Michigan State University
AC-1: Academic Courses

The following course types were excluded from both the sustainability course inventory and the total course count: (1) Courses with 4 or fewer students; (2) Individually direct courses (thesis, independent study, research credits, directed studies, internships, clerkships) and special topics courses (typically associated with course codes 490-499, 890-899, and 990-999); and (3) practice-oriented courses in medicine, nursing, veterinary medicine, art, performing arts, and music. This resulted in 24 departments being excluded from the total course count and inventory because all of their course offerings during the reporting period either had four or fewer students enrolled, were individually directed courses, or were practice-oriented courses. This was especially apparent in departments within the College of Human Medicine and College of Osteopathic Medicine where an overwhelming majority of offered courses are clinical in nature, clerkships, or directed studies. The course inventory file includes a tab that further details exclusions from the course inventory.

In addition to traditional departments, MSU's primary colleges (College of Agriculture and Natural Resources; College of Arts and Letters; College of Communication Arts and Sciences; College of Education; College of Engineering; College of Natural Science; College of Social Science; Eli Broad College of Business; College of Human Medicine; College of Osteopathic Medicine; College of Veterinary Medicine) directly administer courses at MSU. These 11 colleges were treated as departments for this reason. The Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education (APUE) also offers courses at MSU and was also treated as a department. This brings the total number of academic departments that offer courses to 81.

For both the total course count and the sustainability course offerings, courses were only counted once. Duplicates were removed.

This keyword list was provided to the Registrar to identify possible new courses for inclusion on the sustainability course inventory. Each course was examined for sustainability content for inclusion in the inventory.
• agricultural
• agriculture
• climate
• community
• conservation
• culture
• diversity
• ecological
• ecology
• ecosystem
• environment
• environmental
• equality
• equity
• fisheries
• food systems
• forestry
• gender
• global
• globalization
• human rights
• indigenous
• inequality
• movements
• poverty
• race
• social change
• social justice
• sustainability
• sustainable
• wildlife

N/A

Please note that the total number of academic departments differs from what is listed in PRE-5 given several departments only offered courses that were practice-oriented, directed studies or had four or fewer students enrolled. The inventory has a tab to document excluded departments.