CAA to vote on proposed honors program for the Department of Human Services
Associate Vice-President for Enrollment Management Josh Norman, and Jeffery Stowell, a psychology professor present a proposal to the Council of Academic Affairs about reducing the current recidency hours requirement for transfer students at the Oct. 21, CAA meeting held in the Whitters Conference Room. The proposal suggests that the current requirement of 40 credit hours be reduced to 30. The council approved of the vote with only one member, Billy Hung, not in favor.
October 27, 2021
The Council on Academic Affairs will be voting on a proposed departmental honors program for the Department of Human Services and Community Leadership during their Thursday meeting.
The council will be meeting on Thursday at 2 p.m. in the Witters Conference Room at Booth Library.
The proposal for the new departmental honors program states that to be eligible for the program, students must be majoring in Human Services Program Administration or minoring in Aging Studies, Financial Literacy, or Human Services Program Administration.
The proposal states that there are two pathways for admission with different GPA requirements. While the Overall GPA Pathway requires a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or higher, the Major GPA Pathway requires a major GPA of 3.75 or higher.
The Overall GPA Pathway requires the completion of at least 12 credit hours of coursework at Eastern, and the Major GPA Pathway requires the completion of at least 12 credit hours of coursework at Eastern, with at least 9 credit hours of HSCL courses.
Both pathways would require permission from the HSCL Departmental Honors Coordinator and from the Dean of the Pine Honors College.
Both native and transfer students are eligible for the departmental honors program.
The rationale for this proposal is that “Departmental honors programs are particularly important to students who have already completed the bulk of their General Education Curriculum, but still want an honors experience.”
The proposal states that many students in the HSCL Department think about joining the University Honors program, “but find that they are too far along in their college careers to make the University Honors program a practical and financially feasible option because of the ‘extra’ courses they would have to complete above and beyond their degree requirements.”
The rationale for the two different GPA pathways is that while the Overall GPA Pathway parallels the structure established by the Honors College, the Major GPA Pathway is an alternative designed for native students who may have struggled during the early part of their time at Eastern.
The CAA will also be voting on a proposal that, if approved, would rename the “Department of Public Health” to “Department of Public Health and Nutrition.”
The rationale behind the proposal is that the name change “will reflect the merger of the Nutrition and Dietetics program and the Department of Public Health.”
According to the proposal, the merger will begin Jan. 3, 2022, a merger that the faculty from both departments/programs support.
If approved, the proposal would be effective Fall 2022.
Another proposal the council will be voting on is one to revise the Public Health minor.
The revised minor would lower the number of credit hours students are required to take from 22 credit hours to 18 credit hours.
The rationale behind this proposal is that “To ensure students pursuing the minor have all the necessary skills to translate their major studies into a public health context, we have simplified the major courses to the key six courses of our core curriculum…”
Kyara Morales-Rodriguez can be reached at 581-2812 or knmoralesrodriguez@eiu.edu.
