The Council of Academic Affairs will vote to change its bylaws to allow for online meetings to take the place of meeting in person today.

CAA president Larry White said the change to the bylaws would officially allow the council to hold online meetings. Prior to the change, the laws stated the council must meet in person.

The law would allow the council to “legally” hold online meetings, which the CAA has been doing for a year, White said.

“Everything we have been doing in regards to electronics meeting has been in the spirit of the law,” White said. “The new law allows us to still comply but still get things added to agenda and alert the campus community in a reasonable time frame.”

The council will also hear a presentation about revising the psychology minor.

Possible changes to the minor include requiring students to take one class from both the abnormal/social group of classes as well as one from the biopsychology group and redefining the goals of the minor.

John Mace, chair of the psychology department, said the changes would possibly go into place in the Fall 2011 semester.

“(The change) brings more structure to the minor,” Mace said. “It should also better prepare them for graduate school and make them more knowledgeable about the discipline.”

The final group of items on the agenda will concern the art department, which has proposed adding a group of Interactive/Motion Graphic class to the graphic design program. They have also proposed revisions to the art major including changing the number of classes required in the various disciplines.

Glenn Hild, chair of the art department, said the new classes would be available under the 2011 catalog and necessary due to the changing field of graphic design.

“The field of graphic design is changing with more emphasis of electronic media,” Hild said. “(These classes) are necessary for the Art Department’s graphic design majors to be viable in the field. They need more opportunities to study electronic media/motion graphics.”

The CAA will meet from 2-4 p.m. in the Booth Library Conference Room.

Amy Wywialowski can be reached at 581-7942 or alwywialowski@eiu.edu.