The Council of Academic Affairs unanimously approved catalog revisions to be made to comply with the Illinois State Legislature passed Public Act 102-0998, which in certain circumstances requires universities to release transcripts to students with holds and provides additional provisions for withdrawal from the university.

The proposal was brought to CAA by Brad Bennington, Eastern’s registrar, at Thursday’s meeting.

Bennington said the State Bill 3032 included four provisions, one of which Eastern already complied to.

“Number one, students that owe a debt to the university; we cannot withhold an unofficial transcript from that,” Bennington said. “That’s pretty simple. Second one, cannot withhold an official transcript from them if it’s being sent to a potential employer or a current employer. Simple enough there. Number three, we’d have to have a policy in place or policies in place that serve to limit debt if a student withdraws.”

The proposal revisions to the catalog makes changes to wording to comply with these three provisions.

The revisions also include clarifying some language in the catalog involving transfers, which are separate from the changes included for the Public Act 102-0998.

These changes will be implemented this semester.

Following the approval, CAA member Billy Hung, a professor of biological sciences representing the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences on CAA, suggested the university finding a way to get word of this change out to alumni and former students.

“I feel like this should be propagated to our alumni,” Hung said. “Right, especially the most recent cohorts who might really benefit from this. And I feel the legislature in Springfield went to all the trouble passing this, and we went to all the trouble of complying with it. It will be a shame if it’s not utilized by the people who could really benefit from it. So I just feel like if we do all the work, and if we all do it in quiet, in a dark room that is not really going to benefit anyone.”

CAA unanimously approved to revise the User Interface and User Experience course, DGT-4751.

The revisions for the course are to make the course an elective option for graduate students along with undergraduate students.

Originally a 3000 level course as DGT-3343, this prevented graduate students from taking the course for credit.

This will allow graduates in the master’s in technology program to take this course for credit. The class will still be available to undergraduate students.

The changes will be implemented for the spring 2024 semester.

User Interface and User Experience is a hybrid course with one 50-minute session online each week and four 50-minute sessions in-person

The proposal was approved with revisions.

New CAA member Alexis Jones representing the College of Education, COE, from the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Foundations joined CAA. Jones is taking the vacant seat following Amy Rosenstein leaving CAA.

Madelyn Kidd can be reached at 581-2812 or at DENeic@gmail.com.