Florida Gulf Coast University
AC-2: Learning Outcomes

FGCU was built to support the rapidly growing population of Southwest Florida and was founded with environmental sustainability at the heart of its mission. The original mission stated the following: 

The region in which the university will be located combines rapid population growth in a geographically constrained area, the Gulf of Mexico to the west and Lake Okeechobee to the east, with a unique and sensitive environment. The university, therefore, will be ideally suited to emphasize study of the environment. Building on a strong program at the undergraduate level, the university will have the opportunity to ultimately develop as a center for environmentally oriented graduate programs and research. (May 9, 1997) 

Over the years, our region has faced devastating hurricanes, deadly flooding, and a host of environmental disasters that have threatened the well-being of our community.  FGCU has always strived to provide students with the tools they require to understand sustainability and how to implement it into their work and daily life. Since the first day of classes at Florida Gulf Coast University, students have had the shared experience of taking a required sustainability course, University Colloquium: A Sustainable Future, which provides students the opportunity to consider the many aspects of sustainability, including the ecological, social, ethical, historical, scientific, economic, and political influences. 

In 2022, the Sustainability Task Force met because the University Colloquium, despite its many benefits, faced challenges in staffing and student scheduling.

The Task Force proposed three options for FGCU’s sustainability course requirement:

1.         strategically hiring more faculty to teach University Colloquium and to help meet additional needs within colleges and schools, 

2.         allowing students to choose between the Foundations of Civic Engagement course or the University Colloquium course to fulfill the graduation requirement, or 

3.         offering a menu of approved courses from which students select one course to fulfill the sustainability course graduation requirement. 

A campus-wide survey was completed by 1,700 respondents that included students, staff, and faculty. By a more than two-to-one margin, respondents favored the proposal to offer students greater flexibility in satisfying the sustainability course graduation requirement. 

The Integrated Studies Department in the College of Arts and Sciences will continue to offer sections of University Colloquium, and programs may choose to keep this as their Sustainability Course Graduation Requirement (SCGR). For faculty who would like to develop courses within their programs that fulfill the SCGR, the Sustainability Course Graduation Requirement Implementation Team has developed the framework to guide faculty through that process. The development of new courses and revision of existing courses to fulfill the sustainability graduation requirement has the potential to create opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration, creative problem-solving, and engagement in the community. Our aim is that this new generation of courses will reinvigorate our commitment to practicing and promoting sustainability throughout FGCU’s curriculum. 

FGCU has structured its curricula to emphasize the interrelationship of knowledge across disciplines and to provide students with the ability to think in whole systems and with the skills required to enter the workforce and public life as socially responsible and ecologically conscious citizens. The goal of FGCU’s sustainability courses is to offer students and faculty from all disciplines an academic learning experience that allows students to participate in the university’s sustainability mission, understood as examining, encouraging, and practicing environmental sustainability, embracing diversity in all its forms, nurturing community partnerships, valuing public service, and encouraging civic responsibility.

 To qualify as a course that receives FGCU’s sustainability course graduation requirement attribute, a course will need to meet all four for the following goals as well as provide specific objectives as they relate to the 4 SCGR Course GOALS:

Build knowledge: Demonstrate fundamental knowledge of issues, concepts and/or processes related to sustainability. 

Apply Knowledge: Demonstrate the ability to apply knowledge of sustainability issues, concepts, or processes to various contexts. 

Analyze and Synthesize: Demonstrate the ability to critique, investigate, and connect the relevance, interdependence, and dynamics of environmental, social and economic systems. 

Evaluate and Co-create: Demonstrate the ability to assess the personal and professional relevance of challenges to social, environmental, and economic sustainability and to collaborate with others to create solutions. 

Graduation rates for 2022-2023 were obtained from IPEDS 2022-23 Data Collection System.  Each program of study was also looked up individually for current program course requirements in addition to the University Colloquium course listed in part one of this subject.  Each program was also looked up on each of their respective websites to obtain their listed program level relevant student learning outcomes and are listed on the attached spreadsheet.

See attached spreadsheet