DU Acronyms

Different universities seem to have a whole unique language nowadays, and Davenport University  is no different! On this page you'll find acronyms, abbreviations, and other terms that you might hear, but don't know what they are. For starters, here at DU, we talk about four colleges, each with its own abbreviation. So if someone asks you “ What college are you in?” They mean:

CoAS: College of Arts and Sciences
CoB: College of Business
CoHP: College of Health Professions
CoT:  College of Technology
CoUE: College of Urban Education

To find other terms, use the links below to jump to a letter or scroll through the page.

This content is adapted from University of Michigan - Dearborn's, "Common University Acronyms".

• 1st-Gen - First-Generation College Student (first in their family to attend college (see FITIAC)

• ACEN - Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (accreditation body for Davenport's Diploma in Practical Nursing programs)
• ACES - Achieving Career and Educational Success - a First Year Seminar class (ACES100)
• ACM@DU (Under College of Technology) - Davenport chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery
• ACOTE - Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (accreditation body of AOTA for some Davenport's Master of Science in Occupational Therapy)
• ACT (under Admissions) - American College Test (a standardized examination used to predict students' educational readiness for college admission- currently waived for Davenport student applications)
• ADA - Americans with Disabilities Act
• ADC - Associate Department Chair
• ADP (also on Staff Connections page) - Company named Automatic Data Processing (electronic time card system for hourly staff, paycheck & PTO for all staff)
• AGI (under Terminology for Financial Aid) - Adjusted Gross Income
• ALD - Alpha Lambda Delta (National Honor Society for 1st-year students with 3.5 GPA or better)
• ALP - Accelerated Learning Program
• APC - Annual Planning Committee -  rotating members of Cabinet (those who report to an EVP) who work on the APP (Annual Planning Process)
• APP - Annual Planning Process - annual short-term planning, focuses on keeping Davenport University on target for the completion of the 5-Year Strategic Planning Process as expressed in the Vision document, adjusting to developments and assigning annual projects.
• AMA@DU (under Open to All) - Davenport chapter of the American Marketing Association
• AO - Advancement Office on www.davenport.edu and on my.davenport.edu
• AOTA - American Occupational Therapy Association
• AR - Accounts Receivable 
• AS400 - Predecessor to Banner (enterprise management tool)
• ASPIRE - Student organization for women of color
• ASU - Asian Student Union
• AUPHA - Association of University Programs in Health Administration (international consortium of graduate and undergraduate health administration programs)

• BBAY - Borrower Based Academic Year (model for determining student financial aid eligibility)
• BCM - Banner Communication Manager (a Self-Service Banner module)
• BPA (under Open to All) - Davenport chapter of Business Professionals of America (has annual National Leadership Conference competition in business areas)
• BRT - Banner Reporting Team
• BSC - Balanced Scorecard

• CAAHEP - Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (accreditation body for Davenport's Medical Assisting programs)
• CAB - Campus Activities Board
• CACREP - Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (accreditation Davenport is pursuing for the Master of Mental Health Program)
• CAE/CDE - Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education
• CAEP - Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (accreditation Davenport is pursuing for the Urban Education program)
• CAHIIM - Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education (accreditation body for some Davenport health programs)
• CBC - Criminal Background Check (needed for some majors)
• CBOC - internship partner in Wyoming, VA Community Based Outpatient Clinic (See RNPC)
• CC - Community College
• CCL - Center for Campus Life
• CCNE - Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (accreditation body for some Davenport nursing programs)
• CDO - Cyber Defense Organization
• CETL - Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
• CIA - Career Investigative Assignment (in ACES class)
• CIP - Career Investigation Paper (in ACES class)
• CL - Casa Latina - Spanish/English degrees in business, healthcare, education, technology, and the sciences starting Fall 2024
• CLE - Center for Learning & Engagement (home of Campus Life & Career and Internship Services)
• CLO - Course Learning Outcomes
• CMBA - Competency-Based MBA (now Excellence System certification, not offered as an MBA anymore)
• CoAS - Davenport's College of Arts and Sciences
• CoB - Davenport's Donald W. Maine College of Business
• CoHP - Davenport's College of Health Professions
• CoT - Davenport's College of Technology
• CoUE - Davenport's College of Urban Education
• CPI - Continuous Process Improvement
• CPOS - Course Program of Study - a process in Banner that checks Degreeworks on each individual student to verify that courses they are registered for are part of their program.
• CRIR - Course Requirements & Instructor Recommendations
• CRN - Course Reference Number - a unique 5-digit number assigned to each course in a semester (they get reused in subsequent semesters)
• CRO - Central Records Office (Registrar)
• CSA - Cyber Service Academy (in cooperation with the Department of Defense [DoD CSA])
• CSC - Customer Support Center (DU IT support for faculty & staff)
• CTE - Center for Teaching Excellence (prior name for CETL)
• CUE - Davenport's College of Urban Education
• CySP - Cybersecurity Scholarship Program from the Department of DefenseDA

• DAAPP - Drug and Alcohol Abuse Prevention Program
• DC - Department Chair (supervises Associate Department Chairs)
• DECA - (formerly Distributive Education Clubs of America) a management/marketing student organization that helps prepare emerging leaders
• DegreePlan - advising tool that helps students plan which courses to take when
• DEI - Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
• DIRT - Data Integrity and Reliability Team
• DQ - Discussion question (usually in Blackboard) and also Data Quality (in Data Warehouse reports)
• DoE - Department of Education
• DUO - A CISCO product that Davenport uses to provide multi-factor authentication (see MFA)

• EAP (under Issue Resolution) - Employee Assistance Program
• EFC (under Terminology for Financial Aid) - Expected Family Contribution
• ES - Environmental scan

• FA Profile - Financial Aid Profile
• FAFSA (under Terminology for Financial Aid) - Free Application for Federal Student Aid
• FFELF (under Terminology for Financial Aid) - Federal Family Education Loan Program
• FERPA - Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act - re educational records
• Flex - Flexible course delivery
• FM (under Terminology for Financial Aid) - Federal Methodology - formulas used to determine a student's eligibility for federal Title IV funds
• FOL - Foundations of Learning
• FTIAC - First Time In Any College (See 1st-Gen)
• FUSE Club - Future Urban Stem Educators
• FYE - First Year Experience

• GIC - Global & Intercultural Competence (one of the Excellence System's learning outcomes)
• GLIAC - Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference  (DU competes in this conference)
• GMAT - Graduate Management Admission Test (not required for any Davenport's "MBA no GMAT" Masters degrees)
• GPA - Grade Point Average
• Grad Cert - Graduate Certificate
• GREAT - Great Customer Service (Greet, Respond, Exceed expectations, Actively Listening, Thanking)

• HLC - Higher Learning Commission (Accrediting body for Davenport University)
• HSPPO - Health and Science Pre-Professional Organization

• IACBE - International Accreditation Council for Business Education (Accrediting body for some of Davenport's business programs)
• IB - International Baccalaureate (some high schools are approved to offer IB approved classes designed with a more holistic approach encouraging critical thinking while focusing on global, intercultural, and personal growth)
• ID - Instructional Design
• IPEDS - Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System - surveys required by the U.S. Department of Education
• IPEx - Institute for Professional Excellence
• IR - Institutional Research (DU department that collates statistics on aspects of DU's programs, student body, etc.)
• IRB - Institutional Review Board
• ISaAC - Information Security and Assurance Center
• ISIR (under Terminology for Financial Aid) - Institutional Student Information Report (also known as SAR - Student Aid Report)
• IVF (under Terminology for Financial Aid) - Institutional Verification Form

Nothing yet!

• KAP - Key Action Plan
• KPI - Key Performance Indicators

• LO - Learning Outcomes
• LS@DU - Legal Students @ Davenport University
• LSU - Latinx Student Union
• LT - Leadership Team (Davenport President's direct reports, mostly Executive Vice Presidents) 

• MCS (under Terminology for Financial Aid) - Michigan Competitive Scholarship
• MDE - Michigan Department of Education
• MFA - Multi-factor Authentication (adding a 2nd method of authentication to log in besides a password, such as a text or e-mail verification)
• MPN (under Terminology for Financial Aid) - Master Promissory Note
• MSOT - Master of Science in Occupational Therapy
• MTG (under Terminology for Financial Aid) - Michigan Tuition Grant

• NPD - New Program Development
• NSLS - National Society of Leadership & Success

• OER - Open Educational Resources
• Online+ - four format options: on-demand, livestream, flex, and blended
• OPE - Office of Performance Excellence (Training)

• PDC - Pre-Designed Course - a course template for the Global Campus classes (now referred to as Master Course Shells)
• PDCA - Plan - Do - Check - Act (Process improvement tools)
• PELL EFC - Pell Grant (named after the chief sponsor of the legislation creating the program, Sen. Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island) - Estimated Family Contribution
• PI - Process Improvement
• PIC - Process Intake Cycle (submission of projects for Process Improvement)
• PLA - Prior Learning Assessment
• PLO - Program Learning Outcome
• PRC - Panther Resource Closet (to address food insecurity & shortages, the PRC stocks unopened non-perishable food items, personal hygiene products, etc.)
• PLUS Loan (under Terminology for Financial Aid) - student loan, part of the Federal Direct Student Loan Program (used to stand for Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students)
• PTO - Paid Time Off

• QM - Quality Matters (a certification for a standard of course design that Davenport has adapted and is slowly applying to all classes)

• RAA - Required Assessment Assignment, assignments that are standardized for the specific course so that no matter the section being taught, the assignment stays the same
• RNPC Grant - Registered Nurse in Primary Care grant offered in partnership with CBOC
• RSO - Registered Student Organizations on Engage
• RTV - Real-Time Virtual (Former name of the Livestream class delivery method)

• SA - Study Abroad
• SAGE - Sexuality And Gender Equality
• SAP - Standards of Academic Progress
• SAR (under Terminology for Financial Aid) - Student Aid Report (also known as ISIR - Institutional Student Information Report)
• SAT (under Admissions) - Scholastic Aptitude Test (a standardized examination used to predict students' educational readiness for college admission - currently waived for Davenport student applications)
• SBD - Sigma Beta Delta (Honor Society for students in business, management, & administration)
• SCORM - Sharable Content Object Reference Model - a set of technical standards for communication between online educational software and Learming Managment Systems (LMS), such as Blackboard.
• SDE - Supplemental Data Engine (tool in our enterprise resource planning software, Banner, to add supplemental data to a validation table in Banner)
• SET - Student Evaluation of Teaching
• SFS - Student Financial Services (DU Financial Aid & Bursar support for students)
• SHIRM@DU - Davenport chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management
• SIOP - Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol
• SMART - Criteria for creating annual goals in DU's Performance Evaluation System
• SME - Subject matter expert (who usually develops content in courses)
• SNA - Student Nurses Association Lansing, Lettinga, Midland, and Warren
• SOP/SAP (under Terminology for Financial Aid) - Standards of Progress/Satisfactory Academic Progress
• SPC - Strategic Planning Council (The group that helps put together DU's 5-year plans)
• SPP - Strategic Planning Process (activities that result in the development of the University's long-term plans)
• SPSS - Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (Software program)
• SSB - Self-Service Banner
• SSC - Student Support Center (DU IT support for students)
• S-STEM - Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics from the National Science Foundation (NSF)
• STAIR - DU Values (Serving with Quality, Trustworthiness, Accountability, Innovation & creativity, Respect & inclusion)
• SVA - Student Veterans of America

• TEACH Grant - Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) grant
• TIP (under Terminology for Financial Aid) - Tuition Incentive Program
• TLI - Wynalda Teaching & Learning Institute

• UAC - University Advisory Council (defunct)
• UCC - University Curriculum Committee
• Undergrad Cert - Undergraduate Certificate

• VPN - Virtual Private Network (method DU uses for remote access to the DU network and your university drives from off-campus)
• VTO - Volunteer Time Off

• WFN - ADP's Workforce Now program (see ADP above)

Nothing yet!

• YLS - Year Long Scheduling

Nothing yet!