumed Class Level select the assumed level.

6. If you selected an assumed class level, you must select in Session Semester Assumed Class Level the academic period for which to apply this level. Remember, the student must already have a session row for this semester.

7. Click Submit.

Example: Update students to sophomores

You’ve concluded the spring semester and have a group of students who will now be considered sophomores in the fall.

To F/A disbursements

Permission #984

Click this to move the selected students to F/A Disbursements.

To federal packaging

Permission #1142

Click this to move the selected students to F/A Packaging where you can package the student for federal aid such as student loans and Pell grants.

To other packaging

Permission #984

Click this to move the selected students to Other Packaging where you can assign them aid that doesn’t come from the federal government such as merit-based scholarships or athletic awards.

Degree audits

Permission #2014

Degree audits show you what graduation requirements the student has met and which are remaining.

1. Click Degree Audits > For All.

2. To see all degree audits based on the selected students' current major and catalog semester, click Submit. Otherwise, select any of the options below.

   • Alternate Semester: By default Campus Cafe shows the student’s degree audit based on their current catalog semester, which outlines the requirements to graduate. If you want to see the degree audit based on a different semester, select that semester here. This can be helpful if you want to see how a student would be affected if they started following, say, the 2025 catalog curriculum requirements instead of the 2024 catalog curriculum requirements.

   • Alternate Major: By default Campus Cafe shows the student’s degree audit based on their current academic program. If you want to see the academic program based on a different academic program, select that program here. This can be helpful if you have a group of students considering changing from one similar major to another. For example, you have a group of computer science majors considering changing to mathematics and you want to see how that will impact their graduation requirements.

   • Create Degree Audit DB File: Select this to populate the reverse degree audit that lets you forecast the classes you need based on outstanding graduation requirements.

   • Start Scheduled Semester and Start Scheduled Sub-Semester are not in use and have no impact.

Plan of study

Permission #1269. This permission includes the ability to both view and change student plans.

Students can have individual plans of study that outline what degree requirements they plan to take which semester. Once you return a group of students on the finder, you can click this button to generate a list of links to their individual plans. This lets you quickly review plans for a group of students.

You can also use this button to associate plans of study with the group of students returned. For example, if you wish to apply a plan of study template to your new incoming students. This button also lets you inactivate plans for the group of students selected or change the plans to another template.

Transcripts

Permission: 408

Click to generate unofficial or official transcripts for the selected students.

Export IDs to reports

Permission: Always visible

The selected student IDs will be loaded for use in base reports.

Register

Permission #1127

Click this to launch the batch registration process to enroll the selected students in one or more classes.

Update advisors

Permission #1262

Click this to assign non-admissions advisors to the selected students. For example you might want to assign all journalism students to academic advisor Professor Levin or all NCAA students to athletic advisor Mr. Humphrey.

You can also use this screen to remove advisors from the selected students. For example you want to remove advisors from graduated students.

1. Click Update Advisors > For All.

2. Click Lookup to locate the new advisor.

3. Click Submit.

Example: Change advisor

Below we update the selected two students Advisor 1 to Mike Peck. Advisors 2-4 won’t be affected because we left them blank.

Example: Remove advisor

Below we remove the selected two students Advisor 1 regardless of who their first advisor is. Advisors 2-4 won’t be affected because we left them blank.

Create alumni

Permission #1179

Click this to change the degree status of students in batch. For example, you can confer a group of students. The changes will apply to the individual's current degree row.

Example: Confer batch of students

You have an group of students you’ve cleared to graduate with a spring 2025 conferral. You’ve returned them in the Student Filter, selected them and are ready to officially mark them as graduated.

• The Degree Status is Degree Conferred because the student has official earned their degree.

• The Degree Status Date is 5/23/2025, which represents the last day of the spring semester.

• The Degree Granted Date is 5/30/2025 because this is when Commencement occurrs and the date that will appear on student diplomas.

• The Class of is 2025 because students who graduate in May 2025 tend to associate themselves with the “Class of 2025.”

• In Consit Codes we selected Primary Alum to add a tag to their Campus Cafe record that they are alumni. This way we can find them easier later in reports and on People Filters.

Holds

Permission #673

Click this to place or remove holds on the selected students. Holds can impact student’s ability to perform a function like register for class or be strictly information.

1. Click Holds > For All.

2. In Choose Array select the category of the hold. For example Academic.

3. In Code select the specific hold.

4. Select whether to add the hold (Add Code), remove the hold (Remove Code) or Remove All holds from the selected students.

5. Click Submit.

Example: Add probation hold

You used the filter to find a group of students with GPAs below 2.5 and wish to place a probation hold that prevents students from registering. You’ll later remove the hold after students present a plan for success.

Status

Permission #594

Click to add a semester status to the selected students. For example Dean's List or academic probation.

Example: Academic probation

Below we assign academic probation to the selected students for the Spring 2025 semester. We’ll tie this to their undergraduate record. We’ve left Status Date and Status End Date empty because we don’t need specific dates, associating probation with the semester alone is enough for our business needs.

Reports

Permission: Always visible

Click this button to run attendance reports, student progress reports or student class schedules.

Activities

Permission #956

Click this will move the selected students to Activity Tracking. This will allow you to search for activities associated with any of these students. For example, you may wish to search for all transcripts or application materials.

Enrollment listing

Permission: Always visible provided specific criteria is selected

Click to open a new screen that lists all the individual class enrollments for the selected course semester for the selected students. Each class appears once per line and includes the student's name, student's ID, semester, course number and section, course title, course site, course credits, course grades, study (degree) level, billing site, the student's last day of attendance, the student's withdrawal date and information about when the enrollment record was created and last updated. The student's primary academic advisor is also listed.

The start and end dates shown depend on how custom control SHOWCRSDAT is configured. 

• If set to Y the Start and End dates shown represent the course start and end dates unless the student has an override start or end date set on the enrollment detail for that course then the override date is shown.

• If set to N the Start and End dates will be blank unless the student has an override start or end date set on the enrollment detail for that course in which case the override date is shown.

Advisor mode

Click to to enter advisor mode and approve students to register if the advisor mode is configured. See related documentation on how to approve students.

Billing rule

Permission #2018

Click to associate a student-specific billing rule code with a group of students. For example the group of students you selected are all studying abroad and hence will be charged tuition that differs from that of students normally in their majors. See related documentation.