University of California, Santa Barbara
AC-1: Academic Courses

The course inventory includes all courses offered at least once between the three-year period of fall, 2020 and summer, 2023. All courses count for at least 1 unit of academic credit and had at least 1 enrollee. Canceled courses and courses with zero enrollment were removed from the course inventory.

Special topic courses (both one-time and repeating) and seminars were counted as separate courses if the course had a unique course code. Courses that were excluded from the course inventory include extension courses, travel study courses offered by other institutions, courses transferred for credit from other institutions, as well as independent study and independent research courses. Group studies courses were not included as those do not have standard syllabi and are a form of giving credit for active research rather than a typical course. Extension courses were listed under the Public Engagement credit, unless those courses were also cross listed as non-extension courses.

For the purposes of STARS, UCSB reported on any courses that addressed the interconnection between humans and environmental issues or solutions. To help us flush out this definition and fully understand for ourselves what this entails we developed a set of goals and outcome measures below.

Broad Definition of Sustainability Courses:

Goal Measures (Courses must identify one or more of the following goals):
1. Identifies one or more serious environmental problems and explain its underlying causes and possible consequences.
2. Explores the conceptual foundations of our environmental attitudes, values and challenges from a variety of cultural perspectives.
3. Examines the scientific understanding of Earth’s natural systems and cycles, emphasizing humanity’s role as the planet’s ecologically dominant species and how that affects the continuing viability of habitats for life on Earth.
4. Demonstrates the interconnectedness of environmental, economic, and social systems.
5. Investigates how our relationship to the natural world has been shaped historically, politically, and/or economically.
6. Examines the controversies surrounding questions of values and ethics as they relate to creating a sustainable future.
In addition, it will be expected that at least one student learning outcome (SLO) is developed that reflects the focus of the course.

Outcome Measures (Students learning objectives):
1. Understand and be able to effectively communicate the concept of sustainability.
2. Analyze how the well-being of human society is dependent on ecosystems and the materials and services they provide to humanity.
3. Recognize the physical and biological attributes, basic functioning, and limits of planetary ecosystems.
4. Develop and use an ethical perspective in which they view themselves as embedded in the fabric of an interconnected world.
5. Become aware of and explore the connections between their chosen course of study and sustainability.
6. Synthesize understanding of social, economic, and environmental systems and reason holistically.
7. Be able to create models, products, designs or creative representations that highlight an understanding of the connections among people, processes and the environment.

Some courses that include sustainability were cross-listed between departments. To account for this overlap, these courses were condensed into a single entry within the course inventory that included all possible course codes and departments. These cross-listed courses were only counted once, although the multiple departments under which they were listed were all counted as departments offering sustainability courses or courses that include sustainability. Courses that had both an undergraduate and graduate course code were counted as two courses since the requirements of the two course codes are quite different. No sections, including honors sections, were included.

If the course was offered multiple times over the three-year reporting period, it was counted only once. Courses with one course code, but varying subject matters, were only counted as one course. These courses were very difficult to track because they were taught differently each time they were offered, based on the Professor’s preference. They were counted as sustainability related only when we could demonstrate that the course addressed sustainability more than half of the times they were offered. An example of this occurring is with the courses offered through the Literature and the Environment Program within the English Department. Many of these courses didn’t count because the exact subject matter of the class fluctuates frequently, making precise data difficult to obtain.

For PRE-5 we only included departments based on the University definition of academic departments.

For AC1, we include any department who offers courses.

For IC3, we included only departments as officially defined by UCSB.

For AC9, we used the list of departments for the denominator as we did here in AC-1 (total of 52 departments). We did not include research units, centers, and institutes in AC9.

The following departments offered at least one course related to sustainability and were counted in the numerator:

Anthropology
Art
Asian American Studies
Black Studies
Chemistry and Biochemistry
Communication
Comparative Literature
Earth Science (formerly Geological Sciences)
East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies
Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology
Economics
Education
Electrical and Computer Engineering
English
Environmental Data Science
Environmental Science and Management
Environmental Studies Program
Feminist Studies
Film and Media Studies
Geography
Global & International Studies
History
History of Art and Architecture
Interdisciplinary Studies
Latin American and Iberian Studies
Linguistics
Marine Science
Mechanical Engineering
Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
Political Science
Religious Studies
Sociology
Spanish and Portuguese
Writing




The total list of courses counted for this credit in the denominator include:

Anthropology
Art
Asian American Studies
Biological Engineering Program
Biomolecular Science and Engineering
Black Studies
Chemical Engineering
Chemistry and Biochemistry
Chicano Studies
Classics
Communication
Comparative Literature
Computer Science
Earth Science (formerly Geological Sciences)
East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies
Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology
Economics
Education
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Engineering Sciences
English
Environmental Data Science
Environmental Science and Management
Environmental Studies Program
Exercise and Sports Studies
Feminist Studies
Film and Media Studies
French and Italian
Geography
Germanic, Slavic, and Semitic Studies
Global & International Studies
History
History of Art and Architecture
Interdisciplinary Studies
Latin American and Iberian Studies
Linguistics
Marine Science
Materials
Mathematics
Mechanical Engineering
Media Arts and Technology
Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
Music
Philosophy
Physics
Political Science
Psychological & Brain Sciences
Religious Studies
Sociology
Spanish and Portuguese
Speech and Hearing Sciences Department
Statistics and Applied Probability
Technology Management
Theater and Dance
Writing


The following programs that offer courses were not counted under IC3 as departments:

Biomolecular Science and Engineering
Comparative Literature
Interdisciplinary Studies
Latin American and Iberian Studies
Marine Science
Technology Management
Writing