A change in admission policy that will allow an applicant’s grade point average to initially be taken into consideration was passed by the Council on Academic Affairs Thursday.

The change in policy was passed by a vote of eight to one, with Tim Shonk, English professor, dissenting.

Frank Hohengarten, dean of enrollment management, informed CAA members that applicants’ grade point average is currently considered by the review committee, but students receive a letter of denial before that takes place, so applicants often give up hope and enroll elsewhere.

“I can’t imagine this change allowing us to take anyone we wouldn’t already accept. It just makes the students jump through less hoops,” Hohengarten said.

Julia Abell, director of planning and institutional studies, told the CAA members a lot of high schools have gone away from class rank and this change would be a step ahead.

Dale Wolf, director of admissions, said the new policy would be a good public relations move.

“We speak to high school guidance counselors every fall, and they complain that we completely disregard grades because we are class rank-driven,” Wolf said.

Shonk, the dissenting vote, said he was concerned because Eastern has refused to look at grade point averages because they tend to be “less than honest.”

Under the current admission policy, the admissions office looks at class rank and a correlating ACT/SAT score. The policy change will allow the admissions office to look at class rank or a grade point average with a correlating ACT/SAT score.

Hohengarten said students with a given class rank tend to have the same grade point average that is now offered as an option. However, the new policy would not make that student wait to be considered by the review committee; therefore, the student is less likely to dismiss Eastern as a possibility.

Western Illinois University has a policy similar to the one just adopted, but Illinois State University, Northern Illinois University and Southern Illinois University are among the other Illinois universities that do not initially consider an applicant’s grade point average.

The policy change will be implemented for the fall semester of 2002.

CAA also passed revisions of two senior seminars, which will change their credit worth from two-credit hours to three-credit hours.

The senior seminars, Plant and Civilization (4111G) and Women in Science (4169G), were modified to include additional assessment and writing components, according to Andy Methven, biological sciences professor.