Overall Rating Silver
Overall Score 56.94
Liaison Scott Morgan
Submission Date Dec. 21, 2023

STARS v2.2

Evergreen State College, The
AC-1: Academic Courses

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 14.00 / 14.00 Emma Wright
Graduate Sustainability Fellow
Office of Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Figures required to calculate the percentage of courses offered by the institution that are sustainability course offerings:
Undergraduate Graduate
Total number of courses offered by the institution 306 65
Number of sustainability-focused courses offered 20 13
Number of sustainability-inclusive courses offered 43 2

Percentage of courses that are sustainability course offerings:
21.02

Total number of academic departments that offer courses:
4

Number of academic departments with sustainability course offerings:
4

Percentage of academic departments with sustainability course offerings:
100

A copy of the institution’s inventory of its sustainability course offerings and descriptions:
Do the figures reported above cover one, two, or three academic years?:
One

A brief description of the methodology used to complete the course inventory :

The inventory was created for 2022-2023 offerings with the course catalog as of April 2023.

Most Evergreen undergraduate courses are interdisciplinary 8 - 16 credit programs that cover more than just one subject. Full-time, 16 credit, programs combine subjects taught by several faculty from different fields. A program connects these fields with an overarching theme, reflecting the interconnectedness of the real world. As such, Faculty identify themes and subject matter in the class listings. Students may search the catalog and identify classes that include a desired topic.

Sustainability content may include:
- "Living within limits" (for example, reducing consumption)
- Understanding the interconnections among economy, society, and environment
- Equitable distribution of resources and opportunities
- Focus on social equity and welfare
- Critical thinking about environmental problems and/or the climate crisis

The following courses or sections were excluded from the total count, per allowed guidelines:
- Internships, capstone studies, and other independent or self-directed courses
- Arts courses focused solely on "performance, technique, or composition"
- Trade and craft courses (e.g. woodworking)
- Cancelled courses

Graduate-level courses are classified according to their graduate program (Master of Public Administration, Master of Environmental Studies, or Master in Teaching). Because there are no specific departments at the undergraduate level, undergraduate courses are instead classified by the Path/s (if any) that they are listed under in the course catalog. Courses that are not classified under any particular Path are listed as "N/A" in the Department category.


How were courses with multiple offerings or sections counted for the figures reported above?:
Each offering or section of a course was counted as an individual course

A brief description of how courses with multiple offerings or sections were counted:

16 credit programs often span multiple quarters. If the same program was offered independently, either in individual sections or separate quarters, it was counted separately in the catalog.

For the purpose of this report, courses were counted by the same numbers as how they were listed in the catalog - if a course was listed separately in multiple sections, those sections were counted separately in this report. This was done consistently for sustainability-focused, sustainability-inclusive, and non-sustainability courses alike.

The 2022-2023 Evergreen course catalog listed 471 total courses at the time of this report. One course was cancelled prior to the beginning of the academic year, bringing the total number of courses to 470 (inclusive of both undergraduate and graduate).


Website URL where information about the sustainability course offerings is available:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

There is currently no URL that links to a comprehensive overview of all sustainability course offerings. Qualifying courses were therefore determined on a case-by-case basis.

Evergreen student transcript portfolios include narrative evaluations written by faculty for every class the student has taken. Those evaluations also indicate subject matter emphasis within the class, which may be different for individual students depending on their focus and direction. Only courses that explicitly stated a focus or a component of sustainability in their catalog description were included in the count of sustainability courses.


There is currently no URL that links to a comprehensive overview of all sustainability course offerings. Qualifying courses were therefore determined on a case-by-case basis.

Evergreen student transcript portfolios include narrative evaluations written by faculty for every class the student has taken. Those evaluations also indicate subject matter emphasis within the class, which may be different for individual students depending on their focus and direction. Only courses that explicitly stated a focus or a component of sustainability in their catalog description were included in the count of sustainability courses.

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.