Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 74.33
Liaison Austin Eriksson
Submission Date Dec. 10, 2018
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

California State University, Northridge
AC-1: Academic Courses

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 14.00 / 14.00 Sarah Johnson
Sustainability Program Analyst
Institute for Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Figures required to calculate the percentage of courses offered by the institution that are sustainability course offerings:
Undergraduate Graduate
Total number of courses offered by the institution 1,915 937
Number of sustainability courses offered 98 33
Number of courses offered that include sustainability 454 79

Percentage of courses that are sustainability course offerings:
23.28

Total number of academic departments (or the equivalent) that offer courses (at any level):
87

Number of academic departments (or the equivalent) that offer at least one sustainability course and/or course that includes sustainability (at any level):
79

Percentage of academic departments with sustainability course offerings:
90.80

A copy of the institution’s inventory of its sustainability course offerings and descriptions:
Do the figures reported above cover one, two, or three academic years?:
One

A brief description of the methodology used to determine the total number of courses offered and to identify sustainability course offerings, including the definitions used and the process for reviewing and/or validating the course inventory :

A listing of all courses taught in 2015 was obtained and joined to the catalog text for each course, which contained course descriptions. A keyword search was carried out on the catalog descriptions using 144 keywords associated with sustainability. The keyword list was developed by the Sustainability Advisory Committee at the University of North Carolina for this purpose, and presented at the AASHE 2014 conference.

Sustainability-focused courses were identified as those meeting one of three criteria:
1. designated SUST courses (developed for the Minor in Sustainability)
2. all electives approved for inclusion in the Minor by Sustainability Curriculum Committee
3. courses with descriptions containing 5 or more of the keywords

Courses determined to be related to sustainability were those with descriptions containing 3 or more keywords plus any other courses not included above which met GE SLOs related to sustainability.

Courses that met inclusion criteria based on the keyword search but were not deemed relevant based on our review of the course descriptions were removed from each category.

A list of all courses added since 2015 was obtained and analyzed using the above methodology. It was determined that a total of 182 courses were added to the CSUN course offerings, of which 28 focus on sustainability and 48 include sustainability.


How were courses with multiple offerings or sections counted for the figures reported above?:
Each course was counted as a single course regardless of the number of offerings or sections

A brief description of how courses with multiple offerings or sections were counted (if different from the options outlined above):
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Are the following course types included in the inventory? :
Yes (included) or No (not included)
Internships No
Practicums Yes
Independent study No
Special topics Yes
Thesis / dissertation No
Clinical Yes
Physical education No
Performance arts No

The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
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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.