Institution
There are three key fields in CUNYfirst which act in similar fashion but are defined differently. These three fields are INSTITUTION, BUSINESS_UNIT and SETID.
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Certain academic information comes to students via the attending institution. This information includes enrollment, STDNT_ENRL record, and term activation, STDNT_CAR_TERM record. This information is created for students by a particular institution, so the keys to these tables include the EMPLID and the INSTITUTION field. There are some tables where the key structure does not include the INSTITUTION field, but INSTITUTION appears in the table anyway. An example of this is the academic program, ACAD_PROG. This academic information exists only because of the students’ relationship with a particular institution.
Business Units or Setid
On the other hand financial side of the students’ involvement with an institution, the field, INSTITUTION, is not used. Instead, the field BUSINESS_UNIT is used. Charges for tuition and fees are stored in the item table, ITEM_SF. Here the keys include EMPLID and BUSINESS_UNIT.
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