The Council of Academic Affairs has put HIST 1101: Introduction to History, to pending status due to the unclear information in the proposal.

Debra Reid, a history professor, said the purpose is to provide an introduction into the history department.

The course is aimed to be a building point for freshman or transfer students to get involved with each other sooner rather than later.

“This course (will be) the start up for the community for history majors,” Reid said.

Marita Gronnvoll, the chair of the council, questions the proposal by asking if there are prerequisites for the introductory course, whether it is for everyone to take or just for history majors.

The council was also unclear on the accrediting for the history course whether it would be credit or no credit for the course, or the course being a grading system for the course, like the standard ABC format that most courses use.

The council pushed the proposal to be looked over by the history department so they can look over the proposal and come back to the council with their questions answered.

“There is no rush for this to be passed, due to the fact that the course won’t be offered until fall 2016,” Gronnvoll said.

The council approved for certain communication majors to now have hybrid versions for the course for the summer courses.

These courses are normally taught in lecture halls and will now include online section for students to take.

These courses, however, will be graded more for class activities as opposed to exams or quizzes.

The communication department courses were also updated to fit University standards.

CMN 2520: The introduction of Mass Communication course was updated, this being the first time since 1980s.

The introductory course will now focus more on the online aspect of the field.

Another course being updated in the communication department was CMN 2575: Field Production. This is the first time the course has been updated since 1998.

The course has been updated for learning goals and a proposal­ for how the hours will be switched if the course is a hybrid course.

HIS 3810: History of Illinois course has been approved to be an online course over the summer, mainly for Elementary Education majors.

Chris Widdel can be reached at 581-2812 or ccwiddel@eiu.edu.