University of Virginia
AC-1: Academic Courses

First, we created a spreadsheet of all courses offered in 2023 (J-term, Spring, Summer, Fall. Next, we deleted all course "TYPES" except Lecture, SEM (Seminar), and WKS (workshop) as permitted by STARS. Then we searched general sustainability keywords (sustainab, enviro, ecol, green, etc.) as well as keywords for each SDG in the course description. If the description contained at least one keyword and we felt the context of the keyword reflected sustainability, we indicated with a #1 in the relevant column. Our complete listing of keywords used can be found in the final tab of spreadsheet.

After totalling the number of keywords found in course description, we used our best judgement to determine if the courses with 1 or more keywords seemed sustainability focused versus sustainability inclusive. If the course description contained no keywords, we highlighted the row in red to indicate a non-sustainability related course.

Then we removed some courses from the inventory as permitted by STARS. We searched and removed mnemonics corresponding to phys ed, drama performance, dance performance, and music performance. Then we searched the word "clinic" in title and removed all results (medical and nursing courses related to clinical practice). Finally, we removed all courses with enrollment of 4 or less. Our last step was separating undergraduate courses and graduate courses into separate tabs.

NOTE: The number of departments in this credit differs from that presented in PRE-5 because the course data did not contain a "department" column. Thus, we considered the "mnemonic" data field (four letters indicating the general field such as "RELG") as a 'department'. There are more mnemonics than there are departments.

Courses with multiple offerings were counted each time they were offered. This method is also refelected in the total number of undergraduate and graduate courses.

Data was downloaded from UVA's Lou's List, the most commonly used platform for searching course inventories at the University. Lou's List pulls data from the official registrar's platform, SIS, and is widely known to be an accurate reflection of courses offered at UVA.

NOTE (same as in methodology): the data available to us did not contain a "department" column. We felt it would be too cumbersome to determine the department of each course, so we considered "mnemonic" as an alternative data field. There are more mnemonics than there are departments, which is why in Part 2 both the "Total number of academic departments that offer courses" and "Number of academic departments with sustainability course offerings" are both higher than might otherwise be expected.