Salary rate computed on a twelve-month, annual basis.

Academic Advancement Program.  This program has been superseded by the Center for Academic Excellence http://cae.ls.wisc.edu/

Academic Staff: a professional and administrative employee other than faculty with duties and types of appointments that are primarily associated with higher education institutions or their administration.  Each academic staff has a principal role related to research, teaching, outreach, student services, information technology, libraries, communications, clinical/health services, or other responsibilities. 

UW-Madison Business Services list of acronyms often used in business processes: http://www.bussvc.wisc.edu/acronym/acronym.html

Americans with Disabilities Act.  See also: http://www.ada.gov/

This term refers to the L&S Administrative Gateway, this specific KnowledgeBase website. 

Advanced Opportunity Fellowship.  For Graduate students only.  This fellowship is awarded to highly qualified underrepresented students. To be considered for AOF funding, prospective students must be new to the Graduate School and be admissible to a graduate program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  For further information: https://grad.wisc.edu/diversity/oeid/

Academic Planning Council (L&S). Chaired by the Dean of L&S. Key governance committee for the College; there is also an Academic Planning Council for the campus (the UAPC, or University Academic Planning Council).

The L&S Academic Planning Council, or APC, advises the Dean on planning, program, and fiscal matters, and thus plays an important role in College governance activities.  The Dean chairs the Council's weekly meetings, where topics that affect the whole college (and often, the rest of the university) are discussed by elected and appointed members. Academic and Administrative Deans serve as ex Officio observers to advise the council. Agendas are prepared by the Assistant Dean for Academic Planning, in consultation with the Dean and Associate Deans.  For more information, see the Administrative Gateway document, L&S Academic Planning Council? .

Academic Personnel Office. Main campus office for providing human resource services for faculty, academic staff, limited appointees, graduate assistants, and student hourly employees: https://www.ohr.wisc.edu/apo/

Archives and Records Management.  See http://archives.library.wisc.edu/ for more information, including policy on maintaining public records.

Academic Staff Policies and Procedures.  For more information, visit the Secretary of Academic Staff website: http://acstaff.wisc.edu/resources/policies-and-procedures

UW-Madison's accrediting agency, the Higher Learning Commission, defines assessment of student learning as a "participatory, iterative process" that:

• Provides data/information needed regarding student learning;
  
• Engages the institution (faculty, staff, students) in analyzing and using this data/information to confirm and improve teaching and learning;
• Produces evidence that students are learning the outcomes identified by the faculty;
  
• Guides educational and institutional improvement; and
  
• Helps the institution understand, evaluate and document whether changes made affect student learning

1. How are your stated learning outcomes appropriate to your mission, programs, students and degrees?
2. How do you ensure shared responsibility for student learning & assessment of student learning?
3. What evidence do you have that students achieve your stated learning outcomes?
4. In what ways do you analyze and use evidence of student learning?
5. How do you evaluate and improve the effectiveness of your efforts to assess and improve student learning?

In the course of an accreditation review, external consultant/evaluators will gauge the extent to which the university has engaged in assessment for purposes of improving student learning, and used what we find to improve student learning.

Board of Regents; the governing board for the UW System.  See: https://www.wisconsin.edu/regents/

Undergraduate study in the Liberal Arts and Sciences requires students to become familiar with the ways in which humans systematically study and interpret the world, and how they communicate that understanding to others.  "Breadth" is a term that originates in the Letters and Science curriculum, where the term is used to describe the different "ways of knowing" found in the major divisions of scholarly inquiry: the Arts and Humanities (including Literature), the Social and Behavioral Sciences, and the Natural (including Physical and Biological) Sciences. Students who are completing the L&S degree requirements must take a specified minimum amount of coursework (credits) in each of these broad areas. To help L&S students meet their requirements, the L&S Curriculum Committee assigns "breadth designations" to courses that meet the committee's expectations for learning in those areas.  These designations can be used to search for courses that meet L&S degree requirements, and the degree audit reporting system (DARS) uses the designation to determine whether requirements are met.  Departments and faculty may ask the L&S Curriculum Committee to review courses to carry these designations.   As a service to the campus community, L&S Breadth designations are also used to signal courses that meet University General Education Breadth Requirements - though each school and college may specify more narrowly courses that meet those requirements.

For a description of what "breadth" courses are expected to convey to students in them, see the discussion of Breadth in the Guide, or consult Adding a L&S breadth attribute to a course (for department faculty and staff).  For procedures on how courses are reviewed and approved to carry breadth designations, see Adding "L&S Credit", Level, or Breadth undergraduate course designations to courses (for departments) .

Salary rate computed on a nine-month, academic year, basis.

Committee on Academic Staff Issues; these committees have been established in each school and college to advise Deans on policies and procedures, promotional opportunities, participation in department governance, and performance recognition for academic staff.

Cross College Advising Service.  Campus advising service for freshmen and sophomores; administered through L&S for the campus.  See: http://www.ccas.wisc.edu/