The Council on Academic Affairs met virtually Thursday afternoon to vote on three items. There was also a discussion item on the agenda.

The first action item concerned the language of a communicated GPA for students who apply to Eastern as test-optional.

Test-optional means that student does not include their ACT or SAT scores when applying to the university.

“A survey of our peers shows that EIU has the highest communicated GPA threshold in the market and we believe this has contributed to our current application deficit for New Freshman for Fall 2021,” according to a memo from Josh Norman, Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management and Kelly Miller, Director of Admissions. “Other institutions like EIU have implemented test-optional or even test-blind policies to increase equity and access for their prospective students and it is clear for this cycle that clarity and access are of great benefit to those institutions with more clearly communicated GPA threshold.”

The item was approved, and language indicating a 2.8 GPA will be added to the admissions catalog.

The second item did a similar thing, but for those applying to the Gateway Program.

Those students would need a minimum 2.3 GPA based on six or more semesters to be considered to apply for a test-optional application.

The item was also passed by the council.

The final item, which was also approved, updated Eastern’s admissions policies to reflect what was in the first two items.

The discussion item was regarding the possible pros and cons of implementing a credit/no-credit option for the Spring 2021 semester.

The option was only discussed, and will be voted on at the next meeting.

Council members expressed concerns with having a credit/no-credit option for this semester after having similar options in both Spring 2020 and Fall 2020.

Among concerns were how financial aid would be affected if satisfactory academic progress could not be properly shown and how students could possibly misuse the option and affect their graduation status.

The next CAA meeting is scheduled for April 22 at 2 p.m.

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