The Council on Academic Affairs approved the revision to the nomination process and procedure of the Faculty Laureate Award and revisions to four courses Thursday at their meeting.

The Faculty Laureate Award is given to any faculty member from either Unit A or Unit B who demonstrate an ongoing commitment to excellence in teaching general education courses.

Marita Gronnvoll, the chair for CAA, said she made a few minor changes to the nomination process.

Gronnvoll said she wanted to clarify that anyone who is nominated should focus on the work in the general education curriculum and encourage underrepresented groups to apply.

Richard Wilkinson, professor at the school for family and consumer sciences, asked whether the word “teaching” limited potential applicants to only those who taught in the classroom and not those who may have taught for but left to do developmental research.

Wilkson said that the nomination might be applied to what only happens within the four walls of a classroom and he said he is worried that someone will miss a potential nomination.

Gronnvoll said someone can be nominated as long as they teach a general education course.

Gronnvoll said a candidate may also provide any other information relevant to excellence in teaching general education courses and that will be enough to clarify Wilkinson’s argument,

Members also discussed how the criteria for the nomination process should be submitted.

Office Manager Janet Fopay said members on the Faculty Laureate Committee could set up a security site where the material for the nominations will be housed and the committee members could view them.

The idea is individuals could either submit things electronically or by paper form and the documents could be converted into a PDF file, secretary said.

The members approved the nomination process and procedure and Gronnvoll said the submission process will be figured out next week when Debra Reid, the chair for the Faculty Laureate Committee returns and before the form is sent out.

Dana Ringuette, the English department chair, and Tim Taylor, the director of English departments composition committee, presented the revisions to the ENG 1001, 1002, and ENG 1091, 1092 honors which explore critical reading and source-based writing as well as argument and critical inquiry.

“English 1001 and 1002 haven’t been revised in many years and it was just time that we did,” Ringuette said.

According to the rationale for the revision to the courses, “the course proposals’ emphasis on sustained, explicit instruction about critical thinking, information literacy, and argumentation coheres with the Eastern’s undergraduate learning goals and best practices among college writing programs.”

Ringuetts said the courses will be much more coherent from semester to semester and help students build on skills and learning.

Library instructor Kirsten Duffin said she was happy and excited to see information literacy applied in classes.

Rebecca Throneburg said she was thrilled about the approval of the courses.

“I think we have to acknowledge this as a huge, wonderful big deal,” Throneburg said.

Members also approved course ESC/GEL 2450, Oceanography to become GEO 2450G.

The course will also be offered online for off-campus students only.

Analicia Haynes can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]