Auburn University
AC-1: Academic Courses

Starting in September 2018, and using the online Schedule of Courses for each semester, staff members in Academic Sustainability Programs compiled lists of all courses offered by each department on campus during Spring 2016-Fall 2018 (3 full years). Then, we removed all courses that were online-only, outreach courses that were not taught in person on campus (= courses ending in 06), and laboratory-only courses (ending in 01) that must be taken together with lecture courses, so that linked laboratory and lecture courses were counted together as one course each. We also excluded courses in which students did not meet as a group formally with instructors, such as independent study and individual senior capstone project courses. We were left with all courses taught in person on campus in which instructors met formally with groups of students for regular instruction.
In December, faculty representatives from each college then examined the course lists, communicated with other faculty in their colleges about course content, and determined which courses were sustainability-focused and sustainability-related, using the Auburn University definitions for these course types. We added notes concerning course content to these lists, to explain what types of content justified the inclusion of each course in each of these 2 categories. In December, we also sent an all-professors email notice, to ask all faculty for any updates or corrections to the draft lists that were posted online. We then added in these course updates and corrections.
The total number and percent of sustainability courses of both types were revised for each department, and the finalized course lists with the content notes and calculations were posted online.
Please note that the total number of academic departments (or the equivalent), which is reported here for AC-1 (74 units), is larger than the number listed in IC-3 and AC-9 (58 units).
This is because for the course inventories here, academic units were counted as each unit if they had a distinct academic program, in terms of a cohesive set of courses and degree types offered. As such, this number is larger than the number of formal academic departments at the university. See documents at the web link above for details. Contact the Director of Academic Sustainability Programs, Dr. Chadwick, if any questions.

We included special topics courses that stated a specific topic focus in the course title. These types of courses often include new courses that do not have permanent course numbers yet. If the course title and content clearly related to sustainability, we included them as sustainability courses, or as courses that included sustainability, based on the above definitions.

NOTE: In our inventories, "Sustainability Courses" are listed as "Sustainability-Focused Courses", and "Courses that Include Sustainability" are listed as "Sustainability-Related Courses".

ALSO NOTE: That a description of the sustainability content of each of these 2 types of courses is given in the spreadsheet for each DEPARTMENT inside of the excel file for each COLLEGE OR SCHOOL, that is visible as a link on our course inventory site:
http://acadsustain.auburn.edu/2016-2018-course-inventory/

The detailed course descriptions DO NOT appear in the Campus-Wide Summary file of courses in all colleges.

Finally, please NOTE that the total number of academic departments (or the equivalent), which is reported here for AC-1 (74 units), is larger than the number listed in IC-3 and AC-9 (58 units).
This is because for the course inventories here, academic units were counted as each unit if they had a distinct academic program, in terms of a cohesive set of courses and degree types offered. As such, this number is larger than the number of formal academic departments at the university. See documents at the web link above for details. Contact the Director of Academic Sustainability Programs, Dr. Chadwick, if any questions.