The Council of Academic Affairs will be discussing a new course, revised concentration as well as a new option to the heath studies department during its meeting 3 p.m. Thursday in Room 4440 in Booth Library.

The council will also go over other course revisions.

The history department is looking to add a historical studies course and revise the course HIS 3810: History of Illinois.

History department chairwoman Anita Shelton said the proposed course would serve as a capstone course and to help history majors get a feel for what to expect from the classes.

“We are looking to provide our majors with a common base of understanding of the historical discipline they can build on throughout their coursework in the major,” Shelton said.

The department also wants to revise HIS 3810 course to include an online portion for students to take in the summer if they cannot fit it in during the academic year.

“There is a strong demand for History of Illinois from both Elementary Education majors, for whom it is required, and history majors,” Shelton said.

The health studies department is proposing a revision to the health administration option.

Julie Dietz, chairwoman of the department of health studies curriculum committee, said the department has added a one-semester credit course, HST 2250: Professions in School and Community Health, to the curriculum so that students know how expansive the field really is.

“Content covered in the course facilitates the placement process for the required internship,” Dietz said.

By adding the course, the number of credits for the major will go up, while the number of credits for the degree stays the same.

Dietz said they manage to do this by counting several classes. They expanded the number of courses available that can be double-counted towards the general education requirement.

The council will also look at several course revisions in the communication studies department and a course revision in the music department.

The communications revisions range from adjusting the lowest grade to pass in CMN 2040: Argumentation and Critical thinking to revising older classes to match more modern academic learning goals set by the university in CMN 2520: Introduction to Mass Communication.

The music department decided to add more time for jazz pianists and guitar players to play a total of eight semester hours in ensembles and combos.

They decided on this so that students get to practice on their main instrument throughout their time at Eastern, according to the agenda.

Sam Nusbaum can be reached at 581-2812 or at scnusbaum@eiu.edu.