– On September 12, 2024 the Data Governance Council voted to adopt 13 institution definitions covering several categories for students at UA.

Student: Someone who has been accepted in an academic program offered by The University of Alabama and has not completed the program nor allowed one year to lapse since their last class registration.

Enrolled Student: A student who is registered for at least.

Active Student: A student who is registered for at least one class in a term or is eligible to enroll for the term in question without requiring readmission subject to any holds or student statuses preventing registration.

Note: At UA, students require readmission after failing to enroll in any three consecutive semesters. Admitted students who have yet to register are not considered active students.

Admitted Student: A person who has applied and been accepted for admission to an academic program.

Alumni: Past students of The University of Alabama as well as Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) participants, postdocs, honorary degree recipients, and honorary alumni.

Applicant: A person who has submitted an application for admission to an academic program.

Census Enrollment: Official account of enrolled students at the official snapshot of each semester.

Degree Seeking Student/Regular Student: A student in a degree or certificate granting program offered by The University of Alabama.

Enrolled Student: A student who is registered for at least one class in a term.

Distance Learners: Enrolled students earning a college degree without having to visit campus on a regular basis. (summarized – online.ua.edu)

Graduated Student: A student once considered an enrolled student at UA who was awarded a degree or certificate.

Non-Degree Seeking Student/Special Student: A student not in a degree or certificate granting program offered by The University of Alabama.

On-campus Occupant: any student that living in UA owned or leased space, has an active housing assignment issued by the University, or UA Greek housing.

Withdrawn Student: A student who was registered for at least one class in a term but has withdrawn from all classes for the term. Any classes for which the student was registered have been assigned a grade of “W” (Withdrawn).

– On September 12, 2024 the Data Governance Council voted to require emails containing information not classified as Unrestricted by the Information Classification Policy are sent with a securely by one of the methods listed below:

Email Encryption:

Older versions of Outlook:

Newer versions of Outlook:

Sending access managed links:

Older versions of Outlook:

Newer versions of Outlook:

– On September 4th, 2025 the UA Privacy Policy was updated to include instructions regarding sending personally identifiable information and sensitive data internally and externally via data de-identification.

When sharing PII, UA personnel must use these practices:

1. Do not share personally identifiable information with an internal or external party unless explicitly authorized via a formal access request process involving the appropriate data steward.
2. An acceptable way to share data while respecting the privacy of individuals and businesses is to remove personal information that would allow someone to be identified before sharing the data.
3. Proper guidelines and methods for data de-identification can be reviewed on the Data Governance site.