Exempt Employee Category: refers to employees whose pay is quoted to them as a monthly figure.  Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, these employees are exempt from provisions of the federal law, regarding overtime pay.  Pay is issued on the 15th of the month (or the closest weekday to the 15th, if it falls on a weekend), and the last working weekday of the month.

Non-Exempt Employee Category: refers to employees who are paid an hourly wage.  Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, these employees are eligible for overtime pay and subject to other provisions of this federal law.  At Biola, pay is issued every second Friday, unless a holiday makes an adjustment necessary.

Student Employee Category: contains students (both undergraduate and graduate level) who work part-time, on-campus jobs.

Americans With Disabilities Act: a federal law with provisions for reasonable accommodations to be made in the workplace, to allow people with certain disabilities (as defined by the law) to be able to perform the essential functions of a job or to have access to participation in normal activities.  An example would be installing ramps for wheelchair access to a building.

Association of Independent California Colleges & Universities: serves as a unified statewide voice of independent higher education in California.  The association represents 77 private colleges and universities on policy issues with the state and federal government.

Administrative Management Team:at Biola, any administrative employee who supervises one or more other staff members (either 01 or 02) is considered a member of this group and is invited to the AMT working lunch meetings that occur several times per year.  An AMT member should be in the “Management” e-mail group.  (Supervising 03 student employees does not qualify an employee for inclusion in this group.)

Air Quality Management District: an agency in southern California that oversees efforts to reduce air pollution.  Employers like Biola have goals designed to reduce the number of solo commuters to work.  The $1/day incentive at Biola to carpool or commute via alternate methods (bike, walk, etc.) aims to improve our record in this regard.

Associated Students: the name for the student government organization at Biola.

The American Studies Program: uses Washington, D.C. as an educational lab where students gain hands-on experience with internships in their chosen fields and explore pressing national and international issues in public policy.

Biola Business Women: a campus organization, open to all women faculty and staff employees; monthly luncheons with varied presentations are held each academic year, from September to May.

Board Dining Room: located in Upper Metzger.

Board Conference Room: located in Upper Metzger.

Biola Eagle Swim Team: a competitive swim team, sponsored by the Aquatics Program, open to area youth, ages 4-18.

A web-based course management system that allows one to build online, interactive learning environments.

Biola Organizational Leadership Degree: the degree completion program for non-traditional students, with locations throughout southern California where working adults can attend classes in the evening.

Biola Recognizes Its Thinking Employees: a suggestion program where faculty and staff can submit suggestions for improvements to programs and facilities, with goals of improving service and/or improving efficiency.

Biola University Bulletin Board System: the e-mail system used primarily by students, faculty, and alumni.

Café Banquet Room: located in the Café.

Council for Christian Colleges and Universities: an organization of 105 Christian higher education institutions in the U.S., plus international affiliates, formerly known as the “Coalition of Christian Colleges and Universities”.  Their website is www.cccu.org.

Council of Instructional Deans: the body comprised of the deans of the academic programs within the university.

A software product used at Biola for several purposes, but primarily to enable Macintosh workstations to operate Biola's "Windows-only" ERP, IFAS.  Citrix resides on the network between the workstation and the central IFAS servers.

Center for Learning Enrichment, Assessment, and Research: works with academic and co-curricular programs as they develop, schedule, and implement effective program reviews, and with departments as they assess student learning outcomes and teaching effectiveness.

Christian Management Association: provides management resources and leadership training for Christian organizations.

Christian Stewardship Association: equips Christian leaders with an understanding of biblical stewardship through education, research, resources, and networking opportunities.

English Language Studies Program: a program for international students, allowing them to improve their English proficiency.

Enterprise Resource Planning: an industry term for an integrated, central administrative computing system. Biola's ERP is IFAS (see definition).

Free Application for Federal Student Aid: a standard form, used nationally for college applicants and their families to apply for federal sources of financial aid, such as Stafford Loans.  Once completed, the form enables an applicant to share his/her information with all the schools to which he/she is applying.

Federal Insurance Contributions Act: withholds federal tax from pay for the individual’s Social Security contribution.

The e-mail system used primarily by students, faculty, and alumni.

Federal Income Tax:the amount taken out of your pay by the federal government.

Faculty Personnel Committee or University Personnel Committee: an elected faculty governing body, in regard to policies in Faculty Handbook and faculty personnel matters, including promotions.  For more information, see section 7.4.

General Ledger: reports are issued monthly, indicating the status of an account’s income and expense activity.

Health Maintenance Organization: an organizational structure for providing health coverage, the most common form of health insurance.

Hewlett-Packard: For many years, Biola's ERP has had an HP-brand server as its core computer, as a result, the ERP has become known to many Biola employees simply as "The HP."  Today, Biola's ERP uses many servers, but the core database server remains an HP-brand server.

Interdepartmental Billing: an internal procedure whereby one department bills another for services rendered.

Intercultural Studies: the study of other cultures (see also SICS).

Integrated Financial and Administrative Solution: Biola's central, integrated administrative computing system.  This type of integrated system is often called an ERP.  Biola's ERP is from a company named SunGard Bi-Tech.

Integrated Marketing Communications: a department that is responsible for developing, managing, and promoting a branding campaign that promotes the image of Biola.  For more information, see section 6.5.

Inside Story: a weekly staff and faculty newsletter that is distributed by house mail each Friday.  For more information, see section 1.6.

International Student Exchange Program: an opportunity for Biola students to study at Christian universities in Japan and Korea.

A procedure to record the transferring of funds (credit or debit) from one account to another.

A documentation of funds credited via check or cash to Biola.

This form is available in Accounting to record certain charges initiated by a department, such as Biola Bookstore billings or labor/materials charges related to work orders

Los Angeles Film Studies Program: an off-campus program for studying the Christian perspective on the film industry, consisting of seminars and internships.

Learning Assistance Services: this office, within Student Development, assists those students needing help with such things as tutoring; it also aids students who are on academic probation.

Latin American Studies Program: a special program in which students live in Latin America for a specified period of time, studying the culture and the Spanish language.

Masters in Organizational Leadership: a graduate program in which ‘non-traditional’ students can pursue this masters degree with evening classes, similar to the undergraduate BOLD model.

National Association of College & University Business Officers:represents chief administrative and financial officers through a collaboration of knowledge and professional development, advocacy, and community.

Provost’s Administrative Council: made up of CID members, plus several other positions that report to the Provost and the Associated Students President.

Planned Giving Services: for estate planning and helping donors regarding stewardship of resources, like property and investments, for present or future use by Biola.

President’s Leadership Team: comprised of the vice presidents and the President of Biola, who meet regularly and confer on decisions affecting the university.

A Portal password enables a faculty or staff member to access the password-protected areas of Biola’s website, such as course rosters and grades, the online Employee Handbook, etc.

Purchase Order: the tracking number assigned to a requisition by Biola’s Purchasing department.  This number follows the order through the cycle of the goods/services being received and paid for.

Point-of-Service: a three-tiered format for delivering health care, including HMO, PPO, and out-of-network providers.

Preferred Provider Organization: a health insurance plan with an extensive network of physicians; its distinguishing characteristic is that subscribers are allowed to self-refer to any of the physicians, including specialists.

The name given to a group of donors to Biola, based upon a level of gift given.

School of Arts and Sciences: comprised of the Humanities, Science, and Fine Arts and Communication departments.

State Disability Insurance: replacement pay (55% of normal pay) issued by California, when an employee is out because of a disability.  Consult with the Benefits Manager for details.

School of Intercultural Studies: added to Biola in 1983, under the leadership of Dr. Cook.  Marvin Mayers of Wycliffe Bible Translators became its founding dean

Summer Institute of Linguistics: a summer program in which prospective Teachers of English as a Second Language (TESOL) may earn a certificate.

Student Missionary Union: Biola’s student-led organization for planning and conducting mission trips and the annual Missions Conference.

Student Orientation Service: used to be called SOAR (Student Orientation and Registration).  It oversees a multi-faceted program for incoming students, including transfers.  Peak activity is at start of the fall semester.

Student Services Building: includes the Biola Bookstore upstairs, and the Student Services offices on the lower level.

Supplemental Tutoring of Academic Requirements: a program of Community Programs & Services, wherein home-schooled students receive academic support in various topics at sites throughout the region.

Student Union Building: the upper level contains offices like the Student Missionary Union and Student Ministries, while the lower level, facing the plaza, has The Eagle’s Nest, Common Grounds, and Mail Services.

TESOL and Applied Linguistics: a department whose mission is to enable students to acquire basic and advanced analytic skills in linguistics, to educate them broadly in applied linguistics and its relation to other disciplines, and to provide them with culturally appropriate applied training.

Tax-Deferred Annuity: one type of investment instrument that can be in a person’s retirement account; taxes on the fund and the interest it earns are deferred until later years, when the retiree is likely to be in a lower tax bracket.

Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages: see TAL and SIL.

Trusts, Investments, Estate Services: department within Financial Affairs that oversees the management of funds and properties that have been given to Biola.

Tax-Sheltered Annuity: another investment vehicle that can be in a retirement portfolio.

Undergraduate Studies and Curriculum Committee: serves as a review and recommendation group, regarding undergraduate curricular matters.  See Section 7.4 for details.

University (Faculty) Personnel Committee: an elected faculty body that works with the Provost on issues regarding faculty personnel matters, including promotions and changes in policies in the Faculty Handbook.

University Planning Group: this is a 30-person group, created in 1998 to guide an effective, ongoing planning process at Biola.  The UPG crafted the Vision and Strategic Plan, which will take Biola to its centennial in 2008.