The Council on Academic Affairs will be meeting Thursday at 2 p.m. in room 4440 of Booth Library.

The CAA has two action items, including a new minor and the reduction of certain credit requirements for transfer students, and three discussion items, one of which is the Passport to Diversity initiative discussed last year.

A proposal was made to the council to discuss the possibility of removing the 42-senior-institution-hour requirements for transfer students. 

The proposal, submitted by Mark Kattenbraker, the interim associate vice president for academic affairs, stated, “EIU has a standard residency requirement of 42 hours with exceptions for Organizational Development, RN to BSN in Nursing, the General Studies programs and for cooperative degrees. Yet, EIU has an additional degree requirement of 42 senior institution hours (hours earned at a four-year institution).”

The proposal stated that those 42 hours matches the residency requirements for all but the programs with exceptions.

“I believe EIU should eliminate the senior institution requirement and rely on our residency and upper division hour requirements to assure that our students have a true baccalaureate experience,” the proposal said.

A new minor in computer sciences will also be brought before the council, which, according the proposal, is meant to “provide the deepest study and broadest overview computer science topics that limited course work allows.”

The Passport to Diversity initiative, which was brought to campus last year through Making Excellence Inclusive, is a way to offer an official recognition of diversity, as seen through a student’s coursework, essays and attended conferences and workshops.

The council will be looking over proposed Passport to Diversity courses for the 2018-2019 school year.

Also on the agenda, the council will discuss updates to the Faculty Senate shared governance resolution as well as the general education committee.

Brooke Schwartz can be reached at 581-2812 or at

bsschwartz@eiu.edu.