CAA to discuss revised admission requirements, courses, majors

Analicia Haynes, Administration Editor

The Council on Academic Affairs will discuss the revised admission requirements for all options of the health studies major at their meeting 2 p.m. Thursday in room 4440 of Booth Library.

The revised requirements call for a completion of 15 semester hours of work taken at Eastern or another higher education institution and a minimum 2.00 GPA.

According to the rationale for the revision, students who enter the major with a cumulative GPA below 2.00 are less likely to graduate, less likely to graduate on time, and more likely to need to repeat many core courses.

Students who enter the major, on average, have to repeat at least 25 percent of the required coursework at least once in order to earn a “C”, which is the minimum grade a student can receive.

According to the rationale, they also struggle to meet the graduation requirement of a major GPA of 2.50 or better.

Students who have a cumulative GPA below 2.00 are also less likely to successfully complete coursework, which is deeply writing intensive and centered around analysis.

In the health studies major, upper-level courses require writing skills and strong analytical processing skills, according to the rationale.

“It seems disingenuous to accept a student into the major who is highly unlikely to be successful, especially if that student is an upper classman,” the rationale said.

The rationale said the primary mission of the health studies program is helping students successfully graduate from the program and from Eastern.

A new interdisciplinary major in Health Communication is being co-sponsored by the department of health studies and communication studies.

That major will have admission standards, including a 2.00 GPA.

The rationale said maintaining consistency across all options and majors affiliated with the health studies department is crucial to avoid confusion for academic advisers and students.

The CAA will also add several requests for revised courses, majors, minors, options, and revised core requirements for different sections to their agenda.

 

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