The Council for Academic Affairs will review and vote on three new courses, two in the sociology and anthropology department and one in the psychology department, during its meeting Thursday.

Marita Gronnvoll, CAA chair, said the three new course proposals are for ANT 3610 Language and Culture, PSY 3518 Psychology of Language Development and SOC 4131 Sociology of Poverty and Social Welfare.

If approved, all courses will be initiated in the Spring 2016 term.

Two of the three courses, PSY 3518 and ANT 3610, both will have language as a part of the curriculum, but Gronnvoll said the courses will cover very different aspects of the topic.

“It’s not unusual for a lot of different disciplines to cover a certain topic in different ways,” she said. “It happens that the two this week are using the same word, but the courses will be approached differently.”

PSY 3518 will discuss how children develop their language and use it into adulthood, including topics such as genetics and the use of language in bilingual children, while ANT 3610 will examine the subfield of anthropology, called linguistic anthropology, which focuses on language, culture, self and society, according to each of the course proposals.

Both proposals acknowledge other language topic based courses within the English and communication departments and include rationale for the difference in the new courses.

Gronnvoll said she does not think the departments will have any trouble with their course approvals.

“None of these look like they are going to be a problem at all,” she said. “I would imagine it will be a short meeting.”

The council will also appoint a member of CAA to the Office of the Registrar’s Advisory Group for the academic year.

“There are certain groups around campus who want one CAA member on their group,” Gronvoll said. “I’ve received a request to get a member of CAA to serve on this committee, so I’ll ask for a volunteer.”

Gronnvoll said departments are updating and adding courses mainly because of the Undergraduate Learning Goals set in place approximately four years ago.

“It started a snowball effect where all of the departments are looking at their courses and updating them,” she said. “Departments are taking seriously that we need to start paying attention to the Undergraduate Learning Goals and that everyone graduates with a real education.”

A revision for course MIS 4850 Systems Security will be added to next week’s agenda.

The CAA will meet 2 p.m. Thursday in Booth Library Room 4440.

Megan Ivey can be reached at 581-2812 or at mkivey@eiu.edu