College of Charleston
AC-2: Learning Outcomes

The College of Charleston's current Quality Enhancement Plan (“Sustainability Literacy as a Bridge to Addressing 21st Century Problems") is a campus-wide reaccreditation campaign that helps the university meet standards set by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. Every 10 years, SACSCOC mandates universities plan and implement a unifying initiative, approved by the university's executive leadership team, with broad campus buy-in and reach. In Charleston, that team included the President, Provost and Executive Vice President of Business Affairs, amongst others.

Reviewed and committed to by leaders at the highest level of our institution, this QEP has five (5) goals and seven (7) student learning outcomes that apply to the entire student undergraduate body. The five goals are:

1) Build Awareness of the three systems of the Triple Bottom Line of sustainability and how these three systems are related to one another.
2) Cultivate sustainability literacy by developing students’ fluency in systems thinking.
3) Demonstrate the impact of production and consumption practices on the three systems of the Triple Bottom Line.
4) Demonstrate the impact of production and consumption practices on the three systems of the Triple Bottom Line.
5) Students advocate for resiliency at the individual, institutional, community, national or international level

Student learning outcomes were formulated to assess these goals. The student learning outcomes are:

1a) Students identify the three systems of sustainability and the relationship between them.
1b) Students identify key ways to be more sustainable in their personal life and on campus.
2a) Student identify policies and practices that have led to unsustainability.
2b) Student synthesize knowledge from two or more systems to address a sustainability problem.
3a) Students demonstrate the impact of production/consumption practices on social,
economic and/or ecological systems.
4a) Students design a solution to a given sustainability problem.
5a) Students advocate for resiliency at the individual, institutional, community, national or
international level.

The university advances this first of five goals and this first of seven student learning outcomes by engaging in teaching modules presented to all first-year College of Charleston students, and student learning and comprehension is assessed by a formal survey.

The figure above was determined by totaling the number of graduates from the programs below using the figures the College reports to IPEDS from academic year 2021-2022.

Historic Preservation and Community Planning
Business Administration
Entrepreneurship
Leadership for Sustainability
Hospitality and Tourism Management
Public Health
Environmental and Sustainability Studies
Crime, Law and Society
Anthropology
Urban Studies
Women's and Gender Studies
Geology
Cultural Sustainability Certificate
Sustainability and 21st Century Business Solutions Certificate