The Council on Academic Affairs will take a look at psychology today.

The council is scheduled to examine adding a new supervised research course offering to the psychology major and revising the requirements for a psychology bachelor’s degree.

CAA Chair Andrew Methven, biological sciences professor, said the new course offering is designed to offer students an opportunity to perform structured research.

“I think what they’re trying to do is set up a course where students can do research with an instructor,” Methven said.

The new course would be an extension of the research opportunities the department already offers.

“They’ve been something similar to this already,” he said. “And so I don’t think that’s a big deal.”

As for revisions to the psychology bachelor’s degree, Methven said it appears that the two primary changes would allow students another option of which math course they can take and would lower the number of hours required by the major from the 39 to 42 credit-hour range to the 36 to 39 range.

In other business, the council is scheduled to discuss the enforcement of course prerequisites, but Methven said the item would probably be tabled till the next CAA meeting.

He said he has spoken with Blair Lord, vice president for academic affairs, and they determined that it would be beneficial to postpone the discussion until Bill Witsman, associate vice president for Information Technology Services, could address the CAA about the issue.

Methven said Witsman would address some of the technical barriers that prevent the university from installing prerequisite “flags” in the online registration program.