Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 51.50
Liaison Mike Harrington
Submission Date Aug. 6, 2018
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

The New School
AC-1: Academic Courses

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 8.98 / 14.00 Mike Harrington
Assistant Director
Tishman Environment & Design Center
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Figures required to calculate the percentage of courses offered by the institution that are sustainability course offerings:
Undergraduate Graduate
Total number of courses offered by the institution 4,627 1,408
Number of sustainability courses offered 212 77
Number of courses offered that include sustainability 271 99

Percentage of courses that are sustainability course offerings:
10.92

Total number of academic departments (or the equivalent) that offer courses (at any level):
26

Number of academic departments (or the equivalent) that offer at least one sustainability course and/or course that includes sustainability (at any level):
18

Percentage of academic departments with sustainability course offerings:
69.23

A copy of the institution’s inventory of its sustainability course offerings and descriptions:
Do the figures reported above cover one, two, or three academic years?:
One

A brief description of the methodology used to determine the total number of courses offered and to identify sustainability course offerings, including the definitions used and the process for reviewing and/or validating the course inventory :

Course data from the academic year 2017/2018 was gathered and analyzed. As a preliminary assessment, staff from the Tishman Environment and Design center used the online course catalog to identify courses tagged by the instructor with the topic ‘sustainability’. From there, a more thorough evaluation was conducted by reviewing all course titles and descriptions using the complete spring and fall semester course lists. Using the STARS guidelines and definitions, a master list was compiled of courses that fell into one of two categories: sustainability-focused courses and courses that incorporated a dimension of sustainability into the learning objectives. Each section was counted as an individual course. Per AASHE guidelines, some curriculum was excluded such as courses in performance arts, technique-based courses, and independent study programs. The total number of undergraduate and graduate courses for the 2017/2018 academic year were tallied, as well as the respective sustainability curriculum contained therein. To evaluate sustainability at the department level, Institutional Research provided a list of 26 departments by school which was then cross-referenced with the master list of sustainability courses.


How were courses with multiple offerings or sections counted for the figures reported above?:
Each offering or section of a course was counted as an individual course

A brief description of how courses with multiple offerings or sections were counted (if different from the options outlined above):
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Are the following course types included in the inventory? :
Yes (included) or No (not included)
Internships No
Practicums No
Independent study No
Special topics No
Thesis / dissertation Yes
Clinical No
Physical education No
Performance arts No

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:

The course totals in Part 1 differ from the totals shown in the uploaded course inventory because the totals in Part 1 correspond to the aggregate count of sections, whereas the course inventory simply serves as a list of the courses meeting the sustainability criteria outlined by the AASHE guidelines.


The course totals in Part 1 differ from the totals shown in the uploaded course inventory because the totals in Part 1 correspond to the aggregate count of sections, whereas the course inventory simply serves as a list of the courses meeting the sustainability criteria outlined by the AASHE guidelines.

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.