Introduction
An affiliation describes an individual’s connection or association with the university.
Affiliations are programmatically derived or assigned based on the information present in the electronic system about the individual. (Ex: The creation of a student record for an individual will trigger the assignment of the vt-student affiliation.)
Affiliations can, and usually do, change over time based on an individual’s ongoing interactions with Virginia Tech.
(Ex: A student (vt- student-enrolled) graduates and becomes an alumnus (vt-alum) of Virginia Tech. An employee (vt-employee) retires (vt-employee-retiree) from Virginia Tech.)
Affiliations are updated in near real-time as information about an individual changes in Virginia Tech’s electronic system.
Individuals almost always have multiple affiliations.
Some affiliations are hierarchical. This enables broader or more granular categorization of individuals. (Ex: Only wage employees (vt-employee-wage) need to access online Form A, but all employees (vt-employee) need to access online Form B. Vt-employee would include vt-employee-wage, as well as other employee categories.)
Contents
Explanation
New Student Affiliation
A student will only be assigned vt-student-new-admit once PER PROGRAM. So, if, for instance, a student had been here previously as an undergraduate and came back as a graduate student, they would be assigned vt-student-new-admit for the new program (graduate) when they returned. But, if they came back as an undergraduate again, they would not be assigned vt-student-new-admit again.
It is also worth noting that Masters and Doctorate are considered to be two different programs. So, a student could be assigned vt-student-new-admit when they entered the master's program and again when they entered the doctoral program.
vt-student-new-admit: An individual will retain this affiliation from the time they are admitted into an undergraduate, graduate, or professional program at Virginia Tech, through the beginning of the semester for which they are admitted. Once that semester starts, they lose this affiliation if they are enrolled in classes or, if not enrolled, on the 15th day of semester, whichever comes first. Note that if a person signs up for classes in advance of that term, they will also be vt-student-future until the admit term arrives.
vt-student-new-admit is useful for two purposes. First, some services wish to engage newly admitted students as soon as possible, so this affiliation can be useful for authorization decisions. Second, vt-student-new-admit provides a means of using affiliations to distinguish between (a) individuals who have a student record but have not enrolled for a long time and (b) individuals who have yet to enroll for their first course. Both of these cases will have vt-student because a student record is in the electronic system, yet their roles are very different. Therefore, “vt-student but NOT vt-student-new-admit” (and in the absence of vt-student-enrolled/recent/future) is a useful tool in deprovisioning services from former students.
Lifecycle of vt-student-new-admit
- Individual is admitted to a new program (undergraduate, graduate, professional) –acquires vt-student-new-admit and acquires (or retains, if previously a student in another program) vt-student.
- Individual registers in advance for the upcoming semester—acquires vt-student-future; retains vt-student-new-admit; retains vt-student.
- Once the term arrives, the individual loses vt-student-new-admit and loses vt-student-future and gains vt-student-enrolled. Vt-student remains.
- Individual does not register in advance, but registers sometime during the first 14 days of the semester— individual loses vt-student-new-admit; gains vt-student-enrolled; retains vt-student.
- Individual does not register for the admit term and day 15 of that term arrives-- Individual loses vt-student-new-admit; retains vt-student; does not have vt-student-enrolled. The individual will only have vt-student-recent if he is new to a program, but a previous student of Virginia Tech (e.g., undergraduates continuing on to Graduate School).
List of Affiliations
- vt-student-enrolled: An individual enrolled in a class for the current term at Virginia Tech.
- vt-student-new-admit: An individual who has been admitted to Virginia Tech for an upcoming term but has not yet enrolled in classes.
- vt-student-future: An individual who is enrolled in classes for a future term at Virginia Tech.
- vt-student-recent: An individual who has been enrolled within the past four most recent consecutive terms.
- vt-student-wage: A Virginia Tech student who is employed by Virginia Tech in an hourly wage position and may be eligible for certain tax exemptions based upon their student status.
- vt-student: An individual who has a Virginia Tech student record.
- vt-alum: An individual who has graduated from Virginia Tech or been granted the status of Virginia Tech alumnus by the Virginia Tech Alumni/Development Office.
- vt-alum-friend: An individual who has been designated by the Virginia Tech Alumni/Development Office as an alumni friend.
- vt-alum-parent: An individual who has been designated by the Virginia Tech Alumni/Development Office as a parent of a Virginia Tech student or alumnus.
- vt-alum-constituent: An individual who has been designated by the Virginia Tech Alumni/Development Office as an alumni constituent. Includes vt-alum, vt-alum-friend, vt-alum-parent.
- vt-employee-wage: An individual who is employed by Virginia Tech and paid on an hourly basis. The number of hours that the individual may work is limited and these positions do not include most state benefits.
- vt-employee-non-state: An individual who is employed by Virginia Tech but is not paid by Virginia Tech.
- vt-employee-prehire: An individual who has been hired by Virginia Tech but who has not completed the employment process.
- vt-employee-emeritus: An individual who has been awarded the emeritus designation by the university Board of Visitors.
- vt-employee-temporary: An individual who is employed for a defined period of time to do a specific job and is paid with a stipend.
- vt-employee-leave: An employee in a long-term disability leave status.
- vt-employee-retiree: An individual who has retired from employment at Virginia Tech.
- vt-employee-former: An individual who was an employee but is no longer employed at Virginia Tech.
- vt-faculty: A faculty member at Virginia Tech. Includes vt-employee-state, vt-employee-wage.
- vt-staff: A staff member at Virginia Tech. Includes vt-employee-state, vt-employee-wage.
- vt-employee-state: An employee of the state of Virginia.
- vt-employee: An individual who is employed at Virginia Tech. Includes vt-employee-prehire, vt-employee-wage, vt-employee-state, vt-employee-non-state.
- vt-active-member: An active student or employee at Virginia Tech. Includes vt-student-enrolled, vt-employee.
- vt-affiliate-temporary: An individual who is sponsored by a Virginia Tech employee and is generally only temporarily associated with Virginia Tech.
- vt-guest: An individual who is sponsored as a guest of Virginia Tech and invited to create a temporary guest account.
- vt-affiliate-lci: A student of the Virginia Tech Language Culture Institute.
- vt-affiliate-lci-former: A former student of the Virginia Tech Language Culture Institute.
Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM) Affiliations
- vcom-student-enrolled: An individual enrolled in a class for the current term at VCOM.
- vcom-alum: An individual who has graduated from the Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine.
- vcom-student-former: An individual who is no longer enrolled in classes at VCOM.
- vcom-faculty: A faculty member at VCOM.
- vcom-staff: A staff member at VCOM.
- vcom-employee: An employee of VCOM. Includes vcom-faculty, vcom-staff.
- vcom-employee-retiree: An individual who has retired from the Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine.
- vcom-employee-former: An individual who was an employee but is no longer employed at VCOM.
- vcom-active-member: An individual who is an active student or employee at VCOM. Includes vcom-student-enrolled, vcom-employee.
- vcom-affiliate: An individual who is sponsored by VCOM.
Virginia Tech Carilion (VTC) Affiliations
- vtc-student-enrolled: An individual enrolled in a class for the current term at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine.
- vtc-alum: An individual who has graduated from the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine.
- vtc-faculty: A faculty member at VTC.
- vtc-staff: A staff member at VTC.
- vtc-employee: An employee of VTC. Includes vtc-faculty, vtc-staff.
- vtc-employee-former: An individual who was an employee but is no longer employed by VTC.
- vtc-active-member: An individual who is an active student or employee of VTC.
Affiliation Hierarchy
Some Virginia Tech affiliations effectively roll up to more general affiliations. The most general being VT-ACTIVE-MEMBER, and less general being VT-EMPLOYEE or VT-STUDENT-ENROLLED. The image below displays the affiliation hierarchy at Virginia Tech.