In a unanimous vote, ENG 1009G, Stories Matter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and ENG 2011G, World/Multicultural Literatures proposed revisions were approved by the Council on Academic Affairs.

Dana Ringuette, chair of the English department, said the changes were made to make the courses more accessible to students.

“They’re pretty interdisciplinary and complement any number of majors and minors,” Ringuette said. “We believe they’re likely to be attractive to students.”

Revisions to ENG 1009G include the changing of the course number from a 2000-level course to a 1000-level course, making it part of the dual enrollment initiative and updating course themes.

CAA member Barry Kronenfeld said he questioned whether making composition 1, 2 or remedial competition a prerequisite for another course was needed.

“I doubt whether this additional prerequisite is even necessary if you’re designing a course that can be taken concurrently,” Kronenfeld said.

He said having prerequisites will add administrative complications.

Ringuette said the goals in composition 1, 2 and remedial composition are very different from ENG 1009G, which focuses on literature so students can be enrolled in both without having trouble.

“We didn’t want to restrict students who are in 1000 from the opportunity to take a literature course,” Ringuette said.

Even though questions over the prerequisite were raised, the ENG 1009G revision proposal was passed as written.

Revisions proposed to ENG 2011G included offering the course online.

“It’s a change that we wanted to make in terms of the study of multicultural and world literatures and be able to offer this to our students in the general education curriculum,” Ringuette said. “It satisfies the humanities of the gen ed, which it always has, and also now the cultural diversity, and depending on the topic, any number of the minor programs.”

Ringuette said with this proposal, the course would be changed from its current three sections, which are poetry, fiction and drama to a more updated curriculum including world and multicultural studies.

“Student-instructor interactions will take place via email, the discussion board on D2l, synchronous office hours and student-student interactions will take place on discussion boards,” He said.

CAA vice chair Richard Wilkinson said while it was not a deal-breaker in his voting in approval of the proposal, the proposal looked more like a sample or a model syllabus than a proposal.

“I just think in the future even things like daily in-class or online writing would clarify for us, I think,” Wilkinson said.

The revision proposal passed as written.

Chrissy Miller can be reached at clmiller9@eiu.edu.