The Council on Academic Affairs will meet Thursday in the Edgar Room of Booth Library at 2 p.m. to discuss six action items ranging from a revised major to new courses.

A new course titled ‘NTR 3500: Professional Focus on Nutrition and Dietetics’ will be proposed to the council at its meeting.

The course is, according to the proposal, “is designed to serve two purposes: the exploration of the career opportunities within the field of nutrition and dietetics as well as to prepare the students for the NTR 4275: Internship in Nutrition and Dietetics.”

If passed, it will be a required course for students majoring in nutrition and dietetics.

English is proposing a revision to their professional writing minor and their literary and cultural studies emphasis in the English major.

The proposal said the change in the minor was a reduction in credit hours, from 23 to 18-19, in order to make the course more acceptable for students who are not English majors and to make the minor more in line with other Eastern minors.

The credit hour reduction comes from a movement of certain courses.

“Since English majors who are interested in professional writing should choose to concentrate rather than minor in it, we have removed ENG 4060 as a requirement, moved ENG 4275 (the internship) from the list of requirements to the list of electives, and reduced elective choices,” the proposal said. “The electives were pared down to focus on courses that are regularly taught online (except two of our own professional writing courses) and courses from related majors that we have attracted to the minor in the past.”

According to the proposal, these course changes correlate with the proposed literary and cultural studies emphasis in the English major.

“(It is proposed) that ENG 4060, English Studies Career Development (1 Credit Hour), be added to the requirements for both emphases,” the proposal said. “It will continue to be recommended for students completing the English language arts major.”

The proposal said that, sometimes, English major students do not take advantage of the ENG 4060 class as often as they should and the hope is that this requirement will change that.

English is also proposing a new course: ENG 4273: Applied Project in Professional Writing.

The proposal said the course will be used as an elective for the professional writing minor and the English major and to help online students fulfill their requirements.

“This course provides students with an opportunity for extended, hands-on application of professional writing concepts,” the proposal said. “Many online students already hold full-time jobs and so are unable to take the internship course (ENG 4275), whereas this course can be completed in an asynchronous, online environment.”

Changes to department of foreign languages and B.A. in foreign languages are also being proposed.

Changes include changing the name of department and the major from using the term ‘foreign languages’ to ‘world languages’ and reducing required credit hours for the major.

The catalog language surrounding the timing of proficiency tests, tests which allow students to move forward with their studies without repeating any material they may have already mastered, will also be discussed by the council.

According to the proposal, currently the catalog says the test must be taken “within two weeks from the date the Registrar certifies the eligibility of the applicant.”

The proposal said this can be difficult to arrange and there seems to be no reason for such a time limit, which the proposal asks the council to change.

Brooke Schwartz can be reached at 581-2812 or at bsschwartz@eiu.edu.