The Council on Academic Affairs will vote on seven curriculum changes within the College of Sciences Thursday.

The members will meet at 3 p.m. in Booth Library Room 4440.

The Council will act on requests by Harold Ornes, the dean of the College of Sciences, to add a biology course, as well as two courses within the Department of Communication Disorders and Sciences.

The two courses within the Communication Disorders and Sciences Department are “CDS 4810: Sign Language and Deaf Culture for the Speech-Language-Pathologist, which is a two-hour sign language class and “CDS 4815: Augmentative and Alternative Communication,” a two hour class that deals with programming technological devices for communication-impaired people.

Gail Richard, chairwoman of the Communication Studies and Sciences department, said under the proposed guidelines, students who are in the CDS major and have already taken a sign language class will be able to waive the 4810 class and just enroll in 4815.

“In the current structure, students who had sign language proficiency still had to take the class because of the AAC component,” Richard said. “Now they will just need to take 4815. If a student does not have sign language proficiency, they will enroll in both classes.”

The modifications come as reviews of the major deemed it necessary to change some classes to the graduate level and allow undergraduate students to enroll in an elective during their senior year.

“We have revised the undergraduate major to move two courses to the graduate level to make the overall program more consistent with programs in the state and across the country,” Richard said.

The new biology course that CAA will vote on is “BIO 4842: Wildlife Ecology and Management.” The council will also vote on amending the prerequisites for “BIO 4948: Plant Taxonomy” and “BIO 4960: Wetland and Aquatic Vascular Plants.”

If approved, the changes would allow a student to enroll in either of the biology classes by only taking “BIO 1200G: General Biology.”

According to a memorandum from Ornes, “content presented in BIO 1200G is sufficient for enrollment in BIO 4948 [and BIO 4960], and students are routinely allowed to enroll with that background by permission of the instructor. Revising the prerequisites will make that clear.”

This CAA meeting will be the first since the group’s new learning standards were presented to the Faculty Senate on Sept. 3.

During that meeting, Faculty Senate raised questions about the legitimacy of the new learning goals, as well as the best way to implement those changes.

The group’s learning goals revolve around what general education courses should entail, and the values that every Eastern student should embody upon graduation, such as critical thinking, speaking and writing effectively, and one’s ability to participate as a global citizen.

Jack Cruikshank can be reached at 581-2812 or jdcruikshank@eiu.edu.