For those folks who are less familiar with the cacophony of L&S and UW-Madison acronyms, we offer a key to the some of the more common terms in heard in the "L&S Lingo".

Acronym Unscramblers

101- State tax, Federal indirect cost, and tuition funding allocated for the purpose of education and related programs.

104- Funding from UW-Extension used for off campus credit and non-credit activities.

128- Cost recovery funding used by units selling goods or services, both externally and internally.

144- Federal grants and contract funding.

136- Cost recovery outreach funding mechanism.

150- Federal indirect cost reimbursement used for special allocations.

161- University administered trust funds.

402- Minority and disadvantaged programs.

"A basis"- salary computed on an annual, fiscal year (July 1- June 30) basis.  (See also "C basis".)

AAP- Academic Advancement Program.

Academic Staff Appointments:

ACTIVITY 2- Used with funding numbers, this activity represents "instruction."

ACTIVITY 4- Used with funding numbers, this activity represents "research."

ACTIVITY 5 - Used with with funding numbers, this activity represents "outreach activities," including editorships.

ACTIVITY 6- Used with funding numbers, this activity represents academic support and library/media.

ACTIVITY 9 - Financial Aid.

ADA- Americans with Disabilities Act.

APC (L&S) - Academic Planning Council. 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).

AOF - Advanced Opportunity Fellowship (graduate).

APO- Academic Personnel Office (campus). Main campus office for unclassified human resources, personnel, and related activities.

ASPP- Academic Staff Policies and Procedures (formerly ASA).

ATR- (Request for) Authorization to Recruit (for unclassified staff, chiefly faculty).  The official acronym is "RAR." 

Blue Book-  The State of Wisconsin publishes this exhaustive guide to the state and its government.  Statistics, biographies, and a host of information is available online at http://www.legis.state.wi.us/lrb/bb/.  

BOR - Board of Regents, the governing board for the UW System

"C basis"- salary rate computed on a nine-month, academic year, basis.

CASI - 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.

CCAS- Cross College Advising Service. Campus advising service for freshmen and sophomores; it is administered through L&S for the campus.

Comm A- First level General Education Communication Requirement.

Comm B- Second level General Education Communication Requirement.

CPO- Classified Personnel Office.

CSIC - Classified Staff Issues Committee. Similar to the L&S CASI, the Dean has established this committee to advise him on policies and procedures, promotional opportunities, participation in department governance, and performance recognition for classified staff.

DARS- Degree Audit Reporting System. Used to track student progress toward an undergraduate degree.

DCS- Division of Continuing Studies.

DETF - (or, ETF) Department of Employee Trust Funds

DIR- Department Instructional Report. Prepared each semester and summer sessions by departments and the TACS Office. Shows course sections with enrollments and instructor names.

DoIT- Division of Information Technology. Handles instructional technology, administrative data processing, and other related activities for the campus.

EAO - (or, EA) Employee Assistance Office

EASI- Extended Access to Student Information. Terminal program that allows students access to various components of their academic records.

ECBS - Employee Compensation and Benefits Services

ESR - Ethnic Studies Requirement (part of the undergraduate university-wide General Education Requirements)

ET- Emergency Transaction (Business Services).

ETF - (or, DETF) Department of Employee Trust Funds

FORM 2A - Budget document containing salary detail for staff (e.g., unclassified, classified).

FPP- Faculty Policies and Procedures. Chief faculty governance policy document.

FTE- Full time equivalent. Way of counting the number of staff or positions. Also referred to as staff "lines" at some universities. Students are sometimes counted in FTE.

FY- Fiscal Year; each fiscal year runs from July 1-June 30.

GPR- General Purpose Revenue, main type of funding the university receives from the State of Wisconsin.

I-9 Form- Proof of employment eligibility that must be completed by all new employees.

IADS- Integrated Appointment Data System. System and forms for processing appointments and payroll.

ICI - Income Continuation Insurance

Infoaccess - A service offered by DoIT to provide access to the university's "data warehouse" to authorized users

IS - Information Systems

ISIS- Integrated Student Information System; campus computer system for Timetable/Schedule of Classes, registration, and student records.

IT - Information Technology  

L/I - Location/Institution. Used instead of a "visiting" title to designate the appointment of a faculty member from another UW System campus.

LOA- Leave of absence.

LSDAN- Letters and Science Department Administrator Network.

LSS- Learning Support Services.

LTE- Limited Term Employee; this is a classified staff title for a temporary employee. (NOTE: this term no longer has any meaning when applied to teaching assistantships.)

MDS - Materials Distribution Services

MSN - Madison

OBPA-Office of Budget Planning and Analysis. Handles budget preparation and financial/staffing analyses for the campus.

OED - Office for Equity and Diversity

OHR - Office of Human Resources, 174 Bascom Hall

OHRD - Office of Human Resource Development

OISP- Office of International Studies and Programs.

OPID- Office of Professional and Instructional Development. Formerly known as UTIC, this is a UW System-level group that (among other things) administers the Undergraduate Teaching and Learning Grants (UTLG), formerly known as the UTIG, or Undergraduate Teaching Improvement, Grants.  See http://www.uwsa.edu/opid/ for more information. 

OSER - Office of State Employment Relations

PA- Project Assistant; a graduate assistant title.

PAR- Personnel Activity Report. OBSOLETE. See the Effort Reporting information at http://www.rsp.wisc.edu/effort/index.html

PeopleSoft- Commercial vendor which produces ISIS.

PI- Principal Investigator.

PIR- Payment to Individual Report.

PVL- Position Vacancy Listing. This is the primary form for initiating open recruitment of an unclassified staff position.

QR-A- First level General Education Quantitative Reasoning Requirement.

QR-B- Second level General Education Quantitative Reasoning Requirement.

RA- Research Assistant; a graduate assistant title.

RAR- Request for Authorization to Recruit Form that must be completed when recruiting for a position with a salary above a set level.

REP- Recruitment Efforts Plan. Form that must be filed in recruitment of faculty and academic staff.

Reqs - (pronounced "recks") short form of "requisitions"

SAA- Student Academic Affairs--academic advising office for the College.

SCE- Summer Collegiate Experience Program.

SECC- State Employees Combined Campaign. State-wide and campus-wide charitable fund-raising drive conducted each fall.

SFS - Shared Financial System

SPEAK- The SPEAK test is a test of English proficiency; many departments require this test of prospective non-native English speaking teaching assistants as part of their required plan for assessing the English proficiency of non-native English speaking TAs.

SMO - Space Management Office.

STS- State Telephone System; used for making long-distance telephone calls.

STS- Short-term staffing (instructional; term used within L&S).

T-Form - Extramural Support Transmittal Form.

TA- Teaching Assistant. A graduate assistant title.

TAA- Teaching Assistants' Association. Collective bargaining unit for teaching and project assistants.

TACS- Timetable and Classroom Scheduling Office (formerly ISO, the Instructional Space Office). Now known as "Curricular Services"

TER- Travel Expense Report.

TP Form- Teleprocessing Form. Used to request and receive authorization for 3270 transactions.

UAPC - University Academic Planning Council (Chaired by the Provost)

UDDS- Unit/Division/Department/Sub-department: alpha code for unit; numerical code for division, department, and sub-department.  This code is used for budget accounting and related transactions.

UGEC - University General Education Committee

UIR- University-Industry Relations Program, replaced by the Office of Corporate Relations.

UWM - UW-Milwaukee (although often mistaken for UW-Madison)

UWPC - UW Payroll Processing Center

UWS- Usually stands for "University of Wisconsin System."

VAP- Visiting Assistant/Associate Professor.

WAA- Wisconsin Alumni Association.

WAC- Writing Across the Curriculum.

WARF- Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

WDGF-Wisconsin Distinguished Graduate Fellowship.

WI- Writing Intensive.

WISDM - Shared Financial System Web Inquiry System. (Has replaced the old 3270 financial system.)

WisWeek or Wisconsin Week -  UW-Madison's campus newspaper for faculty and staff, published weekly during the academic year

WRS- Wisconsin Retirement System.