The Council on Academic Affairs unanimously approved five academic changes at its meeting Thursday.

Of the five, three were to be acted upon on the agenda, and Misty Rhoads, the chairperson of the council, moved to suspend the by-laws and vote on the two other requests.

The first two requests involve the Gateway program, as presented by Mona Davenport, the director of minority affairs.

The first change amends the letter of recommendation requirement to include two letters, which now must be written by individuals associated with the academic integrity of the student.

Davenport said that in the past, students were submitting letters from coaches and other individuals who were not adequately able to judge the student’s academic abilities.

“In the past, we have received letters that talk about (the student’s) character and what a good student they were but did not give us information on their academic rigor,” Davenport said.

Current applicants submitting a letter of recommendation will have to adhere to a form, provided by the office of minority affairs, which will guide the academic advisors as to exactly what the program is looking for in an applicant.

“We just want to be a little more specific when we try to look at the applications and rate the students,” Davenport said.

The final change within the Gateway program revolves around one’s scores on the ACT test.

Since the inception of the Gateway program in 1990, a student with as low as a 14 on the test could be admitted under the program. The change allows admittance only to students who have procured a minimum of 16 on the test.

“The majority of our students admitted with a 14 or a 15 literally don’t show up,” Davenport said. “I get probably one-fourth of those admitted students by the (census day).”

Davenport said she has seen a problem with the academic integrity of those one-fourth who do remain at Eastern through graduation.

“Out of (those with a score of 14 on the ACT), the graduation rate varied from about 38 percent to about a 40 percent, which is still somewhat low for that particular ACT score,” Davenport said.

The next proposal asked the council to change the numbers of a course within the biology department.

The course, formerly numbered BIO 5372, Wildlife Techniques, will now be numbered BIO 4850.

Jill Deppe, a biology professor, said the change was to allow undergraduate students more access to the course which was traditionally reserved for graduate students.

“We have brought it down (to the 4000 level) so that undergraduates get the skills they need in order to go onto graduate school or to go into technician positions,” Deppe said.

She also said the new course will help tie together other undergraduate courses such as courses which teach the specifics of mammalogy, ornithology and herpetology.

The first of the two new courses approved of through the suspension of the by-laws is AET 4763, Rapid Prototyping.

Wutthigrai Boonsuk, a technology professor, said the new course will help teach students the concepts of prototyping, in preparation for a high-end job with companies such as John Deere or Caterpillar.

The final item the council approved was a new health studies course, HST 3110, First Aid/CPR AED for the Health & Fitness Professional.

Robert Bates, the chair of the health studies department, said the new course will focus on emergency response skills, which he said need to be covered more than the current course offering allows.

The council will convene its final meeting of the semester at 10:15 a.m. Thursday in the 1895 Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

Steven Lucas, a councilmember, said the council will hear proposals from the istory department as well as vote on officers for the 2014-2015 academic year.

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