The Council on Academic Affairs approved one revised major, two new courses and two revised minors.

John Willems, assistant chair and professor of management information, spoke on behalf of the four agenda items related to his department.

Willems said all the approved items were created as a part of a provost initiative to share computer courses among different departments.

“Part of that initiative was that they wanted each discipline to share some courses,” Willems said.

Willems said another part of the initiative is taking one class and splitting it into two new courses that are shared between two departments.

“These classes will actually be shared classes,” Willems said. “Everybody in the Math and Computer Science program, (Computer and Information Technology) program and Management Information Systems/Operations Management program will take these classes.”

Willems said MIS/CIT 4760: Systems analysis, Design and Development, an approved new course would be a core class in an upcoming program change for the Computer and Information Technology program, which is when it has dual prefixes.

The course will be available for undergraduate students as well as graduate students, and it is similar to a course already available for graduate students, TEC 5323: Advanced Database Technology.

Willems said TEC 5323 focuses on the hardware aspect of databases while MIS/CIT 4760 is more of a traditional database class. He said graduate students would benefit from taking both classes.

“(A student taking both courses) would be alright. They would get a lot of hands-on (experience) in our (course) and a lot more of the managerial aspects in their (course),” Willems said. “It would be great for them.”

Students who have taken MIS 4200: Systems and Database Analysis, Design and Development will still be able to take MIS/CIT 4760: Systems analysis, Design and Development and receive credit.

MIS/CIT 4770: Database and Data Management was also approved.

Revisions were made to the engineering technology minor.

However, no votes were made on the agenda item to revise CAA bylaws. The item was postponed so that two members, Amy Rosenstein and Rebecca Throneburg, could be in attendance for the decision.

The members who were present discussed the changes they plan to vote on next week.

CAA chair Marita Gronnvoll said one big change is the addition of a General Education Committee.

Another change discussed was taking Article 5 (Jurisdiction and Procedures), Handling of Proposals, 10, which states, “when a department has a proposal which is part of a program, or a service to a program other than its own, the proposal must bear the approval signature of the appropriate dean(s), as well as the signatures of the appropriate department chairpersons and the departments’ curriculum committee chairpersons” and adding it to the requirements for Executive Decisions or Executive Actions.

The similar text would then be under both Handling of Proposals and Executive Decisions.

“I would rather be receptive than run the risk of having issues,” Gronnvoll said.

The council also discussed how to handle voting on hybrid courses according to their bylaws.

Corryn Brock can be reached at 581-2812 or cebrock@eiu.edu.