The Council on Academic Affairs Thursday approved a change in credit requirements for foreign language minors, as well as a revision to the Alternate Secondary Education Program.

New students hoping to graduate with a minor in French, Spanish or German will be required to complete 12 semester hours of courses numbered 3000 or above instead of only 9 hours of those courses, the previous requirement.

The change was made to “strengthen the minor,” Stephen Canfield, the foreign languages department chair, told the council Thursday.

Canfield also said the measure “is an effort to develop opportunities for students to study abroad.”

The council also approved a revision to Level III of ASEP, which is a program for secondary education teacher certification majors.

Level III of the program provides students with applicable experience in teaching. While in this level, students take a course called SED 4000 that deals with educational psychology, secondary teaching methods, special education and educational philosophy.

In the old model, SED 4000 was a 14 semester hour course combined with student teaching. Now, the course and student teaching will be separate, but students will still take them during the same semester. Student teaching will be worth 12 semester hours and SED 4000 will be worth three hours.

This format benefits everyone, Audrey Edwards, professor of the secondary education and foundation department and director of ASEP, said.

In other business, the council approved reinstating senior seminar course EIU 4194, Leadership, Theory and Practice, Honors, which does not exclude any major from taking the course.

The course has not been offered since 1994.