| Overall Rating | Gold |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 83.87 |
| Liaison | Yolanda Cieters |
| Submission Date | March 1, 2024 |
Seattle University
AC-1: Academic Courses
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
13.61 / 14.00 |
Yolanda
Cieters Associate Director CEJS |
"---"
indicates that no data was submitted for this field
Part 1. Sustainability course offerings
| Undergraduate | Graduate | |
| Total number of courses offered by the institution | 1,118 | 757 |
| Number of sustainability-focused courses offered | 103 | 40 |
| Number of sustainability-inclusive courses offered | 268 | 114 |
Percentage of courses that are sustainability course offerings:
28.00
Part 2. Sustainability course offerings by department
44
Number of academic departments with sustainability course offerings:
37
Percentage of academic departments with sustainability course offerings:
84.09
Documentation
Do the figures reported above cover one, two, or three academic years?:
Two
A brief description of the methodology used to complete the course inventory :
METHODOLOGY FOR CREATION OF AY 21-23 COURSE INVENTORY WITH CATEGORIZATIONS SUSTAINABILITY-FOCUSED, SUSTAINABILITY-INCLUSIVE, NO SUSTAINABILITY (see attached Excel sheet):
1. The total number of courses offered by SU in academic years 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 was obtained from SU’s Institutional Research team. The count was: 6586 courses for Undergraduate Studies and 4024 for Graduate Studies and Law.
2. We then excluded many courses from our count following the STARS technical manual and guidelines. Courses that are excluded from the count are:
• Individually directed courses (independent study, internships, research projects, thesis/doctoral projects, study abroad, simulations, senior synthesis, capstones)
• Strictly practice-oriented courses (labs, practicums, field experience, studios)
• Duplicate courses - Duplicate courses refer to courses with multiple sections of the same course. For example, ACCT-2300 may have been offered twice in the fall, three times in the winter, and once in the spring. This means that there would be 6 total ACCT-2300 reflected in the data. Only one of these sections would be counted and categorized as sustainability focused/inclusive.
• EDPD courses were not included because they are non-degree granting, non-credit courses or programs.
• Special topics courses with no course description or section short title were not included in the count. This is because they were unable to be differentiated from one another and therefore it is impossible to tell if they were duplicates or not.
• NOTE 1: Cross listed courses were counted as separate courses, not duplicates, and received their own sustainability ratings.
• NOTE 2: University Core (UCOR) courses were determined to be duplicates through the SEC_COMMENTS column. If courses had the same name in that column, any sections following the first would be considered a duplicate and would therefore not be included.
After excluding all of the above, the total count of courses at the Undergraduate level was 1118; the total count of courses at the Graduate level and Law was 757. (See table above in this credit)
3. The "sustainability-focused courses", "sustainability-inclusive" or “no sustainability” categorizations were made as follows:
• In Spring 2023, all course descriptions were reviewed by one CEJS staff member and one CEJS student intern using the definition of sustainability-focused or sustainability-inclusive (including the definition of "sustainability challenges") as provided in the STARS technical manual.
• In Fall 2023, we sent our list with categorizations to all Department/Program chairs of all schools/colleges at SU and asked to review and edit/correct where needed.
• In Winter 2024, we incorporated the responses from the Department/Program Chairs in the course inventory by updating/correcting our initial categorizations accordingly.
The final inventory of courses and their categorizations can be found in the attached Excel sheet.
1. The total number of courses offered by SU in academic years 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 was obtained from SU’s Institutional Research team. The count was: 6586 courses for Undergraduate Studies and 4024 for Graduate Studies and Law.
2. We then excluded many courses from our count following the STARS technical manual and guidelines. Courses that are excluded from the count are:
• Individually directed courses (independent study, internships, research projects, thesis/doctoral projects, study abroad, simulations, senior synthesis, capstones)
• Strictly practice-oriented courses (labs, practicums, field experience, studios)
• Duplicate courses - Duplicate courses refer to courses with multiple sections of the same course. For example, ACCT-2300 may have been offered twice in the fall, three times in the winter, and once in the spring. This means that there would be 6 total ACCT-2300 reflected in the data. Only one of these sections would be counted and categorized as sustainability focused/inclusive.
• EDPD courses were not included because they are non-degree granting, non-credit courses or programs.
• Special topics courses with no course description or section short title were not included in the count. This is because they were unable to be differentiated from one another and therefore it is impossible to tell if they were duplicates or not.
• NOTE 1: Cross listed courses were counted as separate courses, not duplicates, and received their own sustainability ratings.
• NOTE 2: University Core (UCOR) courses were determined to be duplicates through the SEC_COMMENTS column. If courses had the same name in that column, any sections following the first would be considered a duplicate and would therefore not be included.
After excluding all of the above, the total count of courses at the Undergraduate level was 1118; the total count of courses at the Graduate level and Law was 757. (See table above in this credit)
3. The "sustainability-focused courses", "sustainability-inclusive" or “no sustainability” categorizations were made as follows:
• In Spring 2023, all course descriptions were reviewed by one CEJS staff member and one CEJS student intern using the definition of sustainability-focused or sustainability-inclusive (including the definition of "sustainability challenges") as provided in the STARS technical manual.
• In Fall 2023, we sent our list with categorizations to all Department/Program chairs of all schools/colleges at SU and asked to review and edit/correct where needed.
• In Winter 2024, we incorporated the responses from the Department/Program Chairs in the course inventory by updating/correcting our initial categorizations accordingly.
The final inventory of courses and their categorizations can be found in the attached Excel sheet.
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:
All duplicate courses were removed from the total list of courses. Duplicate courses refer to courses with multiple sections of the same course. For example, ACCT-2300 may have been offered twice in the fall, three times in the winter, and once in the spring. This means that there would be 6 total ACCT-2300 reflected in the data. Only one of these sections has been counted and categorized.
NOTE: University Core (UCOR) courses were determined to be duplicates through the SEC_COMMENTS column. If courses had the same name in that column, any sections following the first would be considered a duplicate and would therefore not be included.
NOTE: University Core (UCOR) courses were determined to be duplicates through the SEC_COMMENTS column. If courses had the same name in that column, any sections following the first would be considered a duplicate and would therefore not be included.
Optional Fields
---
Additional documentation to support the submission:
---
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
NOTE 1: For # of Departments, the number in this credit is "44" which is different from the number in PRE-5, that is "49":
--We excluded three departments from the count in this credit AC 1 because they offered zero courses in the past two years.
--We excluded two departments from the count in this credit AC 1 because they offered less than 3 courses in the past two years.
--We excluded three departments from the count in this credit AC 1 because they offered zero courses in the past two years.
--We excluded two departments from the count in this credit AC 1 because they offered less than 3 courses in the past two years.
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.