Cohorts (Student Attributes & Advisor Assignments)
Current State
Student attributes are entered in a centralized format by the Records Office or are maintained in isolated lists that are not directly integrated with Banner. Advisors are assigned by a Banner workflow.
Future State
Student attributes and advisor assignments are managed within Workday with cohorts. Certain Academic Affairs and Student Affairs staff will have the direct ability to manage cohorts and assign students.
When Will This Change Take Effect?
November 2026:
- Most existing student attributes will be converted into cohorts and will be available to view during Workday Student training courses in November 2026.
- Cohorts that are automatically populated based upon certain criteria will be fully populated at this point including graduate advisor and many professional advisor cohorts.
- Cohorts that are manually populated will exist but will need to be manually populated by those who manage them.
- Staff supporting the Office of Student Support and Belonging (OSSB), Oliver Wilson Scholars (OWS), Omni, and other areas with student group cohorts will begin to maintain manual cohorts.
January 2027:
- Professional advising manual cohorts will be populated in January 2027.
- Advising Directors and identified Professional Support Staff (PSS) in each college will begin to maintain manual cohorts.
Fall 2027:
- Faculty mentor (advising) manual cohorts will be populated in Fall 2027.
Who Will Be Impacted?
- Advisors, Academic Affairs, Program Directors, Student Affairs, Omni, Support Staff
- Advisors and Program Support Staff (Coaches) will have access to view their student assignment cohort.
- Advising Center Directors, Program Directors, and certain administrative support staff will have access to manage cohorts.
Benefits
- Most cohorts will be generated automatically based upon criteria that were determined when the cohort was created. Cohorts were created by the Records Office in collaboration with the Academic Affairs and Students Affairs staff who will manage them.
- For cohorts that are manually created and need to be managed, those closest to the cohorts will have access to maintain (Advising, Program Directors, etc.).
- Advising cohorts and certain student group cohorts will feed from Workday into Navigate beginning in March 2027.
Potential Challenges
- Individuals who need to view cohorts will need to learn how to search for their cohorts.
- Management of cohorts within Workday will shift to the units, but a large increase in workload is not expected. Units are already creating lists of individuals to be a part of cohorts. Rather than sending emails when changes are needed, they will have access to edit directly.
- Note: please see Resources below.
Other Important Information
- A new cohort can be requested by submitting a ticket. The request should include the following information: name of cohort, purpose of cohort, who will be responsible for managing the cohort, whether it will be manually populated or populated based upon criteria (and if so, what are the criteria).
- The Workday Governance Group will be responsible for the governance of cohorts including maintenance, auditing, and review of requests for cohorts.
Contact
Page last modified October 21, 2026