Eastern’s Council of Academic Affairs met Thursday afternoon and voted on five action items, including three new courses, one revised course and a new honors section.

The first new course that was voted on was PUBH 4775 Experiential Seminar in Public Health Practice. It will be a one-hour course that will require students to reflect on internships or other work experience they have had.

The proposal was unanimously approved.

The next action item was a revision to an existing course, MGT 3830 Managerial Communications. The revision would be to remove a Writing Centered component to the course and make it more focused on modern managerial communications, and it was also unanimously approved.

The next two items that were acted on were both new courses in the Department of Geology and Geography.

The first course, GEO 3825 Lidar Mapping, will be designed to teach students the background, theory and applications for lidar mapping, which is defined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as “a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure ranges (variable distances) to the Earth.”

The second course was GEO 3275 Planetary Geology. The course description in the proposal said the class will be an “investigation of the nature and origin of the solar system, formation, composition, and differentiation of the planets, including planetary processes.”

Both proposals were unanimously approved by the council.

The final item to be acted upon was the introduction of a new senior seminar EIU 4196G Honors Body, Health, and Society.

The description said the course would be “an honors course focusing on the exploration of the interdisciplinary field of body studies, with an emphasis on the health impact of gender, ethnic, class, aging, and sexual orientation images in contemporary society.”

However, the proposal was tabled for another meeting as it was in need of revisions.

After the action items were finished, the council was joined by Lu Ding from the Faculty Development and Innovation Center. She gave a presentation on online and hybrid delivery formats for classes and participated in a discussion with the council after.

CAA is scheduled to meet again Oct. 29 on Blackboard Collaborate.

Adam Tumino can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].