Colgate University
AC-2: Learning Outcomes

All of Colgate University's Bachelor of Arts degree programs exist within the Colgate liberal arts curriculum. Regardless of which major(s) and minor(s) they pursue, students are made to explore evolving links between disciplines and apply principles of modern thought as they engage with significant questions surrounding the human experience.

Colgate's liberal arts curriculum continues to be guided by the "13 Goals of a Colgate Education" that was approved in 2010 by Colgate's Academic Affairs Board. Each of these goals is considered and incorporated into the learning outcomes of the core curriculum and every individual degree program. The following learning goals directly or indirectly incorporate principles or concepts of sustainability.

3. A Colgate education will enable a student to conduct interdisciplinary inquiry: synthesize viewpoints from multiple disciplinary perspectives so as to overcome the limitations of any one perspective.

5. Investigate human behavior, social relations, and institutions in order to understand the complex relationship between self and society.

6. Examine natural phenomena using the methods of science, and understand the role of science in contemporary society.

10. Be engaged citizens and strive for a just society: embrace their responsibilities to local, national, and global communities; use their influence for the benefit of others.

11. Respect nature and the diversity of life on earth: recognize their individual and collective responsibilities for the stewardship of the earth’s resources and the natural environment.

The institution-level sustainability learning outcomes that are outlined in the "13 Goals of a Colgate Education" are directly integrated into the core curriculum class "Challenges of Modernity", which is required for every Colgate student to take and pass within their first or second year. The following paragraph describes the course material covered and tested within "Challenge of Modernity".

"Modernity is a crucial element of the intellectual legacy to which we are heirs. A matrix of intellectual, social, and material forces that have transformed the world over the last quarter millennium, modernity has introduced new problems and possibilities into human life. Within modernity, issues of meaning, identity, and morality have been critiqued in distinctive ways. People of different social classes, racial groups, ethnic backgrounds, genders and sexual identities have contributed to an increasingly rich public discourse. The human psyche has been problematized, and the dynamic character of the world, both natural and social, has been explored. Urbanization and technological development have transformed the environments of everyday life. Imperialism has had a complex and lasting impact on the entire globe. The human capability to ameliorate social and physical ills has increased exponentially, and yet so has the human capacity for mass destruction and exploitation. In this course, taught by an interdisciplinary staff, students explore texts from a variety of media that engage with the ideas and phenomena central to modernity. To ensure a substantially common experience for students, the staff each year chooses texts to be taught in all sections of the course. This component of the Core Curriculum encourages students to think broadly and critically about the world that they inhabit, asking them to see their contemporary concerns in the perspective of the long-standing discourses of modernity."

Our first step was to analyze and compile all the degree programs that REQUIRE participants to complete a sustainability-focused course (as per sustainability-focused designation in AC-1).

We also analyzed degree programs that have been identified as sustainability-focused programs (per AC-3). As a part of this process, we made the extra effort to research each Colgate University degree program webpage, including required courses and course descriptions in order to understand which programs have concrete sustainability-focused learning outcomes. For courses or programs that we were unsure of, we contacted the program chair(s) to clarify and confirm which programs have sustainability-focused learning outcomes.

Lastly, once we had our list of degree programs that either had a sustainability-focused course requirement or the program itself was sustainability-focused, we reached out to Colgate University's registrar's office for a full list of 2020 graduates in one or more of these programs.

ALST: African American Studies Emphasis Major
ALST: African Studies Emphasis Major
ALST: Caribbean Studies Emphasis Major
ALST: Latin American Studies Emphasis Major
ARTS: Architecture Minor
Anthropology Major
Anthropology Minor
Astrogeophysics Major
Biology Major
Education Studies Major
Education Studies Minor
Elementary Teaching Certificate
Environmental Studies Major
Environmental Studies Minor
Environmental Biology Major
Environmental Economics Major
Environmental Geography Major
Environmental Geology Major
Geology Major
Geography Major
Geography Minor
Japanese Major
Molecular Biology Major
Native American Studies Major
Native American Studies Minor
Natural Sciences, Tropical Concentration: Marine Science- Freshwater Science Major
Secondary Teaching Certificate
Religion Major
Religion Minor
Russian and Eurasian Studies Major
Russian and Eurasian Studies Minor
Sociology Major
Sociology Minor
Women's Studies Major
Women's Studies Minor

Data above includes graduates from the class of 2021.