The Council on Academic Affairs met Thursday in Room 4440 of Booth Library to discuss more course and program revision proposals as the deadline to revise courses or majors approaches.

The revisions included changes to geography, math, psychology and applied engineering technology courses as well as the school of Business’ catalog.

As of now, any student is able to declare a business major.

The School of Business proposed revisions to its program to suppress its old admissions process.

“[This] is a very major revision for us,” said John R. Willems, the Chair of School of Business.

In the past, students have had to complete a sequence of tools classes and other general education requirements before applying to the School of Business.

This would typically take two years of coursework before applying. There was not only an application process but a 2.0 GPA requirement for admission in the program as well.

Students can declare a business major as freshman and the department felt the proposal for taking these requirements out of the program was necessary.

“We would like to be able to have students have a connection to business as freshman,” Willems said. “So that they can very much learn about what it’s like in the business world.”

Willems said this would include students being able to start their internships earlier and even gain connections with faculty involved with the program early on.

Along with the admissions process, the School of Business also proposed revise their “two strike policy” to “three strikes.”

In the past, if a student failed a course in the program twice they would no longer be able to complete their business major and be removed from the School of Business.

Both revisions proposed by the School of Business were passed, 10 members voted yes and one abstained.

CAA also discussed revisions to MAT 2250, Elementary Statistics.

Grant Lakeland, an assistant professor for the department of Math said the main reason for this revision is to make MAT 2250 available online.

On the Eastern website, MAT 2250’s course description reads, “Descriptive and inferential statistics including measures of central tendency and dispersion, confidence intervals, and hypothesis testing. Recommended as a first course in statistics. Not open to mathematics majors.”

Rebecca Throneburg, a CAA member, asked how MAT 2250 lectures will differ from taking the course in a classroom. There was concerns of students taking the online class online only having the course textbook to learn material without any lecture.

The proposal to revise MAT 2250 was tabled.

The psychology department proposed to revise PSY 2999, Orientation to the Psychology Major; PSY 3310, Biological Psychology and PSY 3805, Research Methods and Experimental Design.

All three of these course revisions will let students take the classes online.

According to the rationale for PSY 2999 and PSY 3805, “Because the course is required of all psychology majors, revising this course for online delivery will allow students to complete a BA in psychology fully online.”

The rationale also said the addition of online instruction for PSY 3310 is another necessary component for the online degree.

The proposals to revise PSY 2999, PSY 3805 and PSY 3310 were all unanimously approved.

The Applied Engineering and Technology Department proposed to add AET 4903, OSHA Certification for General Industry and AET 4913, OSHA Certification for Construction to the 2016-2017 catalog.

According to the rationale for AET 4903 and 4913, the courses will provide students with the opportunity earn the OSHA-30 General Industry and Construction certification that will make them more desirable for future employment.

The rationale also said people who complete either course will have the knowledge to help protect themselves, employees, co-workers, employers and foster a safer workplace.

The Applied Engineering and Technology Department also plans to revise nine other courses as well as add two new courses to the 2016-2017 catalog.

The courses will be offered online and will give Eastern the opportunity to compete with other public universities.

According to the rationale for several of the revised courses, other equivalent institutions such as Western Illinois University and Illinois State University are both offering a similar course in this format.

These online courses will also give students the opportunity to enroll in these classes in a convenient manner.

Both AET 4903 and AET 4913 were unanimously approved.

The Department of Geology and Geography proposed to revise GEG 3810, Geographic Information Systems I.

The reason for this was so students will no longer confuse Geographic Information Systems II as a required course.

The proposal passed with 10 CAA members voting yes and one voting no.

The deadline to revise courses or majors is March 11.

Jeff Coy can be reached at [email protected] or 581-2812