Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 53.78
Liaison Lisa Mitten
Submission Date March 8, 2018
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

State University of New York at New Paltz
AC-2: Learning Outcomes

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.33 / 8.00 Lisa Mitten
Campus Sustainability Coordinator
Office of Campus Sustainability
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Total number of graduates from degree programs (i.e. majors, minors, concentrations, certificates, and other academic designations):
2,335

Number of students that graduate from programs that have adopted at least one sustainability learning outcome:
96

Percentage of students who graduate from programs that have adopted at least one sustainability learning outcome:
4.11

Do the figures reported above cover one, two, or three academic years?:
One

Does the institution specify sustainability learning outcomes at the institution level (e.g. covering all students)?:
No

Does the institution specify sustainability learning outcomes at the division level (e.g. covering particular schools or colleges within the institution)?:
No

A list or brief description of the institution level or division level sustainability learning outcomes:
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Does the institution specify sustainability learning outcomes at the program level (i.e. majors, minors, concentrations, degrees, diplomas, certificates, and other academic designations)?:
Yes

A list or brief description of the program level sustainability learning outcomes (or a list of sustainability-focused programs):

Geography with an Environmental Concentration
* Students will learn to define basic concepts and theories in environmental geography;
* Students will learn to apply analytical methods used in environmental geography, including:
- Distinguishing human from nonhuman factors of environmental change
- Linking social and physical processes at multiple scales
- Using logic and arithmetic in problem-solving activities
- Identifying social causes of human impact on the environment
- Thinking critically about environmental issues, including considering relations of power behind negative human impact and the social repercussions of environmental degradation
- Asking what motivates people to act on or think about environments in particular ways
- Identifying problematic assumptions in popular notions

Environmental Studies
* Define environmental problems
* Describe the social causes of environmental problems
* Evaluate possibilities for a “green” economy
* Explain how social inequalities relate to environmental risk
* Describe political struggles that have emerged around the environment

Environmental Geochemical Science
* Students will develop a deeper understanding of the interaction between technology and the natural environment that hosts it so that our society can work toward building a sustainable civilization, providing for human needs while still preserving the earth's unique natural heritage.


Do course level sustainability learning outcomes contribute to the figure reported above (i.e. in the absence of program, division, or institution level learning outcomes)?:
Yes

A list or brief description of the course level sustainability learning outcomes and the programs for which the courses are required:

Ecology Course, required for Environmental/Organismal Biology:
* Students will understand how humans interact with ecological and evolutionary processes.
* Students will learn the physical, chemical, and biological organization of aquatic ecosystems and increase quantitative literacy in ecological interpretation of aquatic ecosystems and problem solving.
* Students will learn to make scientific predictions about how ecological processes affect human well-being and how human activities affect ecosystems at local, regional, or global scales.
* Students will be able to evaluate strategies for environmental solutions and sustainability from a scientific perspective.
* Students will be able to describe the important abiotic and biotic factors that determine the structure, composition, function, and dynamics of ecological systems.
* Students will be able to make scientific predictions about how ecological processes affect human well-being and how human activities affect ecosystems at local, regional, or global scales.

Learning Outcomes for the Introduction to Managing Sustainability, a required course in the Sustainability Track of the Management Major:
* Define the core concepts of sustainability and explain how they translate to a business context.
* Identify and select tools appropriate to analysis of sustainability issues and to generate solution pathways for businesses.
* Develop and argue the business case for solving sustainability problems or pursuing opportunities framed by actual experiences of diverse organizations.
* Identify and assess information sources pertinent to sustainable business practices.
* Communicate to prospective employers how sustainability knowledge can add value to an organization.

General Biology II, required for all biology students
Students should be able to:
Draw the shape of human population growth over the last 8000 years
Interpret age-structure pyramids for growing and shrinking populations
Explain how a human population’s age structure affects its growth rate
Explain the concept of an ecological footprint
Explain the concept of global carrying capacity


The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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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.