Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 67.84
Liaison Noah Upchurch
Submission Date March 1, 2024

STARS v2.2

Catawba College
AC-1: Academic Courses

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 11.67 / 14.00 Noah Upchurch
Senior Sustainability Specialist
Center for the Environment
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Part 1. Sustainability course offerings

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 2,386 97
Number of sustainability-focused courses offered 114 3
Number of sustainability-inclusive courses offered 279 2

Percentage of courses that are sustainability course offerings:
16.03

Part 2. Sustainability course offerings by department

Total number of academic departments that offer courses:
19

Number of academic departments with sustainability course offerings:
15

Percentage of academic departments with sustainability course offerings:
78.95

Documentation

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?:
Three

A brief description of the methodology used to complete the course inventory :
The College's Registrar provided a listing of all courses from the 2021-2022, 2022-2023, and 2023-2024 academic years. Courses were first screened by catalog description and course title for keywords related to sustainability, sustainability challenges, and sustainable development goals to highlight clear connections to sustainability-focused and sustainability-inclusive coursework. Courses were then screened individually for content in their descriptions related to each United Nations Sustainable Development Goal. Department Chairs in various low-scoring areas were contacted and consulted to determine whether additional courses should be included because sustainability-related course content was not described in the limited space available for the Catalog Description.

How were courses with multiple offerings or sections counted for the figures reported above?:
Each offering or section of a course was counted as an individual course

A brief description of how courses with multiple offerings or sections were counted:
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Optional Fields 

Website URL where information about the sustainability course offerings is available:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
A note on Departments: After consulting with the College's Provost in 2022, the following categories were determined not to be departments: Honors, General Education, Humanities, and International Studies. These categories will be found in the course inventory under the "departments" classifier next to courses, but they do not represent a department at the institution. The few courses that fall under these categories are still included in our total count of courses and were checked for sustainability-related content.

To most accurately identify the number of opportunities that students at the College have to learn about sustainability, the College follows AASHE's recommendation that each course offering is counted as a separate course.

Courses originally listed in the curriculum but eventually canceled were removed from the database and the tally of courses offered. This credit aims to accurately determine the proportion of sustainability-focused and sustainability-inclusive course content that is actually offered to students by the institution.

Exclusions are noted within a tab labeled "Exclusions" in the submitted inventory file. The College followed the guidance noted in the course credit informational guide on exclusions. The guidelines are as follows: (i) medical courses dedicated to clinical practice; (ii) arts courses dedicated to performance, technique, or composition; (iii) physical education courses that are activity-based, and; (iv) honors theses and independent study courses may be excluded. The reason for each excluded course is listed on the "Exclusions" tab in the inventory sheet.

Coursework was initially screened by the College's Sustainability Specialists. The Sustainability Specialists then reviewed areas of interest with Department Chairs.

An additional internal review to ensure against double-counting was conducted. For more information on that process, please contact the responsible party.

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.