Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 68.32
Liaison Carrie Metzgar
Submission Date May 3, 2013
Executive Letter Download

STARS v1.2

University of California, San Diego
ER-5: Sustainability Course Identification

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 3.00 / 3.00 Barbara Sawrey
Vice Chancellor Academic Affairs
Undergraduate Education
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Has the institution developed a definition of sustainability in the curriculum?:
Yes

A copy of the institution's definition of sustainability in the curriculum?:

UC San Diego has adopted a definition of sustainability that is outlined in the UC San Diego Principles of Sustainability. According the Principles of Sustainability listed on the Sustainability 2.0 website, UC San Diego generally defines sustainability as taking from the Earth only what it can provide indefinitely, thus leaving future generations no less than we have access to ourselves. UC San Diego acknowledges that sustainability should be a foundational value of all campus operations, including curriculum. According to the Principles of Sustainability, UC San Diego is committed to encouraging the incorporation of sustainability concepts in all academic disciplines and across all levels of education and campus operations. Although these principles stress the importance of sustainability in academics, the Advisory Committee on Sustainability is currently working to establish a formal curriculum-explicit definition of sustainability.


Has the institution identified its sustainability-focused and sustainability-related course offerings?:
Yes

A brief description of the methodology the institution followed to complete the inventory:

According to the report, the criteria for a course to be identified as an “environmental” or “sustainable” course was used to base a list of undergraduate and graduate courses originally posted on the http://conserve.ucsd.edu and http://sustain.ucsd.edu websites. This list was compiled in 2005 by Mr. Chris Cohen (now at Scripps Institution of Oceanography) and identifies courses listed in the UC San Diego General Catalog with an “environmental” or “sustainable” emphasis. Instead of developing a new definition for “sustainable or “environmental” courses, Sustainability Solutions Institute (SSI) used Mr. Cohen’s list as a starting point and adopted a broad construction of “environmental” and “sustainable” courses.

The Council of Undergraduate Education faculty (comprised of departmental undergraduate vice chairs for education or equivalent and undergraduate program directors) reviewed and updated the previous campus listing of environmental/sustainability courses and self identified new additions to the course collection in spring 2010.


Does the institution make its sustainability course inventory publicly available online?:
Yes

The website URL where the sustainability course inventory is posted:
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.