The Council on Academic Affairs will continue discussions this year on foreign language requirements, cultural diversity requirements and the intent of the senior seminar.

The CAA meets at 2 p.m. every Thursday in Booth Library Room 4400.

Last year, the council received a proposal from a foreign language instructor to increase foreign language requirements for Eastern students, said Kathleen Bower, chair of CAA and associate professor in the geology/geography department.

Students who saw a problem with the treatment of diverse populations at Eastern, confronted CAA about the issue last year, Bower said.

The students proposed an increase in the cultural diversity requirement for students, and a committee is currently being formed to look at this proposal.

Another committee has been meeting regularly for at least a semester looking at the purpose of senior seminar.

Bower said the committee is seeing if the senior seminar is doing what it’s supposed to do, or if any changes should be suggested.

For today’s meeting, courses left over from last spring will also be considered as well as proposals looked at by committees. New members will also be introduced.

The CAA is a group of elected members consisting of nine faculty members and three students, as well as a non-voting academic adviser.

Anything that relates to the academic experience at Eastern is part of the CAA’s duties, said Debra Reid, vice chair of CAA and associate history professor.

“They make recommendations to the president about things that relate to academics at EIU,” Reid said.

CAA reviews proposals about everything from new courses to bigger debates like changing the Electronic Writing Portfolio.

Whenever a department has a change in their course or if they want to either add a new course or substantially change an old one, the CAA has to first approve it.

“What we’re trying to do is keep everything moving in the right direction and try and be open to new ideas, but at the same time, not switch and be constantly changing so that you as students are saying ‘What, what happened? Which way are we going?'” Bower said.

CAA, however, is just one step in many steps of approval.

Before coming to the CAA, the proposal must first get departmental approval and then college approval.

After getting CAA’s approval, it then goes to the provost or the Council of Graduate Affairs if it’s a graduate course.

Besides courses, the CAA also reviews Internal Governing Policies.

Sometimes they may be rewritten to clarify for students or faculty, to change it so it’s simpler and easier to understand, or to make it fairer.

A recent Internal Governing Policy the CAA changed was the policy on appealing grades.

Click here for the CAA’s agenda.

Emily Zulz can be reached at 581-7942 or at eazulz@eiu.edu.