Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 71.74
Liaison Carrie Metzgar
Submission Date March 5, 2021

STARS v2.2

University of California, San Diego
AC-2: Learning Outcomes

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.35 / 8.00 Michelle Perez
Energy and Sustainability Manager
Utilities and Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Has the institution adopted one or more sustainability learning outcomes that apply to the entire student body or, at minimum, to the institution's predominant student body?:
No

Which of the following best describes the sustainability learning outcomes?:
Sustainability-supportive

A list of the institution level sustainability learning outcomes:
http://provost.ucsd.edu/colleges/compare.html

While Muir College has a close tie to the environmental sciences and social sciences, and all undergraduates who started in Fall 2011 or later have to fulfill a Cultural Diversity requirement, there is only one undergraduate colleges of out of the 7 that requires a sustainability learning outcome of its graduates: Seventh College. https://seventh.ucsd.edu/about/index.html. Seventh College’s theme, “A Changing Planet”, encompasses a broad range of pressing global issues including the climate crisis, mass migration, and rapid cultural and technological change. First year students are required to take a three-course Synthesis sequence includes two lower-division courses of intensive instruction in university-level writing and one upper-division project-based course. All three courses take an interdisciplinary approach to understanding and addressing the challenges posed by a changing planet.

At UC San Diego, program learning outcomes are aligned with both institutional and WASC-WSCUC core competencies. (https://undergrad.ucsd.edu/resources/assessment/learning-objectives.html)

UC San Diego Core Competencies:
- Critical Thinking & Problem Solving
- Research Ability
- Oral, Written, & Digital Communication
- Teamwork & Cross-Cultural Collaboration
- Understanding Global Context
- Leadership
- Professionalism & Integrity
- Self-Reflection
- Career Development
- Digital Information Fluency
- Civic Engagement & Social Responsibility
- Innovation & Entrepreneurial Thinking

Additional information about the UC San Diego Core Competencies, including definitions, is available at: https://elt.ucsd.edu/competencies/index.html

Total number of graduates from degree programs:
10,395

Number of graduates from degree programs that require an understanding of the concept of sustainability:
458

A brief description of how the figure above was determined:
FY19 number of undergraduates who graduated from programs listed below that include a sustainability requirement (Environmental Engineering, Marine Biology, and Environmental Systems) compared to the FY 19 number of undergraduates from all degrees. Contacted all sustainability-related degree programs to provide number of graduates from the same academic year.

A list of degree programs that require an understanding of the concept of sustainability:
Environmental Engineering Major
Anthropology - Climate Change and Human Solutions Major
Marine Biology Major
Environmental Systems Major
Environmental Chemistry Major
Urban Studies and Planning Major
Ecology, Behavior and Evolution Major
Earth Sciences Major
Master of Advanced Studies in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation
Master of Advanced Studies in Climate Science and Policy
Scripps PhD programs: the Climate-Ocean-Atmosphere Program; Geosciences of the Earth, Oceans, and Planets; and the Ocean Biosciences Program
Additional graduate degrees at Scripps include: Earth Sciences, BS/MS, terminal MS degrees in Oceanography and Marine Biology, and Joint Doctoral Program with San Diego State University in Geophysics. More info here: https://scripps.ucsd.edu/masters
In addition to Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the Rady School of Management and the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies have sustainability graduate degrees. More info here: http://rady.ucsd.edu and http://irps.ucsd.edu/programs

Documentation supporting the figure reported above (upload):
Do the figures reported above cover one, two, or three academic years?:
One

Percentage of students who graduate from programs that require an understanding of the concept of sustainability:
4.41

Website URL where information about the sustainability learning outcomes is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Info gathered with support of Institutional Research.

Knowledge of diversity, equity, and inclusion is required of all candidates for a bachelor’s degree who begin studies at UC San Diego in lower-division standing in fall 2011 or thereafter, or in upper-division standing in fall 2013 or thereafter. http://ucsd.edu/catalog/front/UgrdDegReq.html

UC San Diego's undergraduate education is organized into six colleges. Each college has its own distinctive educational philosophy and programmatic theme, general education requirements, neighborhood within the campus, and active student life.

Along with general education course requirements in the sciences, mathematics, fine arts, and humanities, students at UC San Diego's Marshall College must complete a 3-quarter (1-year) core sequence called Dimensions of Culture (DOC), which explores the development of American society through a complex tapestry of issues related to asymmetries of power associated with gender, class, racial, ethnic, and other hierarchies. All 3 courses address the social and political implications of inequality and the various collective movements that have struggled to gain access to rights and resources. https://marshall.ucsd.edu/academics/index.html

UCSD Warren College students must take ethics and society courses. Warren College designed Ethics and Society, PHIL or POLI 27 and PHIL or POLI 28, to help students learn how to make moral decisions, engage in moral reasoning, and understand the positions of others in the great moral conflicts of our time. http://warren.ucsd.edu/academics/ethics-and-society.html

Finally, sustainability learning objectives are incorporated in majors that have an environmental component as listed above and posted on departmental and program websites. The campus does not have separate URL for sustainability learning objectives.

Graduate learning objectives can be found at https://undergrad.ucsd.edu/_files/lo-programs/Graduate_Division_Inventory_of_Educational_Effectiveness_Indicators_2015.pdf

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.