State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry
AC-1: Academic Courses

As part of ESF’s participation in the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating System (AASHE STARS), ESF maintains a list of all academic courses offered at the college that meet the AASHE definitions of “Sustainability Courses” and “Courses that Include Sustainability.” In compliance with AASHE reporting criteria, this list contains the course title, department (or equivalent), course level, and a brief description that (along with the course title) indicates how sustainability is the focus of the course or integrated into the course. Courses can be one of the two classifications, but not both. For a full description of the STARS credit (AC-1) associated with this list, please refer to the STARS Technical Manual starting on page 24: https://stars.aashe.org/pages/about/technical-manual.html.

Efforts to fulfill this reporting requirement and demonstrate ESF’s commitment to sustainability and the depth to which sustainability is incorporated into courses across the curriculum have been ongoing for several years, using the framework of STARS versions 1.x. In 2011, a team of staff, students, faculty and administrators conducted a thorough assessment of courses and surveyed faculty, requesting they self-classify their courses, as part of the self-study for Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) reaccreditation: “Advancing Sustainability at ESF.” Subsequent surveys of faculty and additional analyses to update the list were conducted from 2012-2014 by staff from the ESF Sustainability Office.

The most recent update to this course list has been prepared for ESF’s 2016 STARS submission, under the revised criteria and reporting guidelines of STARS 2.0. Staff from the ESF Sustainability Office reviewed previous course assessments in the context of the current reporting guidelines with consideration of best practices for reporting exemplified by other schools, and updated ESF’s course list accordingly. The primary update to the course list in 2016 was to add numerous courses that fit the current definitions of “Sustainability Courses” (formerly “Sustainability-Focused Courses”) and “Courses That Include Sustainability” (formerly “Sustainability-Related Courses”). A small number of courses were switched from one classification to the other, or removed from the list because they are not currently being offered and do not appear in the online course catalog. For courses with multiple offerings or sections, each course is counted as a single course, regardless of the number of offerings or sections. Courses offered as dual undergraduate/graduate courses are counted as two seperate courses. The current list was reviewed by the Associate Provost for Instruction and Interim Provost and Executive Vice President, then sent to ESF Department Chairs for further review, who worked with faculty members and the Sustainability Office on the classification of individual courses as appropriate.

In compliance with STARS 2.0 reporting criteria, this list is made publicly available via the ESF registrar’s website (http://www.esf.edu/sustainability/courses.htm). Future assessments and updates of this list will be conducted by the Sustainability Office as part of regular STARS submissions, in consultation with ESF administrators, department chairs and faculty.