Parental leave consists of three work-weeks of paid time off. Employees may also use sick leave, annual leave and any short-term disability benefits. Parental leave can be taken any time within the first year — however, the change requires the leave to be taken all at once.

The change also allows birth mothers who do not have sufficient accrued sick or annual leave special leave granted with pay.

The proposal specifically expands paid parental leave for adoptive parents.

Faculty Council also expanded the leave for catastrophic circumstances, which are defined as “an extraordinary, disastrous event or situation that was not reasonably foreseeable, or that resulted from a serious illness and that caused the employee to be unable to work for a period of at least two weeks.”

The policy requires an employee to exhaust all other leave options before requesting catastrophic leave and may only last two weeks.

PhD in Communication:

Faculty Council approved the creation of a new degree, a PhD in communication. The degree will be effective in the fall of 2017. According to the wording of the proposal, the program trains students to “engage social, political and professional challenges using advanced expertise in the field of communication.”

The program will build on CSU’s nationally-recognized master’s program in communication, according to the proposal.

The degree will focus on three areas of expertise:

1. Interpersonal, intercultural and organizational communication
2. Media and visual culture
3. Rhetoric and civil engagement

“The growth (of the communication studies departments) can be attributed to the ways in which the discipline responds to the challenges of the 21^st century,” the proposal stated.

Center for Meaning and Purpose:

A new academic unit under the department of psychology was created Tuesday night. According to the wording of the proposal, the mission of the Center for Meaning and Purpose (CMAP) is to become a leading resource in applying science toward enabling people to create meaning, well-being, positive health and quality of life.

According to the proposal, CMAP aims to:

• Create undergraduate positive psychology courses
• Build a master’s program in positive psychology
• Research areas related to well-being, happiness, health and quality of life
• Educate the local community on well-being

Application Process for Graduate Students:

Faculty council approved a proposal to simplify the application process to graduate school.

Applicants will no longer have to submit transcripts of collegiate work during high school, and separate transcripts are no longer required for study abroad credits if the university that sponsored the study abroad program recorded the GPA and credits.

Collegian Reporter Erin Douglas can be reached at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @erinmdouglas23.