Seattle University
AC-9: Research and Scholarship

See attached Excel file: "AC-9 STARS FINAL_02-28-2024"

1. To create the inventory of sustainability research at SU (attached Excel file):
• A sustainability research survey was created and sent out to faculty at all SU Colleges/Schools during spring quarter 2023. The main question was:
“In the last three years (AY20-21, AY21-22, AY22-23), did you engage in any scholarship, including peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations, community-based research, public scholarship, or creative works related to SUSTAINABILITY*:
*Following the reporting criteria set by STARS (Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System) RESEARCH AND OTHER FORMS OF SCHOLARSHIP ON SUSTAINABILITY TOPICS refers to research and scholarship that (a) explicitly addresses the concept of sustainability, OR (b) that furthers our understanding of the interdependence of ecological and social/economic systems, OR (c) that has a primary and explicit focus on a major sustainability challenge, i.e. one or more of the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (for example, “responsible consumption and production,” “zero hunger,” “reduced inequalities,” “life on land,”…)”
• We reviewed all faculty scholarship (from AY 2020-2021, 2021-2022, 2022-2023) on the Seattle University Library’s database and used the same criteria as above to determine whether to include works or not. See: https://library.seattleu.edu/guides/faculty_staff_scholarship
• CEJS (Center for Environmental Justice and Sustainability) Faculty Fellows are included in the data: https://www.seattleu.edu/cejs/cejs-fellowships/
• ICTC (Institute for Catholic Thought and Culture) Fellows who conduct research relating to sustainability were included in this data if the date of their research was within the last three years: https://www.seattleu.edu/ictc/faculty/research-fellowships/research-faculty-grant-recipients/
• Office for Sponsored Projects research projects relating to sustainability are included in the data
• Faculty members who were included in the sustainability research inventory that SU submitted to STARS in 2021 were reviewed and included again on this 2024 inventory IF the faculty member continued their sustainability research in the past three years.


2. For Total number of employees that conduct research: We obtained a list of all faculty for FY21, FY22 and FY23 from SU’s Institutional Research. We then reduced the list to ONLY Tenure and Tenure-track faculty members (that is, faculty members who do research at SU) and excluded any duplicate counts of faculty so that each faculty member was listed only once for the three fiscal years combined. Based on that analysis, 355 faculty members at SU were engaged in research.


3. For Number of employees engaged in sustainability research: We followed the methodology as explained in bullet 1 (see above) but ONLY included the Tenure and Tenure-track faculty members in the attached sustainability research inventory (consistent with the “total number of employees that conducts research”)


4. For Total number of academic departments that include at least one employee who conducts research: We obtained a list of all departments for AY22-23 from SU’s Institutional Research. We counted each department where at least 1 faculty member is tenure or tenure-track.


5. For “Number of academic departments that include at least one employee who conducts sustainability research”: Using the attached sustainability research inventory, we counted the number of departments where at least one tenure-track or tenured faculty member conducts sustainability research