The Council on Academic Affairs announced Richard Jones, a communication studies professor, as this year’s Faculty Laureate Award winner and approved three course proposals during its meeting Thursday.

The Faculty Laureate Award Selection Subcommittee reported at the CAA meeting and selected Jones as the 2016 Faculty Laureate.

Jones joined the department of communications studies after joining the department in 2010.

His research focuses on how people communicate and perform intersecting identities in different circumstances. Jones had a research article published in the journal “Qualitative Inquiry”, titled “Queering the body politic: Intersectional reflexivity in the body narratives of queer men.”

Jones is currently teaching nine sections of CMN 1310, Introduction to Speech Communication.

The department of mathematics and computer science proposed to revise MAT 2250, Elementary Statistics and MAT 4370, Topics in Computer Science.

Math professor Grant Lakeland proposed for this course to be offered online back in the March 3 CAA meeting.

When Lakeland originally brought up the proposal people were concerned that students taking this course online would only have the required textbook to learn material without any lectures. This lead to the original proposal being tabled.

A few of the CAA members were skeptical of the course and wondered how the instructors would regularly teach the class.

Lakeland said teaching this course online without the material already prepared would take a lot of time. He also mentioned the department would make video lectures for the online course over time. “We would build (the material) up semester by semester,” Lakeland said.

“It’s not just YouTube videos,” Marshall Lassak said, the chair of the department of mathematics and computer science.  “It’s a discussion board, PowerPoint slides, audio recordings.”

The revision for MAT 2250 was unanimously approved.

The mathematics and computer science department also proposed to revise MAT 4370 to become CSM 4370.

The rationale behind the proposal was to make an online addition to the MAT 4370 course.

This class focuses on topics in computer science, which vary depending on the interests of faculty and students, according to the course description in the 2016 catalog.

This class can currently be repeated for credit as long as faculty and students focus on different topics. The course can only be repeated to receive a maximum of six credit hours, according to the catalog.

The proposal to revise MAT 4370 was unanimously approved.

The department of foreign language proposed to revise EIU 4125G, Cultural Diversity in the United States.

Spanish professor Kristin Routt spoke on the behalf of the department.

“This is another course that’s been revised to offer online and also significantly update the content of the course to incorporate critical thinking,” Routt said.

The course examines the development of the multicultural nature of the United States, according to the course description.

Special attention in the course is given to the assimilation process and the struggle to achieve political, social and economic equality while maintaining cultural traditions and identities.

The proposed revision was unanimously approved.

The CAA’s current pending items on its agenda are CTE 3000G, Consumers in the Marketplace, SOS 2400, Introduction to Teaching Social Studies and SOS 3400, Social Studies Teaching Methods.

These courses will be acted upon during next week’s CAA meeting.

Jeff Coy can be reached at 581-2812 or jrcoy@eiu.edu