Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 54.90
Liaison Leslie Raucher
Submission Date March 6, 2020

STARS v2.2

Barnard College
AC-2: Learning Outcomes

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.38 / 8.00
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Part 1. Institutional sustainability learning outcomes

Has the institution adopted one or more sustainability learning outcomes that apply to the entire student body or, at minimum, to the institution's predominant student body?:
Yes

Which of the following best describes the sustainability learning outcomes?:
Sustainability-supportive

A list of the institution level sustainability learning outcomes:
The academic journey at Barnard is shaped by the innovative Foundations curriculum. It is part of the college's general education requirements and is required for all students. The curriculum hones our students ability to skillfully interpret information and think critically about it, and then to powerfully communicate your ideas.

With Foundations, students explore international and global learning; quantitative, qualitative, and empirical reasoning; and complete a distinct technology requirement that sets Barnard apart.--

The following foundations are sustainability-supportive:

Thinking Locally—New York City
Requirement: One course that asks students to examine the community and environment in which they find themselves as residents of New York City.

Aim: This requirement encourages students to situate themselves in a local context. In this respect, New York is not just the backdrop of their undergraduate experience, but is equally a rich and diverse object of study in its own right. New York is both a wholly distinctive metropolis and a microcosm of contemporary world experience. The requirement can be met through the study of many topics, from the literature of the Harlem Renaissance to the ecosystems of the Hudson River, from the history of urban planning to the architecture of the Gilded Age.

Students who complete a course satisfying the Thinking Locally requirement should be able to attain at least one of the following outcomes:

Identify specific cultural, social, political, or economic institutions that have shaped the city over time
Identify distinctive geological or environmental factors that characterize the region
Describe the contexts and distinctive features of at least one author, genre, or tradition characteristic of New York City
Situate art, architecture, literature, urban planning, or performance within the social or historical context of the city
Explore theories of urban structure or form focusing on New York City as an exemplar

--Thinking through Global Inquiry
Requirement: One course that asks students to consider communities, places, and experiences beyond their immediate location.

Aim: This requirement asks students to engage with topics across the disciplines that consider the dynamic global relationships among people, ideas, artifacts, or physical phenomena. The subjects or objects of inquiry will span multiple regions, nations, cultures, ethnicities, races, religions, histories, or art forms. This requirement will encourage students to expand their perspectives on the world and their place in it, while complementing the Thinking Locally—New York City mode to highlight the ways in which global engagement involves a consideration of the local, as well as the global.

Students who complete a course satisfying the Thinking through Global Inquiry requirement should be able to attain at least one of the following outcomes:

Identify and analyze the ways in which a cultural, social, political, or economic event may have distinct effects in different locations
Articulate the distinctions among “local” and “international” and “global” in the context of one or more systems—e.g., economic, judicial, literary, philosophical, scientific
Identify and compare the value systems displayed in materials from multiple cultures
Identify and critique personal and/or national cultural assumptions and behaviors in relation to those of others
Identify and analyze the evidence of transnational, multicultural, or multilingual exchanges in materials from multiple cultures
Utilize multilingualism to investigate the construction of, and interactions among, multiple cultures

--Thinking about Social Difference
Requirement: One course through which students examine how difference is constituted, defined, lived, and challenged in cultural, social, historical, or regional contexts.

Aim: This requirement encourages students to engage with disparities of power and resources in all of their manifestations, including but not limited to access to economic or natural resources, political rights, social status, and cultural expression. Areas of study may include race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, ability, nationality, or religion and their intersections within contemporary and historical experience.

Students who complete a course satisfying the Thinking about Social Difference requirement should be able to attain at least one of the following outcomes:

Identify and critique ways that groups understand themselves to be different and how they mobilize difference in the pursuit of a range of ends
Identify and analyze the intersectional nature of differences in cultural, social, national, or international contexts
Identify and critique the modes in which such differences are expressed
Identify and articulate the relations between categories of difference and the general principles of hierarchy and inequality

Part 2. Program-level sustainability learning outcomes

Total number of graduates from degree programs:
680

Number of graduates from degree programs that require an understanding of the concept of sustainability:
32

A brief description of how the figure above was determined:
The figures, provided by Institutional Research and Assessment, includes students who completed a major in Environmental Science, Environmental Biology, Environment and Sustainability, Urban Studies with Specialization in Environmental Science, and History with a Concentration in Science, Technology, and the Environment in AY19.

A list of degree programs that require an understanding of the concept of sustainability:
Environmental Science
Environmental Biology
Environment and Sustainability (formerly Environmental Policy)
Urban Studies, Specialization in Environmental Science
History, Concentration in Science, Technology, and the Environment

Documentation supporting the figure reported above (upload):
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Do the figures reported above cover one, two, or three academic years?:
One

Percentage of students who graduate from programs that require an understanding of the concept of sustainability:
4.71

Optional Fields 

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