• Advancement
• Enterprise Systems Support
• Finance & Accounts Receivable
• General Systems
• Human Resource Information Systems
• Banner Student & Financial Aid

Banner Student & Financial Aid

Randy Crockett, Project Manager

Banner Student System Functions and Features

The Banner Student System is made up of fourteen modules:

• Course Catalog enables courses to be entered in the institution's catalog. This involves compiling of data such as course title, department, credit hours, co- or pre-requisites, fee information, restrictions for the course, and text to be printed in the course bulletin. Virginia Tech has developed additional tables to maintain longer course titles that are required.
• Class Schedule contains the data necessary to build and print a schedule of classes, including term attributes (dates for each session within a term), and establishing a Course Reference Number. In addition, instructors are assigned to classes, classes are scheduled into rooms depending on the attributes needed and available, and course sections with user-defined comments are established.
• General Person supplies the means to identify both persons and non-persons in the system. Identification number, name, address, and, where applicable, biographic information are gathered and maintained. Emergency contact, medical, and international student information are also collected for use in other modules. This module is shared by all of the Banner systems - Human Resources, Alumni/Development, Finance, as well as Student and Financial Aid.
• Location Management and Housing allows for the definition of the institution's buildings and room facilities. In addition, the Location Management and Housing module provides a means of assigning rooms for special events and provides a listing of available rooms with attributes. Dormitory, meal plan, and phone assignments, as well as assessments, are maintained in this module.
• Recruiting maintains information about potential recruits such as: source, intended majors, test scores, high school and prior college information, and outside interests. It allows for creation of materials to be sent to prospects.
• Admissions establishes admission records and identifies items an applicant needs to provide to continue application processing. General Student records are automatically created once an applicant has accepted and plans to attend. Test scores, high school, and prior college information are maintained here, along with guardian information. The Admissions module also provides the means to allow quick entry for automatic registration eligibility. This is useful for the off-campus locations that process "walk in" students.
• General Student modifies current information for students such as changes to major, residency, and student type. It also provides a place for entering information on career choice, including advisor, activities, and veteran information. Virginia Tech has complemented this module with other tables to maintain and track major/concentrations/options changes.
• Registration allows for creation of enrollment information for a specific term. It defines rules determining student and course status and controlling actions to be taken at registration, such as amounts of allowable refunds. Tuition and fees policy is built in Registration, along with rules to be used for the fee assessment algorithm. Student schedules and bills are produced, and class rosters are maintained. It also allows for sections to be graded and rolled into academic history. Virginia Tech is using a combination of batch scheduling and the add/drop capabilities of the Web for Student product to register students in classes.
• Accounts Receivable establishes accounts receivable controls: detail codes identifying charges or payments; default values, methods of payment, and how credits are handled; and messages to print on bills. The Accounts Receivable module displays term specific tuition, housing, meal plan, and fee charges, and calculates exemptions and contracts for eligible students.
• Academic History builds grading policies and maintains grades. Grades are rolled to Academic History, and the system automatically checks for repeat courses. Academic standing is calculated using user-defined rules regarding probation and Dean's List policies. Grade mailers are produced in this module and term GPA information is maintained here. Degrees and honors associated with each student are entered in this module, along with information on majors, minors, and status. Transfer course work is recorded in the Academic History module. Virginia Tech has produced their own format for transcripts that are based upon much of the data from this module. Graduation information, including diploma, ceremony, ceremony attendance, and graduation dress, is maintained here. Virginia Tech has developed additional tables to further enhance the processing associated with graduation.
• Student System Management is used for tape load processing and rule creation, as well as for person and non-person system searches.
• Information Access maintains information used in processing data via the Web.

Virginia Tech has locally developed the following modules:

• Graduate Plan of Study function which allows for the creation and approval of the graduate plans of study for the students in Graduate School.
• Grade Change function which allows for the changing, with subsequent approvals, of grades. This is a Web-based process.
• Teaching Load function which maintains the historical records associated with all courses. This information is used in the production of the teaching load reports.

Modules Currently Not in Use:

• Curriculum, Advising, and Program Planning (CAPP) We use the Degree Audit Reporting System (DARS) from Miami of Ohio for this function.
• Faculty Load maintains information including instructional and non-instructional assignments for a faculty member or advisor. Personnel information, such as tenure status and sabbatical dates, can be maintained in this module along with workload and contract information. Virginia Tech is not currently using this module.