Academic Program:

Instructional program leading toward an associate's, bachelor's, or master's degree or resulting in credits that can be applied to one of these degrees.

Academic Support:

Funds used primarily to provide support services for the institution's primary missions--instruction, research, public service. This includes: Libraries, Educational media servcies, Academic computing support, Ancillary support, Academic administration, Course and curriculum development.

Academic Year:

Consecutive Summer, Fall, and Spring semesters.

Accrediting Agencies:

Agencies that establish operating standards for educational or professional institutions and programs, determine the extent to which the standards are met, and publicly announce their findings.

ACT:

A test published by American College Testing to measure a student's ability in math, verbal comprehension and problem solving. Usually students take this test during their junior or senior year of high school.

Associate's Degree:

An award that normally requires at least 2 but less than 4 years of full-time equivalent college work.

Bachelor's Degree:

An award (baccalaureate or equivalent degree, as determined by the Secretary, U.S. Department of Education) that normally requires at least 4 but not more than 5 years of full-time equivalent college-level work.

Board of Regents:

The governing board for public higher education in the state of Louisiana

Census Date:

The date on which a "snapshot picture" of University data is taken, to be used for reporting. For student information, it is the fourteenth class day, while for faculty and staff information, it is October 1.

CIP (Classification of Instructional Programs) Code:

A nationally used taxonomy, developed by the US Department of Education, for classifying instructional programs. It is a six digit number, with the first two numbers specifying general groups of programs, and becoming more specific at the four and six digit level.

Classified Staff:

The body of employees performing personal services to and for the State or any of its instrumentalities, except those rendering such services who are specifically exempt from the Classified Service by Article X of the Louisiana State Constitution and the Louisiana State Civil Service Rules and Manual.

Clerical and Secretarial Staff:

Persons whose assignments typically are associated with clerical activities or are specifically of a secretarial nature. Includes personnel who are responsible for internal and external communications, recording and retrieval of data (other than computer programmers) and/or information and other paperwork required in an office, such as bookkeepers, stenographers, clerk-typists, office-machine operators, statistical clerks, and payroll clerks. Also includes sales clerks such as those employed full time in the bookstore, and library clerks who are not recognized as librarians.

Credit Hour:

A unit of measure representing an hour (50 minutes) of instruction over a 15-week period. It is applied toward the total number of hours needed for completing the requirements of a degree, diploma, certificate, or other formal award.

Degree Program:

A program of study in a primary field which leads to a degree. These degree programs are approved by the Board of Regents.

Degree-seeking Students:

Students enrolled in courses for credit who are recognized by the institution as seeking a degree or formal award.

Executive, Administrative and Managerial:

Persons whose assignments require primary (and major) responsibility for management of the institution, or a customarily recognized department or subdivision thereof. Assignments require the performance of work directly related to management policies or general business operations of the institution, department, or subdivision. It is assumed that assignments in this category customarily and regularly require the incumbent to exercise discretion and independent judgment, and to direct the work of others. Included in this category are all officers holding titles such as president, vice president, dean, director, or the equivalent, as well as officers subordinate to any of these administrators with such titles as associate dean, assistant dean, executive officer of academic departments (department heads, or the equivalent) if their principal activity is administrative. (Note: Includes supervisors of professional employees, while supervisors of nonprofessional employees (technical, clerical, craft, and service/maintenance force) are included within the specific categories of the personnel they supervise.)

Faculty:

Persons whose specific assignments customarily are made for the purpose of conducting instruction, research, or public service as a principal activity (or activities), and who hold academic-rank titles of professor, associate professor, assistant professor, instructor, lecturer, or the equivalent of any of these academic ranks. If their principal activity is instructional, this category includes deans, directors, or the equivalent, as well as associate deans, assistant deans, and executive officers of academic departments (chairpersons, heads, or the equivalent). Student teachers or research assistants are not included in this category.

Fiscal Year:

A 12 month period beginning on July 1, and ending on June 30. University budgets are based on a fiscal year.

Freshman:

A student who has not yet acquired 30 semester hours of credit.

Full-Time Student:

Undergraduate students who are enrolled for 12 or more student credit hours per semester and graduate students who are enrolled for 9 or more student credit hours per semester.

FTE (Full-Time Equivalency) Employee:

For faculty, a faculty member whose workload is the equivalent of teaching 12 hours a week. For staff, a staff member who works 40 hours a week.

FTE (Full-Time Equivalency) Student:

An enrollment unit used to represent a student enrolled for a full course of study. It is calculated by dividing the total student credit hours enrolled by 12 for undergraduates and 9 for graduates. This number will be different then the number presented for Full-time students.

Graduate Student:

A student who holds a bachelor's or first-professional degree, or equivalent, and is taking courses at the postbaccalaureate level. These students may or may not be enrolled in graduate programs.

Institutional Support:

Includes expenditures for: central executive-level activities concerned with management and long-range planning of the entire institution, fiscal operations, administrative data processing, space management, personnel, logistical activities, and support services to faculty and staff.

Instruction:

All activities that are part of an institution's instruction program. Expenditures would include credit and noncredit courses, academic, vocational, technical instruction, remedial, special, and extension sessions.

Junior:

A student who has acquired at least 60 semester hours of credit, but less than 90.

Master's Degree:

An award that requires the successful completion of a program of study of at least the full-time equivalent of 1 but not more than 2 academic years of work beyond the bachelor's degree.

Non-Degree Seeking Student:

A student enrolled in courses for credit who is not recognized by the institution as seeking a degree or formal award.

Operation and Maintenance of Plant:

All expenditures of current operating funds for the operation and maintenance of physical plant. Includes: Physical plant administration, Building maintenance, Custodial services, Utilities, Landscape and grounds maintenance, Major repairs and renovations.

Part-time Student:

Undergraduate students who are enrolled for less than 12 student credit hours per semester and graduate students who are enrolled for less than 9 student credit hours per semester.

Professional/Non-Faculty:

Persons employed for the primary purpose of performing academic support, student services, and institutional support activities, whose assignments would require either college graduation or experience of such kind and amount as to provide a comparable background. Includes employees such as librarians, accoutants, student personnel workers, counselors, systems analysts, computer programmers and coaches.

Public Service:

All funds expended for activities that are established primarily to provide noninstructional services beneficial to individuals and groups external to the insitution. This includes: Community service, Cooperative extension service, and Public broadcasting services.

Race/Ethnicity:

Categories used to describe groups to which individuals belong, identify with, or belong in the eyes of the community. The categories do not denote scientific definitions of anthropological origins. A person may be counted in only one group. The groups used to categorize U.S. citizens and resident aliens.

• American Indian: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North America and who maintains cultural identification through tribal affiliation or community recognition.
• Asian: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, or Pacific Islands. This includes people from China, Japan, Korea, the Philippine Islands, American Samoa, India, and Vietnam.
• Black: A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa (except those of Hispanic origin).
• Hispanic: A person of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central, or South American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race.
• Nonresident Alien: A person who is not a citizen or national of the United States and who is in this country on a visa or temporary basis and does not have the right to remain indefinitely.
• Race/Ethnicity Unknown: The student did not select a racial/ethnic designation, AND the institution finds it impossible to place the student in one of the aforementioned racial/ethnic categories during established enrollment procedures or in any post-enrollment identification or verification process.
• White: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, North Africa, or the Middle East (except those of Hispanic origin).

Research:

All expenditures for activities specifically organized to produce research outcomes. This includes: Institutes and research centers, and individual and project research.

Scholarships and Fellowships:

Expenditures for scholarships and fellowships in the form of grants to students, resulting either from selection by the institution or from an entitlement program.

Senior:

A student who has accumulated at least 90 semester hours of credit.

Service/Maintance Staff:

Persons whose assignments require limited degrees of previously acquired skills and knowledge and in which workers perform duties that result in or contribute to the comfort, convenience, and hygiene of personnel and students or that contribute to the upkeep and care of buildings, facilities, or grounds of the institutional property. Includes chauffeurs, laundry and dry cleaning operatives, cafeteria and restaurant workers, truck drivers, bus drivers, garage laborers, custodial personnel, gardeners and groundskeepers, refuse collectors, construction laborers, and security personnel.

Skilled Craftsmen:

Persons whose assignments typically require special manual skills and a thorough and comprehensive knowledge of the processes involved in the work, acquired through on-the-job training and experience or through apprenticeship or other formal training programs. includes mechanics and repairers, electricians, stationary engineers, skilled machinists, upholsterers, carpenters, compositors, and typesetters.

Sophomore:

A student who has accumulated at least 30 semester hours of credit, but less than 60.

Student Credit Hour:

A unit of measure that represents an hour of scheduled instruction given to one student in one week.

Student Services:

Funds expended for those activities whose primary purpose is to contribute to the student's emotional and physical well-being and to his or her intellectual, cultural, and social development outside the context of the formal instruction program. This includes: admissions, registrar, cultural events, intramural athletics, student organizations, student aid administration, student media, and student health service.

Technical/Paraprofessional:

Persons whose assignments require specialized knowledge or skills which may be acquired through experience or academic work, such as offered in many 2-year technical institutes, junior colleges, or through equivalent on-the-job training. Includes coomputer programmers (with less than a bachelor's degree) and operators, drafters, engineering aides, junior engineers, mathematical aides, licensed practical or vocational nurses, dieticians, photographers, radio opertors, scientific assistants, technical illustrators, technicians (medical, dental, electronic, physical sciences), and similar occupational categories which are institutionally defined as technical assignments.

Tenure/Tenure-Track:

Status of a personnel position, or a person occupying a position or occupation, with respect to permanence of position.

Terminal Degree:

The highest degree that can be earned in a particular field.

Transfer Student:

A student entering the reporting institution for the first time but known to have previously attended a postsecondary institution at the same level (e.g., undergraduate, graduate). The student may transfer with or without credit.

Unclassified Staff:

The professional staffs, and administrative officers of the University.

Return to Southeastern Factbook

Return to IR&A Homepage

Last updated January 24, 2000