The following is a list of commonly used terms and acronyms that often appear in Institutional Effectiveness data, along with Academic Affairs-related publications. Please contact our office if there are any additional terms that should be included on this list.
Updated July 2021.
FTES is calculated by dividing the sum of the Student Credit Units (SCU) by 15 for undergraduates and 12 for graduate students. The FTES is allocated to the department offering the course, regardless of the instructor's affiliation.
A graduate student taking 9 or more units is considered full-time.
An undergraduate student taking 12 or more units is considered full-time.
- A - F: Letter grade
- CR: Credit
- NC: No Credit
- I: Incomplete (student has to finish coursework in a specific timeframe; does not affect GPA)
- IC – Incomplete Charged (student did not finish coursework by the end of the specified timeframe; negatively affects GPA)
- WU - Withdrawal Unauthorized (negatively affects GPA)
- W – Withdrawal (does not affect GPA)
Other Codes:
- AU - Audit
- RD - Report Delayed (course instructor did not submit grades by grade deadline; temporary placeholder until grades are... Read more about Grade
The graduation rate is the sum of the number of students who graduated within 2, 4, or 6 years divided by the number of students who originally entered at the same fall semester. College cohorts are based on the initial majors that students declared. Therefore, students who graduated from a major other than the one they initially declared are still credited to their initial major selection.
Counts only the students who have declared majors, and only their primary majors. Anyone without a major is counted as "undeclared" and is excluded from the enrollment count of departments.
The institution of learning attended by the student immediately prior to enrolling in Sonoma State University.
An element that specifies the portion of a faculty appointment supported by instructional funds. For example, a faculty member with a full-time teaching appointment would have an IFF of 1.0
Defines the administrative work assigned and the term of appointment, such as Department Chairs, Associate or Assistant Department Chairs, Athletic Directors, Deans, Associate and Assistant Deans.
This incorporates only those faculty members with in-classroom workloads, including supervisory teaching, and/or instructors who are administrators or staff. The FTE for Full-time faculty is calculated as WTU/12. The FTE for part-time, FERP, and teaching assistants are calculated as WTU/15. These FTEF are allocated to the department offering the course, regardless of the instructor's affiliation.