Shared Language, Shared Purpose
Purpose
The Bellevue College Nomenclature Guide establishes shared terminology for governance, planning, budgeting, assessment, accreditation, policy development, organizational charts, and institutional communications. It identifies Bellevue College’s preferred terminology and considers related usage by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU), the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC), the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), and the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). A separate crosswalk provides a detailed comparison of definitions used by these organizations.
The terminology in this guide establishes Bellevue College’s preferred institutional nomenclature for internal communications, planning, assessment, reporting, governance, and operational practices. When working with external organizations, including specialized accreditors, regulatory agencies, and professional associations, terminology may be translated or adapted as appropriate to align with their requirements and conventions.
This guide is a living document and may be updated as institutional needs, practices, or external requirements evolve. Changes to college-wide terminology will be reviewed and approved through Cabinet or other appropriate institutional processes.
Sources and Notes
| Organization | Acronym | Nature of Guidance |
|---|---|---|
| American Association of Colleges and Universities | AAC&U | Academic quality, curriculum, and learning outcomes |
| American Association of Community Colleges | AACC | Sector-wide practice and community college leadership |
| Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities | NWCCU | Formal accreditation terminology |
| Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges | SBCTC | State policy and degree/program approval terminology |
- Exception: The Office of Community Care and Institutional Transformation will retain its existing name.
- SBCTC terminology is most authoritative for Washington community and technical college policy, program approval, coding, enrollment reporting, and instructional program requirements.
- NWCCU terminology is most authoritative for accreditation, mission fulfillment, institutional effectiveness, student achievement, student learning outcomes, assessment, and continuous improvement.
- AACC terminology is most useful for community college mission, student success, access, workforce development, pathways, and national community college practice.
- AAC&U terminology is most useful for liberal education, essential learning outcomes, VALUE rubrics, authentic assessment of student work, and general education assessment.
Working Recommendation for Bellevue College
The guide should be maintained by Institutional Effectiveness in consultation with Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, Administrative Services, Governance, and Cabinet. Updates should occur at least annually or when SBCTC, NWCCU, or Bellevue College policy changes create terminology conflicts. Any substantive changes must be approved by Cabinet.
Decision Rule for Ambiguous Terms
When more than one term could apply, use the most specific Bellevue College preferred term that accurately describes the entity’s primary purpose and function. Determine first whether the term refers to:
- an organizational structure or administrative unit;
- an academic program or learning structure;
- a credential or award;
- an approved course; or
- a scheduled instructional offering.
Do not select a term solely because it has been used historically, appears in ctcLink, or is commonly used by an external organization. If an external agency, accreditor, or system uses different terminology, use Bellevue’s preferred term in institutional materials and identify or translate the external equivalent when necessary.
When ambiguity remains, consult the office responsible for the relevant policy, data definition, organizational structure, or academic approval process before establishing a new term or using existing terms interchangeably.
Organizational Structure Terminology
| Bellevue College Term | Bellevue College Preferred Usage |
|---|---|
| College | Use ‘College’ for Bellevue College as the institution; use ‘college district’ only when referring to statutory or SBCTC system context. |
| Division | Use ‘Division’ for executive-level organizational areas such as Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, Administrative Services, or equivalent. |
| Unit | Use ‘Unit’ as a broad term when department/office/center/division is not yet known or specificity is unnecessary. |
| Department | Use ‘Department’ for an organizational unit, not for a credential, pathway, or curriculum. |
| Office | Use ‘Office’ for a functional administrative or service unit, e.g., Office of Financial Aid or Office of Institutional Effectiveness. |
| Center | Use ‘Center’ for a specialized mission-focused unit serving students, employees, or community partners. |
| Cabinet | Bellevue College reserves Cabinet for college-wide executive bodies. Broader groups that also include Directors will use Division Name + Operational Team. Specialized groups with a distinct purpose, such as the Provost Strategic Advisory Team, may retain separate names. Bellevue College should use one preferred institutional term internally, while recognizing that external agencies may use different terminology for equivalent or overlapping concepts. |
| Division Name + Leadership Team | Division-level groups will use Division Name + Leadership Team (e.g., Academic Affairs Leadership Team or AALT) for the Vice President and senior leaders, including Deans and Executive Directors. |
| Division Name + Operational Team | Broader groups that also include Directors will use Division Name + Operational Team. Specialized groups with a distinct purpose, such as the Provost Strategic Advisory Team, may retain separate names. Bellevue College should use one preferred institutional term internally, while recognizing that external agencies may use different terminology for equivalent or overlapping concepts. |
Academic and Instructional Terminology
| Bellevue College Term | Bellevue College Preferred Usage |
|---|---|
| Academic Affairs Leadership Team | Use ‘Academic Affairs Leadership Team’ for the senior academic leadership body responsible for strategic direction, academic operations, planning, assessment, accreditation, and resource coordination within Academic Affairs. Membership may include the Provost, Director of the Office of the Provost, Vice Provost, Executive Director of Institutional Effectiveness, Executive Director of Workforce, and Academic Deans. |
| Academic Affairs Operational Team | Use ‘Academic Affairs Operational Team’ for the broader academic leadership group responsible for coordinating academic operations, planning, assessment, accreditation, and resources. Membership may include the Provost, Vice Provost, Deans, Executive Directors, Directors, and other direct reports to these leaders. |
| Academic Program | Use ‘Academic Program’ for an approved instructional curriculum that leads to a credential, transfer objective, employment outcome, or other recognized educational objective. |
| Applied Baccalaureate Program | Use ‘Applied Baccalaureate Program’ or ‘BAS Program’ for approved bachelor-level community college programs. |
| Certificate | Use ‘Certificate’ for approved credit-bearing or recognized award below or alongside degree level. |
| Class | Use ‘Class’ to refer to a course, class or class section in ctcLink and enrollment reporting. |
| Concentration | Use ‘Concentration’ for a formally defined area of focused study within an academic program. A concentration consists of a specified set of courses or requirements that allows students to develop additional depth in a particular discipline, specialty, or area of emphasis while completing the requirements of the broader degree or credential. |
| Course | Use ‘Course’ for the approved instructional offering; use ‘section’ for a specific scheduled instance. |
| Credential | Use ‘Credential’ as the umbrella term for degrees, certificates, and other approved academic awards. |
| Curricular | Use ‘Curricular’ as an adjective to describe matters directly related to the curriculum, including courses, program requirements, learning outcomes, course sequencing, prerequisites, degree requirements, and the design or modification of academic programs. Examples include curricular change, curricular review, and curricular requirements. |
| Curriculum | Use ‘Curriculum’ for the organized course and learning experience structure of an academic program. |
| Degree | Use ‘Degree’ for an academic award conferred after completion of approved requirements. |
| Gateway Course | Gateway courses are entry-level, college-level, credit-bearing courses that students complete early in their academic pathway and that serve as foundational requirements for continued progress toward a degree, certificate, or transfer goal. These courses are most commonly defined in mathematics and English but may also include the first required course within a program or pathway sequence, such as chemistry for STEM students or biology for health science majors. Successful completion of gateway courses is an important indicator of student momentum and is closely associated with persistence, completion, and transfer. |
| Pathway | Use ‘Pathway’ for a program of classes tailored to careers in one’s field of study. |
| Professional-Technical Program | Use ‘Professional-Technical Program’ when referring to SBCTC-approved workforce/technical degree or certificate programs. |
| Provost Strategic Advisory Team | Use Provost Strategic Advisory Team for the senior leadership team that provides strategic direction, operational coordination, and decision-making for Academic Affairs. Membership includes the Provost, Vice Provost, Executive Director of Institutional Effectiveness, and Director of Academic Affairs. |
| School of | Use ‘School of’ for a major disciplinary grouping within Academic Affairs that brings together related academic programs, departments, and faculty (e.g., Science, Arts & Humanities, Social Science, Health Sciences). |
| Section | Use ‘Section’ for a specific scheduled offering of a course in a term. |
Student Affairs and Student Services Terminology
| Bellevue College Term | Bellevue College Preferred Usage |
|---|---|
| Academic Advising | Use ‘Academic Advising’ for structured guidance helping students select courses, understand requirements, progress toward goals, create educational plans, and navigate resources to support student well-being. |
| Co-curricular | Use ‘Co-curricular’ for structured educational experiences that complement the curriculum and intentionally contribute to student learning, development, engagement, or institutional learning outcomes outside the classroom. |
| Completion | Use ‘Completion’ for credential attainment or other formally defined educational goal completion. |
| Education Plan | Use ‘Education Plan’ for a documented, individualized plan identifying a student’s educational goal and the courses, requirements, milestones, and sequence needed to progress toward that goal. Education Plans are generally developed with an academic advisor and may be updated as a student’s goals or circumstances change. |
| Extracurricular | Use ‘Extracurricular’ for student activities and experiences that occur outside the formal educational program and are not intentionally connected to stated learning outcomes. |
| Instructional Support Program Review | Use ‘Instructional Support Program Review’ for scheduled, evidence-based review of instructional support services or programs that support teaching, learning, and student academic progress. Academic Program Review is similar but focuses on credential-bearing academic programs. |
| Retention/ Persistence | Use ‘Retention’ for continued enrollment from one period to another at Bellevue College; use ‘Persistence’ for continued enrollment from one period to another at BC or elsewhere (based on Clearinghouse data). |
| Student Affairs | Use ‘Student Affairs’ for the Division responsible for student support, access, engagement, well-being, persistence, and completion. |
| Student Affairs Leadership Team | Use ‘Student Affairs Leadership Team’ for the senior leadership team that provides strategic direction, operational coordination, and decision-making for the Division of Student Affairs. Membership may include the Vice President of Student Affairs and Student Affairs Deans. |
| Student Affairs Operational Team | Use ‘Student Affairs Operational Team’ for the broader student affairs leadership group responsible for coordinating student services operations, planning and resource coordination within Student Affairs. This leadership team may include the Vice President of Student Affairs, Deans, and Directors. |
| Student Affairs Program | Use ‘Student Services Program’ for organized, ongoing services that support students outside or alongside instruction. |
| Student Success | Use ‘Student Success’ as an umbrella outcome area including access, learning, persistence, completion, transfer, employment, and equitable outcomes. |
| Student Support Service | Use ‘Academic Support Service’ for services that directly support student learning, academic achievement, and educational progression regardless of organizational reporting structure. Areas outside Student Affairs that provide this type of support include the Academic Success Center, Science Study Center, and similar academic support centers. |
| Student-Centered | Use ‘Student-Centered’ to describe policies, practices, services, learning environments, and institutional decisions intentionally designed around student learning, needs, experiences, goals, and success. A student-centered approach considers barriers to access and success and uses evidence about student experiences and outcomes to inform improvement. |
| Study Abroad | Use ‘Study Abroad’ for an organized educational experience in which Bellevue College students undertake academic study or other intentionally designed learning experiences outside the United States. Study Abroad may include credit-bearing coursework and other educational experiences connected to defined learning objectives. |
Planning, Assessment, and Institutional Effectiveness Terminology
| Bellevue College Term | Bellevue College Preferred Usage |
|---|---|
| Assessment | Use ‘Assessment’ for systematic collection, analysis, and use of evidence to improve student learning, programs, services, or institutional effectiveness. |
| Evaluation | Use ‘Evaluation’ for judging effectiveness, quality, or impact after evidence has been collected. |
| Initiative | Use ‘Initiative’ for a significant coordinated effort tied to a strategic goal. |
| Institutional Effectiveness | Use ‘Institutional Effectiveness’ for the integrated system linking mission, planning, assessment, resource allocation, evaluation, and improvement. |
| Metric | Use ‘Metric’ for a specific quantitative or qualitative measure. |
| Mission Fulfillment | Use ‘Mission Fulfillment’ when discussing NWCCU accreditation and Bellevue’s indicators of institutional effectiveness. |
| Objective | Use ‘Objective’ for a specific intended result that advances a strategic goal. |
| Outcome | Use ‘Outcome’ for an intended result for students, programs, services, or the institution. |
| Program Review | Use ‘Program Review’ for scheduled, evidence-based review of academic or student services. |
| Project | Use ‘Project’ for temporary work with defined deliverables, timeline, and endpoint. |
| Strategic Goal | Use ‘Strategic Goal’ for broad, long-term institutional priorities in the strategic plan. |
Governance and Decision-Making Terminology
| Bellevue College Term | Bellevue College Preferred Usage |
|---|---|
| Advisory Group | Use ‘Advisory Group’ when the body’s role is advice or feedback, not decision-making. |
| Committee | Use ‘Committee’ for a standing body with a defined charge, membership, and recurring responsibilities. |
| Council | Use ‘Council’ for a standing coordinating or advisory body with cross-unit representation. |
| Governance | Use ‘Governance’ for formally recognized structures and processes for participation, advice, decision-making, and accountability. |
| Task Force | Use ‘Task Force’ for temporary, charged work with a defined deliverable and sunset point. |
| Workgroup | Use ‘Workgroup’ for short-term operational implementation or drafting work. |
Learning Outcomes and Accreditation Terminology
| Bellevue College Term | Bellevue College Preferred Usage |
|---|---|
| Closing the Loop | Use ‘Closing the Loop’ for documented action based on assessment findings and follow-up evidence of impact. |
| Course Learning Outcomes | Use ‘Course Learning Outcomes’ for learning expectations at the course level. |
| Direct Measure | Use ‘Direct Measure’ for evidence from actual student work, performance, exams, portfolios, or projects. |
| Evidence | Use ‘Evidence’ for documentation, data, analysis, or artifacts supporting conclusions about effectiveness or compliance. |
| Indirect Measure | Use ‘Indirect Measure’ for survey, self-report, satisfaction, or perception evidence. |
| Institutional Learning Outcomes | Use ‘Institutional Learning Outcomes’ for the college-wide learning outcomes expected of students across programs and pathways. Bellevue College’s Institutional Learning Outcomes: Communication, Critical Thinking, Diversity, Quantitative Reasoning, Information Literacy, and Sustainability. |
| Program Learning Outcomes | Use ‘Program Learning Outcomes’ for what students should know, do, or value upon completing an academic program. |
| Student Achievement | Use ‘Student Achievement’ for measurable indicators such as retention, completion, transfer, employment, and equity gaps. |
| Student Learning | Use ‘Student Learning’ for evidence of knowledge, skills, abilities, and dispositions demonstrated through coursework or educational experiences. |
Priority Setting Terminology
| Bellevue College Term | Bellevue College Preferred Usage |
|---|---|
| Emergency | Immediate response required because of an actual or imminent risk to life, safety, legal or regulatory compliance, or critical institutional operations. |
| Urgent | Prompt action required within a defined, short timeframe to prevent significant consequences or disruption. |
| Priority | High-value work that requires focused attention and should be advanced ahead of other planned work but does not require immediate action. |
| Planned | Important work with an established scope, owner, and timeline that proceeds through normal planning and implementation processes. |
| Routine | Recurring or standard operational work completed through established procedures and normal workflows. |
Preferred Bellevue Usage Rules
- Use ‘academic program’ instead of ‘program’ when referring to credential-bearing instructional curricula.
- Use ‘student services program’ instead of ‘program’ when referring to organized student support functions.
- Use ‘administrative program’ instead of ‘program’ when referring to ongoing operational functions.
- Use ‘department’ only for organizational structure, not for credentials, curricula, or student support service sets.
- Use ‘course’ for the approved instructional offering and ‘section’ for the scheduled instance of that course.
- Use ‘initiative’ for major strategic efforts and ‘project’ for temporary work with defined deliverables.
- Use ‘assessment’ for collecting and using evidence for improvement; use ‘evaluation’ for judging effectiveness or quality.
- Use ‘metric’ for a measure, ‘KPI’ for a high-priority strategic measure, and ‘indicator’ when aligning with NWCCU mission fulfillment language.
- Use ‘student achievement’ for retention, completion, transfer, employment, and equity indicators; use ‘student learning’ for demonstrated knowledge, skills, and abilities.
- Each committee, council, task force, and workgroup should have a documented charge, membership, reporting line, deliverables, and decision-making authority.
Commonly Confused Terms
| Confusion Point | Distinction | Bellevue College Example |
|---|---|---|
| Assessment vs. Evaluation | Assessment gathers and uses evidence for improvement. Evaluation makes a judgment about quality or effectiveness. | ILO assessment results may inform evaluation of mission fulfillment. |
| Course vs. Section | A course is the catalog-approved instructional offering. A section is a scheduled instance of that course. ENGL& 101 is a course; ENGL& 101 item number 1234 in Fall quarter is a section. | ENGL& 101 is a course; ENGL& 101 item number 1234 in Fall quarter is a section. |
| Initiative vs. Project | An initiative is a larger strategic effort. A project is time-bound work with deliverables. | Be Bold may include multiple projects. |
| Names of Leadership Bodies | Leadership group naming should distinguish college-wide executive bodies from division-level leadership groups. Reserve Cabinet for the President’s Cabinet or Executive Cabinet. Use Leadership Team, Planning Team, Executive Leadership Team, or Operational Leadership Team for division-level groups, depending on purpose and membership. | President’s Cabinet, Academic Affairs Leadership Team, Student Affairs Leadership Team |
| Program vs. Department | A program is an educational/service/operational offering or function. A department is an organizational grouping. | Use ‘Academic Program’ for Accounting AAS-T; use ‘Department’ for the organizational home if locally established. |
| Student Achievement vs. Student Learning | Achievement is progression/completion/outcome data. Learning is demonstrated knowledge/skill/ability. | Completion rates are achievement; rubric-scored student work is learning evidence. |
Last Updated September 24, 2026