3C Communications: Administrative Functions

Purpose:   This document provides an overview of how Administrative Functions associate 3C communications, checklists, and comments with something in ctcLink.

Audience:  CS Support Staff

Administrative Functions

Understanding Administrative Functions

Administrative functions associate 3C communications, checklists, and comments with something in ctcLink. The administrative function's variable data identify that something. Each administrative function has a unique set of variable data.

A complete list of administrative functions can be found at the end of this QRG. Here are a few examples of commonly used administrative functions, their associated variable data, and something that that variable data describes in ctcLink:

  • ADMA: Variable data includes EMPLID, Academic Career, Student Career Number, and Application Number. This administrative function can tie a 3C item to a student's admissions application. Examples 3C items include college admissions letters and new student admissions checklists.
  • SENR: Variable data includes EMPLID, Academic Career, Academic Term, and Class Number. This administrative function can tie a 3C item to a student's enrollment activities in a specific class in a particular term. Example 3C items include waitlist enrollment notifications, drop for non-payment communications, and abandoned Shopping Cart reminders.
  • STRM: Variable data includes EMPLID, Academic Career, and Academic Term. This administrative function can tie a 3C item to something related to a student's term activation in a particular term. Example 3C items include enrollment appointment reminders and academic standing notifications.
Choosing an Administrative Function

Knowing who needs to be assigned the 3C item, when it needs to be assigned to them, and (for communications and checklists) how often it should be reassigned can assist users in identifying which administrative function to use. Here are a few examples of how the chosen administrative function may impact how a 3C item can be assigned to students.

  • Example: A college Admissions Office wants to email students their admission notification shortly after they are admitted to the college. The college wants to send an individual student an email every time that student submits an application that is later matriculated.
    • ADMA: The ADMA administrative function will assign a new communication to every unique combination of EMPLID, academic career, student career number, and application number. This is the best choice for application-related communications. The college will need to remember that Quick Admitted students, who do not have an application number, will not receive communications that use the ADMA administrative function. The college may want to adopt a different communication strategy for students with an application (OAAP applicants, students with manually entered applications) and students who have been Quick Admitted into a program/plan stack.
  • Example: The Enrollment Services Office wants to notify students from the waitlist when they are enrolled in a class.
    • SENR: The SENR administrative function can assign communications to unique combinations of EMPLID, academic career, academic term, and class number. If used, this administrative function can be used to send one email per enrolled class. If a student enrolls in three separate classes from the waitlist, they will receive three separate emails.
    • STRM: The STRM administrative function can assign communications to unique combinations of EMPLID, academic career, and academic term. With the help of appropriate queries and template construction, this administrative function can send a single notification email to a student enrolled in one or more classes from the waitlist.
Managing Duplicate Assignment with Administrative Functions

The use of the appropriate administrative function in combination with settings configured on the 3C Engine page can be used to determine when, if ever, a student should be assigned multiple communications with the same letter code.

For example, the following configuration instructs the 3C Engine to check if the student has already been assigned a communication with the same letter code. If the student has been assigned a communication with the same letter code at any point in the past, the communication will not be reassigned to the student.

Duplicate communications can also be assigned based on the variable data of previously assigned communications. Selecting Match instructs the 3C Engine to check if the student has already been assigned a communication with the same letter code and the same variable data. The communication will not be reassigned to the student if it finds a match.

When combined with an administrative function like ADMA (with variable data including EMPLID, academic career, student career number, and application number), this configuration can be used to tell the 3C Engine to assign a new college admissions communication only if the student has not already been assigned a communication for the application.

When combined with an administrative function like STRM (with variable data including EMPLID, academic career, and academic term), the 3C Engine can be instructed to assign an enrollment appointment reminder email only to students who haven't already received one for the upcoming term.

The image highlights the Additional Conditions to Prevent Duplicate Communication

Selecting Do Not Match instructs the 3C Engine to check if the student has already been assigned a communication with the same letter code and the same variable data and. If it finds that the student has already been assigned communication with the same letter code and the same variable data, it will assign the communication to the student again.

One potential use for this configuration would be to correct or update incorrect information already sent to the student. Consider a group of students emailed information about an off-campus meeting location for a specific class they are enrolled in. The communication was assigned using SENR (with variable data including EMPLID, academic career, academic term, and class number), and a typo in the communication directed students to the wrong address. "Do Not Match" could be used to instruct the 3C Engine to send an updated communication with the correct address to the students who had previously been assigned the communication with the typo.

The Variable Data field displays Do Not Match

Unchecking the Check Duplicate Communication checkbox instructs the 3C Engine to assign the communication to all students in the population selection group regardless of whether they've received a communication with the same letter code at any point in the past.

A Note on GEN

New users may be tempted to use the GEN administrative function.

It is rarely appropriate to use the GEN administrative function; it is important to associate a 3C item with something in a recipient's student record to best utilize the 3C Engine's duplicate communication assignment functionality and to reduce the number of highly customized population selection queries that must be built by a college's local query developer.

One scenario in which it is appropriate to use GEN is when the 3C item is not tied to the recipient's student record, such as an email sent to college staff or faculty. Another scenario is when the 3C item is assigned to the student global bio demo record, such as a checklist that reminds students of vaccination attestation requirements.

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