By Angelica Cataldo

Managing Editor | @DEN_NEWS

Members of Workgroup no. 9, Academic Visioning II, created three subcommittees to discuss organization, differential tuition models and variable learning models.

During the meeting, Workgroup chair Melinda Mueller, a political science professor, said the group wanted to start to pull together what it would present at a town hall meeting.

Although a few members were absent from the meeting on Monday afternoon, the group went ahead and assigned members to each subcommittee.

Mueller said the subcommittees will be meeting multiple times a week to discuss their subjects. She suggested that the groups film each meeting and post them online in case people are not able to attend them.

The schedules for each subcommittee meeting have not been finalized, but they are planning on meeting once a week in February. The members suggested the possibility of having a guest moderator attend the subcommittee meetings to give and receive feedback.

The organization subcommittee will be led by sociology professor Michael Gillespie, education professor Jay Bickford, health studies professor Sheila Simons and Mueller.

This subcommittee will be responsible for looking at the organization of the academic colleges, schools and departments at Eastern and their roles on campus.

The differential tuition subcommittee will be led by Richard England, dean of the Honors College, Austin Cheney, chair of the technology department and possibly a student member.

This group will be coming up with ideas for various tuition plans and different financial strategies for programs at Eastern. These will include different prices for courses and possible opportunities such as extended summer sessions.

Leading the variable learning models subcommittee is English professor Suzie Park and Amanda Harvey, interim associate director for Health Service and a possible student member.

The variable learning models group will potentially plan different academic curriculums and schedules that would better fit the future student population of the university.

This includes the possibility of shifting the academic calendar weeks, extending summer terms and offering different academic plans for students in various programs.

Angelica Cataldo can be reached at 581-2812 or amcataldo@eiu.edu.