The Council on Academic Affairs reviewed progress from the chemistry and foreign language programs during its meeting Thursday.

The bachelor’s of arts in chemistry is a new program introduced in fall 2010, which had a total enrollment of 32 students from 2010 to 2013.

Currently there are six chemistry majors registered under this program.

The program was built to attract transfer students, double majors, and health professionals by providing them with flexible courses that “ensures the traditional ‘core’ of chemistry, physics, and math are met,” according to the Chemistry IBHE program review.

The bachelor’s of arts in foreign language offers majors in French, Spanish and German.

Other languages offered based on demand include Latin, Russian, Italian, and Chinese.

While Italian was offered in 2009, it ended in 2013 upon the departure of the faculty member who taught Italian courses.

A two-semester sequence in Chinese and a four-semester sequence in Italian was included in the program.

Students with foreign language majors can go into different careers in private and public sectors, according to the program review.

Since the last program review, the number of foreign language majors has dropped by 15 percent because of low enrollment in the university and within the major itself nationwide, according to the Foreign Language IBHE program review.

Although enrollment has dropped in foreign language majors, the program has the lowest unemployment rate of all humanities programs, and the highest earning potential for graduates, as according to the program review.

In the teaching certification area, additional coursework has been included along with new policies because of additional requirements imposed by the national standards for foreign language.

Both programs aim to work in collaboration with other majors that would go hand-in-hand with their own.

The council performed executive action in eliminating family and consumer science courses 1000, 2000, 3000 and 4000.

Council members also addressed changing the prerequisites for FCS 3500, professionalism in family and consumer sciences, from FCS 1000, foundations of family and consumer science to FCS 2500, Foundational Focus of Family and Consumer Sciences, to be effective in summer 2015.

For Spring 2015, council members took executive action to include FCS 4926, public presentation techniques for undergraduates.

The next council meeting will be at 2 p.m. Thursday in the Booth Library Conference Room 4440.

Debby Hernandez can be reached at 581-2812 or dhernandez5@eiu.edu