The Council on Academic Affairs unanimously approved a revised syllabus policy and revisions to the course catalog pertaining to general education goals and university-wide learning goals.

Stephen Lucas, the secondary education and foundations department chairman, when asking the council if it need any clarifications on the syllabus policy, said, “Are there any questions? We have been staring at this thing for a year.”

Lucas said the syllabus policy will now be going to the Council on Graduate Studies for that council’s review and approval pertaining to graduate courses.

When no questions were presented to Lucas, the council then voted and moved on to approve the general education revision to the catalog description.

“This is just putting a couple of changes into the catalog to reflect the revised learning goals, which we have five now, and then up in the second paragraph, you can see some changes which set the table for us over the next year in looking at what the purpose of general education courses are,” he said.

One is to expose students to the process of learning as non-majors in those areas, and also to develop those foundational skills listed in the goals.

Lucas then asked Debra Reid, a council member and history professor, if she thought other revisions were needed to the responsible citizenship learning goal.

“I am wondering if we should include something about ‘global’ in there,” Reid said.

The group then reviewed a certain passage of the proposed catalog copy while discussion its relevance as a promotion of global diversity.

“Finally, responsible global citizens appreciate the diversity of the world in which they work and live. As part of their general education program, all students are required to complete a course with a focus on cultural diversity,” the catalog wording says.

The discussion ultimately led to the decision that certain aspects of the general education wording do foster a global awareness for all Eastern students.

Reid said it was fine if the group thought it currently provides support for study abroad.

“We did all this work on the university learning goals and we didn’t have it in the catalog, so we would like to have this inserted into the catalog just before the general education section we just revised,” Lucas said.

Lucas then confirmed the prose is the same as the formerly adopted revision to the university learning goals.

The council also reviewed an invitation to attend the final North Central Association Seminar at 7:30 a.m. April 18 in the Seventh Street Underground Loft of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

For next Thursday’s meeting, the council will have a short meeting and then continue reviewing the implementation of learning goals after voting on a new journalism course.

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