Many changes to the women’s studies program were made during last Thursday’s Council on Academic Affairs meeting, and some additions to the Spanish, psychology and geology programs.

First for the women’s studies program, a new course called Studies of Sexuality and Gender Diversity was proposed to the council as a potential add to the program.

The course, which would be a 2000 level course, was added with unanimous approval.

The second proposal for women’s studies was to update the 4000 level course, Feminist Theory’s.

The course had not been updated since 1988, said Jeannie Ludlow, the coordinator of women’s studies, and the revisions passed unanimously.

Another course addition to women’s studies, the addition of a 4000 level course titled Queer Theory, was unanimously passed.

The women’s studies name is also being changed by executive action from women’s studies to women’s, gender and sexuality studies.

Ludlow said this change is to keep Eastern relevant and up to date with this field of study.

“(The new courses and the name change) brings us in line with the newest research in the field,” Ludlow said.

Spanish also proposed the addition of a new course titled Spanish for the Healthcare Professions.

This course could be used to fulfill a student’s foreign language requirement, but cannot be taken for credit if students have already taken Spanish 1102.

Professor of German Christiane Eydt-Beebe, who presented the course proposal on behalf of the foreign language department, said the goal for this course is to increase outreach.

“We are meeting a need with this course. Many students at EIU major in health promotions, biology, or pre-nursing. Many of them haven’t yet met foreign language requirements in, for example high school,” Eydt-Beebe said. “So, this course will allow them to choose a course that will help them complete this requirement while developing skills needed in their profession.”

Professor of geography Christopher Laingen presented the next item to be voted on, revision of the course Food and Agriculture to allow the course to become more accessible to a wider variety of students.

Laingen has been teaching this course since 2009, and since then he has learned a lot about how the course should be updated and how the information taught could be used, he said.

“As I came to teach this course and develop it and revise it over the years, I just came to understand how little people know about where their food comes from and it’s something that’s so important to each and every one of us,” Laingen said. “We hear a lot about food and we know a lot about food and food movements, and there’s a lot of courses taught like that at different schools, even here, but there’s very little taught about where that food actually comes from.”

The psychology minor has also been updated, with the two recent courses that were added to the major, Neuropsychology and Human Memory, also being added to the requirements of a minor.

CAA recording secretary Janet Fopay is leaving the CAA for an interim position out of the college of sciences as a certification officer.

The CAA all said that Fopay will be missed, and there is now a position to be filled with debate continuing about whether CAA bylaws will need to be suspended so a voting member will be able to keep minutes until Fopay’s absence is filled.

Brooke Schwartz can be reached at 581-2851 or bsschwartz@eiu.edu.