The Council on Academic Affairs unanimously approved three changes to the psychology major at its meeting Thursday.

The council also unanimously approved four changes within the biology department.

For psychology, the council heard a proposal from Jeff Stowel, a psychology professor, to amend PSY 3680, Sensation and Perception, to add an online section of the course.

Stowell said there will be no change in the content of the program, but they wanted to keep up with the growing trend of online courses.

He said the course will allow students to receive a minor in psychology through online courses.

Stowell also asked the council to approve a change to the psychology major and minor each.

As per the major change, Stowell requested the council remove PSY 4100, Supervised Research in Psychology, from the list of accepted capstone courses.

Stowell said the change will still allow students to take it as a capstone course, but the chair of the department, John Mace, will have to approve the course as a capstone before the student registers for the course.

“Variations in expectations/implementation among faculty members and limited student research presentation opportunities have led to instances where students receive credit for taking PSY 4100, a capstone course, when they have not completed the required capstone experiences in this course,” according to the revision proposal.

For the change to the psychology minor, the council approved the request to “add PSY 3820, Cognitive Neuroscience, to the list of courses that fulfill the Group B requirement for the psychology minor.”

The PSY 3820 course acts in cooperation with PSY 3680 to fulfill the Group B requirement for students. Group B fulfills the biological sciences portion of the program.

Anabela Maia, a biology professor, presented the council with the request to add two new courses, BIO 2210, Anatomy and Physiology I and BIO 2220, Anatomy and Physiology II.

BIO 2210 and 2220 “cover the structure and function of cells and tissues, and a systematic approach to the integumentary, skeletal, muscular, nervous, and endocrine systems,” according to the course proposal.

After approving the courses, the council approved amending two majors, biological sciences and clinical laboratory sciences, to include the new BIO 2220 course as a core part of the curriculums.

Jack Cruikshank can be reached at 581-2812 or jdcruikshank@eiu.edu.