Overall Rating Silver
Overall Score 62.34
Liaison Christie-Joy Hartman
Submission Date Jan. 27, 2022

STARS v2.2

James Madison University
AC-1: Academic Courses

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 6.00 / 14.00 Essa Paterson
Program Coordinator
ISNW
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

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 2,351 742
Number of sustainability-focused courses offered 38 3
Number of sustainability-inclusive courses offered 105 20

Percentage of courses that are sustainability course offerings:
5.37

Part 2. Sustainability course offerings by department

Total number of academic departments that offer courses:
45

Number of academic departments with sustainability course offerings:
26

Percentage of academic departments with sustainability course offerings:
57.78

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?:
One

A brief description of the methodology used to complete the course inventory :
Essa Paterson, ISNW, created the course inventory following a methodology consistent with the 2018 STARS report as follows. Courses from the December 2018 STARS report were used as a starting point. Courses from that inventory that were no longer in the current undergraduate and graduate catalogs were removed. Current catalogs were then searched to identify new courses that met the criteria, and these courses were added to the inventory. Next, it was confirmed that courses in the inventory were offered. A list of 18-19 course offering was obtained from the Registrar. Only courses offered in 18-19 academic year were kept in the inventory.

For any course where it was unclear from catalog information whether the course met the criteria, the faculty members who taught a course were asked to provide either (1) a syllabus or (2) a description of whether sustainability was included in the course. Essa Paterson corresponded with Jordan Schanda at AASHE on April 20, 2019 confirming that courses that address a Sustainable Development Goal would count as sustainability-inclusive at least. Accordingly, corresponding SDGs were identified on the attached inventory spreadsheet in the "Rationale" column where needed.

Courses were categorized as sustainability-focused or sustainability-inclusive by ISNW staff independently and any differences in classification were discussed and resolved. Justification was provided for courses categorized as focused.

All courses, including practicums, internships, clinicals, special topics, performance arts, physical education, thesis/dissertation courses, and independent studies were included in the list of sustainability courses and in the the list of total university courses.

On the list of sustainability courses and the list of total university courses, courses were counted in all the departments in which they were listed, e.g., BIO 400 and GEOL 400 (which are same course) are included and counted under the Department of Biology and the Department of Geology & Environmental Science, respectively.

Courses offered at the academic division level were not counted in AC 1, Part 2: number of academic departments with sustainability course offerings, since they are not offered by a department equivalent.

How were courses with multiple offerings or sections counted for the figures reported above?:
Each course was counted as a single course regardless of the number of offerings or sections

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:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Analysis completed by Essa Paterson, ISNW, November 22, 2021.

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.