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Trends in Starfish Contact Data

This Page Last Updated
10/11/2025
Description

Contact data from the Starfish scheduling system aggregating contact over time and including academic characteristics and student demographics for enrolled student contacts.

Report URL
https://tableau.wisconsin.edu/#/views/StarfishViz/HomePage
Data Cookbook URL (requires authorization)
https://uwmadison.datacookbook.com/institution/reports/60064/versions/80691
Data Domain(s)
Advising, Student Record
Access Restrictions
Student Record Data Internal
Data Source Information
InfoAccess, Starfish
Data View Information
UW.RETENTION_SEMESTER_HISTORY and UW.STDNT_MULTITERM for enrolled student data, UW.ACADEMIC_PLAN and associated for plan and subplan information, UW.UGRD_RECRUITMENT_CATEGORY and UW.STDNT_ETHNIC_REPORTING and associated for demographic information.
Update Schedule
Data are updated manually (tentatively scheduled for monthly)
Responsible Office
Data, Academic Planning & Institutional Research
Important Notes

Technical notes: Students who have the same appointment with multiple services will have a contact record for each service. Students who were able to select multiple reasons within the kiosk check-in process will have multiple contact records for each reason. Students are only able to select one contact reason as of March 2025.

Definitions

Name Functional Definition Data Domains
Academic Level

Indicates whether a student is an undergraduate, graduate or professional, or special student. For undergraduates, students are freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior based on accumulated credits, not the duration of time at the University.

University of Wisconsin - Madison
Academic Year (Su,Fa,Sp)

An academic year consists of sequential summer, fall, and spring terms. For example, the 2021-22 academic years includes summer 2021, fall 2021, and spring 2022.

Academic Planning
Appointment Type (Starfish)

Appointment Types are individual or unit defined types of appointments (e.g., Academic Advising [all students]) to which one or more

Reasons may be associated (students can only select one reason from among the available values when scheduling).

Advising
Athletic Participation

This field specifies the sport a student actively participates in or their non-participatory association with Athletics, such as receiving services or medical hardship.

Student Record
Campus ID

This is simply a unique student identifier (10 digits). It may occasionally change at the student's request. It is not the same as ID in the Student Information System (SIS) or ID in the Human Resources System (HRS).

Student Record
Career (Academic Structure)

A broad grouping of students related to their degree objectives and admitting office. Used for tuition charges, awarding financial aid, grading scales and other operational functions.

Academic Planning, Student Record
Community (Starfish)

Indicates the "community" of each contact, coded based on each service's "appointment types": Learning Support, Career Services, Academic Advising, and Student Services and Support. Student Services and Support includes appointment types that support students outside of the other communities.

Advising
Contact (Starfish)

A contact in the Starfish scheduling system includes one-on-one appointments, group contacts, drop-in contacts, and other unit defined interactions.

Advising
Contact Status (Starfish)

Indicates whether a contact was scheduled in the Starfish scheduling system.

  • Contact Occurred: Indicates that a contact took place
  • Cancelled: Indicates that the contact was cancelled 
  • No Show: Indicates that the contact was not cancelled, but the contact/student did not attend
Advising
Contact Time (Starfish)

The time of contact in the Starfish scheduling system

Advising
Date of Contact (Starfish)

The date of contact in the Starfish scheduling system

Advising
Enrollment Status at Contact (Starfish)

The enrollment status (corresponding to if institutional data exists for a student) of a contact: “Enrolled At/Near Contact” include student contacts where a Campus ID matches institutional data within a year of the contact. “Not Enrolled Near Contact” includes primarily the Starfish defined “Prospective Student” contacts as well as contacts without an enrollment record within one year of the contact.

Advising
First Generation Status (Undergraduate)

An undergraduate is considered a first generation student if they reported on their application for admission that neither of their parents had earned a four-year college degree. All others, including those who did not respond to the question are considered non-first generation.

Student Record
ID (SIS)

SIS personal identifier. It is also called a "student Empl ID." The ID will never be changed throughout the individual's relationship with the University. This is not the same as Campus ID. This is not the same as HR ID or the ID field from HRS or the Empl ID from HRS.

Student Record
International Students

Non-immigrant visitors who come to the United States temporarily to take classes.

University of Wisconsin - Madison
Legal Sex

A person's biological or reassigned sex as printed on legal documents.

Categories include Female (F), Male (M), Another Legal Sex (X), undisclosed (U).

Definition provided by the Data Guidelines for Legal Sex and Gender, endorsed by the Data Governance Council Feb 20, 2024 and published at https://uwmadison.box.com/s/8m8ibkv81kxbmkl5ijafbpkm2onicnms

University of Wisconsin - Madison
Matriculation Admit Type

The admissions status of the student in the academic career matriculation term. For example, FYR/First Year Student (applies to UGRD careers only), NEW/New to career (does not apply to UGRD careers), RAD/Readmitted to career, RET/Re-admitted with transfer work (applies to UGRD careers only), TRF/Transfer (does not apply to Grad and Special students).

Academic Planning, Student Record
Modality (Starfish)

The modality of contact based on the "location" type associated wit the contact from the Starfish system.

Advising
Named Option

A named option is a formally documented sub-major within an academic major program.

Academic Planning, Student Record
Race/Ethnicity (Federal)

The methodology specified by the federal government for classifying individuals' self-reported race/ethnicity into a single race/ethnicity category. An individual who self-reports as Hispanic ethnicity is classified as Hispanic even if other racial identities are provided. Individuals who do not self-report as Hispanic are classified in their single race category if only one race was provided, or in a "2 or more races" category if more than one race is provided. Student race/ethnicity only applies to domestic (non-international) students.

Employee Record, Student Record
School/College of Student

The student's primary school/college. Some students have a second major or pursue a certificate in another school/college.

University of Wisconsin - Madison
Term

A period of instruction: Fall, Spring, or Summer.

University of Wisconsin - Madison, UW Madison Enterprise