The Council on Academic Affairs will vote on a new interdisciplinary health communication major in the Communication Studies and Health Studies departments.

The proposed health communication major will prepare students for careers in the health care field.

Currently, the only health communication programs in the state are a master’s degree offered by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and DePaul University.

If Eastern approves the major, it would be an undergraduate degree.

Also on the agenda is a response to a communication to philosophy professor Jonelle DePetro from the CAA chair Marita Gronnvoll.

DePetro requested a resolution stating that any new addition to the general education curriculum would require that a course be deleted from general education from the department adding the new course.

She also requested a stop to adding new general education courses.

In a memorandum sent to the CAA Oct. 10, she wrote it is unnecessary to expand general education courses to attract students to Eastern’s programs.

With enrollment and teachers down, adding courses to general education might have negative consequences, DePetro said in the resolution.

“The moratorium would provide some stability in the current Gen Ed course offerings and allow CAA and the campus community time to reevaluate the purpose and current structure of Gen Ed,” DePetro said.

DePetro wrote the moratorium would give a better understanding on how general education can best serve the student body.

“We should be cautious about changing the Gen Ed offerings until we have had a campus-wide discussion and evaluation of the current Gen Ed foundation,” DePetro said. “I believe the option of adopting this proposal will have better consequences for everyone affected than not adopting a proposal.”

Gronnvoll said in a written response to DePetro Oct. 13 that according to the CAA’s bylaws, the proposal would have to be involved in a campus-wide discussion.

“As I made clear last week, I believe it is very important that we have some mechanism to have a campus-wide discussion on this proposal before we ask CAA to approve a controversial proposal,” Gronnvoll said.

Also on the agenda are new classes to be voted on.

These classes include Introduction to Health Communications, Communication in Health Professions and Special Topics in Health Communication.

Introduction to Health Communications will focus on the perspective of health consumers. It will include communication with families, media, doctors and patients.

Communication in Health Professions will focus more on patient-provider interactions and communication skills regarding health related outcomes.

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