| Overall Rating | Gold - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 70.14 |
| Liaison | Lindsey Kalkbrenner |
| Submission Date | May 3, 2014 |
| Executive Letter | Download |
Santa Clara University
AC-1: Academic Courses
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
12.10 / 14.00 |
Lindsey
Kalkbrenner Director Center for Sustainability |
Figures required to calculate the percentage of courses with sustainability content::
| Undergraduate | Graduate | |
| Total number of courses offered by the institution | 3,205 | 1,296 |
| Number of sustainability courses offered | 67 | 15 |
| Number of courses offered that include sustainability | 571 | 125 |
Number of academic departments (or the equivalent) that offer at least one sustainability course and/or course that includes sustainability (at any level):
Total number of academic departments (or the equivalent) that offer courses (at any level):
Number of years covered by the data:
A copy of the institution’s inventory of its course offerings with sustainability content (and course descriptions):
An inventory of the institution's course offerings with sustainability content (and course descriptions):
The website URL where the inventory of course offerings with sustainability content is publicly available:
A brief description of the methodology the institution followed to complete the course inventory:
The inventory was conducted using academic year 2013-14 course offerings provided by the Registrar's Office. We followed the STARS 2.0 guidelines to exclude courses that should not be included in our inventory.
Courses were identified as Including Sustainability (IS) or Sustainability-Focused (SF) based on the following criteria:
1. Faculty Survey (FS).
Faculty were asked to self-identify their courses in a campus-wide survey distributed in December 2013.
2. Course attributes in the undergraduate Core Curriculum.
If a course is part of the Experiential Learning for Social Justice (I_ELSJ) or Diversity (E_DIV), Civic Engagement (E_CIV), or Ethics (E_ETH) components of the core curriculum, it was automatically tagged as IS.
This was followed by further review of each course's title and course description to clarify an accurate tag. Many courses were "un-tagged" during this process because we didn't feel a strong case for an "Includes Sustainability" tag.
3. Academic Pathways.
Several of our academic Pathways are inherently related to sustainability. If a course is part of one of these pathways, it was tagged as IS:
Applied Ethics (PATH_AE)
Food, Hunger, Poverty, Environment (PATH_FHP)
Global Health (PATH_GH)
Human Rights (PATH_HR)
Law & Social Justice (PATH_LSJ)
Leading People, Organizations, & Social Change (PATH_LPOS)
Race, Place, & Social Inequalities (PATH_RPSI)
Sustainability (PATH_SUST)
Values in Science & Technology (VST)
This was followed by further review of each course's title and course description to clarify an accurate tag. Some courses were "un-tagged" during this process because we didn't feel a strong case for an "Includes Sustainability" tag.
4. Earth Charter (EC)
Courses that weren't identified during processes 1-3 but appeared to include sustainability (based on course title) were reviewed using the Earth Charter (EC). Each course tagged IS according to the Earth Charter includes a rationale and identifies which Earth Charter component it meets.
5. Faculty Review (FR)
During the latter part of the inventory, faculty reviewed and provided further clarification regarding course tags.
6. Removing cross-listed courses.
Several courses are cross-listed with others. Though both had been tagged originally, this part of the inventory process removed the tag from one of the course pairs so we didn't double-count section offerings.
How did the institution count courses with multiple offerings or sections in the inventory?:
A brief description of how courses with multiple offerings or sections were counted (if different from the options outlined above):
Which of the following course types were included in the inventory?:
| Yes or No | |
| Internships | Yes |
| Practicums | No |
| Independent study | No |
| Special topics | Yes |
| Thesis/dissertation | No |
| Clinical | Yes |
| Physical education | No |
| Performance arts | Yes |
Does the institution designate sustainability courses in its catalog of course offerings?:
Does the institution designate sustainability courses on student transcripts?:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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.