Luther College
AC-1: Academic Courses

Methodology for Sustainability Course Inventory:
In our Institutional Characteristics we report having 24 academic departments but for this portion of STARS we limited our scope to 23 academic departments. The only department excluded from this survey is music because it fell outside of our scope.

The registrar’s office provided lists of all courses taught at Luther College for the two preceding years - 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 - by department. These lists were uploaded onto Google Sheets in a shared folder. Each spreadsheet contained information including instructor, enrollment, term offered, etc. In order to focus on actual courses (not independent studies, music lessons, etc), Center for Sustainable Communities (CSC) staff eliminated courses that were offered for fewer than 4 credits. CSC staff put together a shared Google Folder for each department that contained data collection tools such as the course spreadsheets, instructions for completing the spreadsheet, and a Google Form for reporting sustainability-focused research. These folders were shared with the head of each academic department and/or a faculty member who had indicated a willingness to help with the inventory. The instructions provided are included at the end of this description. Each department head was asked to complete the inventory for their department in conversation with other faculty members, as needed. The Sustainability Coordinator regularly followed up with department contacts until all departments had completed their inventories. The Sustainability Coordinator and the Director of the Center for Sustainable Communities reviewed the reports to ensure an accurate inventory. We chose to count multiple sections separately, rather than as one course. The committee determined that this was the best way to accurately represent the impact of sustainability in our curriculum.
The full course inventory is uploaded as an Excel spreadsheet.

STARS Reporting: Instructions and Definitions for Faculty.
In Mid-October, 2021, Center for Sustainable Communities Director, Jon Jensen, gave a brief presentation at a faculty department heads meeting to introduce STARS, and to prepare Department heads to receive a survey. Several days later, the team sent this message: "As Jon Jensen explained at last Tuesday's Department Head meeting, we are requesting your assistance with Luther’s completion of the STARS inventory. This should not take more than a few minutes of time at a department meeting. We are asking that you complete your course inventory by Friday, November 19." This text was followed by a link to a spreadsheet of all their courses, as well as these instructions:

STARS Reporting: Instructions and Definitions for Faculty Fall 2021

Thank you for assisting with Luther’s completion of the STARS inventory. This document provides instructions for how to complete the course inventory. If you have questions after reading the instructions please contact Chris Frantsvog or Jon Jensen. Thanks!

What is STARS? The Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) is a transparent, self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance. The Center for Sustainable Communities (CSC) conducts a STARS report every 3 years. This report is used for various national rankings as well as serving as an internal check for Luther’s efforts.

How can you help? The CSC is collecting data about Luther courses. We need your help to determine, from your department to survey your courses (comprehensive definitions and examples follow):
Which courses are sustainability-focused
Which courses are sustainability-inclusive
Which courses use the Luther campus (land, infrastructure and/or operations) as a living laboratory.

What is Sustainability?
Luther defines sustainability broadly as integrated action to address environmental, economic, and social challenges in order to ensure a more just, equitable, and ecologically healthy world. Sustainability is not simply environmental but recognizes the intersectionality of challenges that include human and ecological systems, social justice and environmental health.

How do you know if your courses are sustainability-focused?
To count as sustainability-focused, the course title or description must indicate a primary and explicit
focus on sustainability or a sustainability challenge. This includes:
Courses with a primary and explicit focus on a major sustainability challenge (e.g., Climate Change Science, Environmental Justice, Global Poverty and Development, Renewable Energy Policy). The focus of such courses might be on providing knowledge and understanding of the problems and/or the tools for solving them.
Courses with a primary and explicit focus on sustainability (e.g., Sustainable Development) or courses with a focus on the application of sustainability within a field (e.g.,Green Chemistry, Environmental Anthropology or Environmental Economics).
The course title or description does not have to use the term “sustainability” if the primary focus of the course is on a major sustainability challenge (see below).

How do you know if your courses are sustainability-inclusive?
Courses that are not explicitly focused on sustainability may be included if sustainability or a sustainability challenge is clearly incorporated into course content. To be considered sustainability-inclusive, the course must:
incorporates a unit or module on sustainability or a sustainability challenge
Include one or more sustainability-focused activities, or
Integrate sustainability challenges, issues and concepts throughout the course
While a foundational course such as chemistry or sociology (or a practice like GIS) might provide knowledge or tools that are useful to practitioners of sustainability, it would not be considered “sustainability-inclusive” unless the concept of sustainability and/or sustainability challenges are specifically integrated into the course.

Part 2: Campus as a living laboratory. In addition to inventorying sustainability courses, STARS asks us to identify courses that experientially connect students to the campus.

How do you know if your course exemplifies Luther as a living laboratory?
Does your course merge academics with campus and community infrastructure, facilities, and/or operations in a multidisciplinary way? Does your applied learning include living laboratory projects that contribute to understanding or advancing sustainability in any of the ways below?

Areas to consider include: campus engagement, public engagement, air & climate, buildings, energy, food & dining, grounds purchasing, transportation, waste, water, coordination & planning, diversity & affordability, investment & finance, wellbeing & work.

Examples:
A student does a study with Facilities to analyze energy savings and alternatives
Students catalog insect species found on campus
Students complete a wage study to compare campus wages with local cost of living
Art students examine how creativity can inspire behavior change toward waste reduction
Students gather information on carbon offset opportunities for Luther
Students work with Dining Services to develop food waste reduction plans

What to do next:
1. Take a look at your department’s STARS folder. There will be one or more spreadsheets -- one for each disciplinary prefix (e.g. ANTH, BIO)
2. In the spreadsheet, find your 2019-20 and 2020-2021 courses. In the columns provided, indicate (with an X on the spreadsheet) which of your courses, if any, would qualify as sustainability-focused, courses that are sustainability-inclusive, and courses that use the campus/community as a living laboratory. If a course does not qualify, please make an X in the “No Sustainability Content” column so that I know you’ve finished reviewing that course!

We appreciate your help!

Chris Frantsvog
Center for Sustainable Communities
Sustainability Coordinator
franch05@luther.edu, extension 1722