James Madison University
ER-9: Sustainability Learning Outcomes

N/A. The student learning outcomes are organized by the JMU Office of Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability (OESS) and approved by the vice-presidents who oversee the curricular and co-curricular areas. The OESS then supports voluntary inclusion of the outcomes in courses and the co-curriculum, for example via incentives provided for faculty development to include sustainability in courses. The Institute for Stewardship of the Natural World coordinates the assessment of outcomes.

While greening of operations is essential, as exemplified by JMU’s participation in the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, higher education institutions also have the additional and primary obligation of educating students. JMU’s assessment and outcomes project serves as an innovative model for how to broaden sustainability programming in higher education. This project addresses learning and development across the undergraduate experience and emphasizes the multi-disciplinary nature of environmental stewardship. The primary goals of this project are to measure JMU’s student environmental literacy progress and to strategically target future undergraduate environmental literacy efforts. The learning outcomes and assessment project measures the educational impact of university environmental literacy efforts and will contribute to behavior change over time. This focus on environmental literacy outcomes for undergraduates could reach far beyond the students’ activities on campus—impacting their places of employment and personal actions throughout their lifetimes. The learning outcomes state: "Graduating JMU students will: 1. Recognize the interdependence of humans and the environment. 2. Understand the health, socio-economic and ecological dimensions of environmental stewardship. 3. Understand how environmental problems are explored, and how solutions are developed and implemented. 4. Understand how environmental stewardship is and can be integrated into our lives."

Environmental stewardship is addressed in the context of the dimensions of sustainability as illustrated by the learning outcomes. These data are from the 2012-13 Common Data Set. They are the number of graduates with bachelor's degrees and total graduating students at other levels, respectively.