Mills College
AC-2: Learning Outcomes

From https://catalog.mills.edu/undergraduate/academic-requirements/core-curriculum/

Core Curriculum Requirement: Foundational Skills
From the Learning Objective: Critical Analysis
Students will develop discernment, facility, and ethical responsibility in using information.

From the Learning Objective: Information Literacy/Information Technology Skills
Students will consider how and why some individuals or groups of individuals may be underrepresented or systematically marginalized within the systems that produce and disseminate information.

Core Curriculum Requirement: Ways of Knowing/Modes of Inquiry
From Learning Objective: Race, Gender, and Power
Students will demonstrate familiarity with the ways that marginalized communities have resisted structures of power through social movements, civic engagement, artistic expression, and scholarship.
Students will communicate effectively across differences with an understanding of their own social location.

From Learning Objective: Scientific Inquiry (SI) of Natural Systems
Students will be able to think critically by evaluating quantitative evidence or otherwise examine and interpret existing data or patterns from natural systems.

From Learning Objective: Language Other Than English (LOTE)
Students will engage in an exploration of their own culture and worldview and contrast it with those of another culture or worldview.

From Learning Objective: International Perspectives
Students will reflect on their value systems and way of understanding the world and understand that these are not universal.
Students will analyze the history, arts, politics, language, and economy of a non-Western national context using scholarly or creative perspectives from the culture being studied and demonstrate the ability to contrast these with dominant US perspectives.
Students will demonstrate knowledge of intellectual and/or creative contributions from at least one culture, country, or region outside of the United States.


Core Curriculum Requirement: Contributions to Knowledge and Community
From Learning Objective: Community Engagement
Students will apply concepts explored in the classroom in a practical context.
Students will demonstrate the ability to apply leadership competencies and skills through engagement with community organizations on projects that are meaningful to both the organizations and the students.
Students will develop the ability to engage in thoughtful, self-reflective, and ethical collaboration in a community setting.

From Learning Objective: Creativity, Innovation, and Experimentation
Students will produce innovative solutions to real-world problems.

Graduates from FY18-FY20

Environmental Studies and Environmental Science are the primary majors and minors with a sustainability focus. Both are offered at the undergraduate level.

Environmental Science Program Goals:
(https://www.mills.edu/academics/undergraduate/evs)
-Understand the concepts of thermodynamics, equilibrium, and mass balance as they relate to environmental change in multiple disciplines.
-Be able to apply concepts and facts from various disciplines to analyze environmental issues from a scientific viewpoint.
-Understand the principles behind the tools and techniques used to study chemical, biological, and geological systems in the laboratory or the field, and be able to interpret the data obtained using these tools and techniques.
-Be able to engage the primary scientific literature and to use its findings.
Have the ability to communicate scientific information in both oral and written modes.

Environmental Studies Program Goals: (https://www.mills.edu/academics/undergraduate/evst)
-Possess fundamental understanding of disciplines that are necessary to understand environmental issues. A single course need only address a single discipline, and need not specifically address environmental issues.
-Use knowledge from various disciplines to analyze environmental issues.
-Understand quantitative, laboratory, and field techniques which are used to study environmental issues.
-Possess the ability to communicate with clarity, conciseness, and coherence in both written and oral reports. The student will be sensitive to the needs of different audiences.

Other programs with sustainability learning outcomes:

Public Health and Health Equity
-Students will demonstrate understanding of social, economic, environmental, and legal factors that shape health inequities.

Masters in Business Administration
-Our graduates are committed to integrating ethical considerations into their management decisions and fostering ethical decision-making throughout their organizations.
-Our graduates are prepared to lead and manage organizations that thrive financially while generating social and environmental value.

Biology Major, Concentration in Concentration in Ecology, Evolution and Behavior
The concentration in ecology, evolution and behavior (EEB) provides biology majors with training at the intersections of ecology, evolutionary biology, and its related disciplines. The unifying theme of this concentration is the use of an evolutionary approach to explain biological phenomena in the natural world. Recent graduates have enrolled in masters and doctoral programs in animal behavior, conservation biology, ecology, evolution, marine biology, and natural resource and wildlife management.

Ethnic Studies Major/Minor
The department's curriculum promotes critical thinking and creative analysis through comparative study of the social, economic, cultural, and environmental concerns and contributions of American Indians and Alaska Natives, African Americans, Latinas/os and Chicanas/os, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders and Arab Americans.