Overall Rating	Gold - expired
Overall Score	72.89
Liaison	Miriam Keep
Submission Date	Feb. 27, 2019
Executive Letter	Download

STARS v2.1

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
AC-1: Academic Courses

Status	Score	Responsible Party
	11.50 / 14.00	Micah Kenfield Sustainability Coordinator Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment

"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Part 1

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	4,486	1,339
Number of sustainability courses offered	184	18
Number of courses offered that include sustainability	696	77

Percentage of courses that are sustainability course offerings:

16.74

Part 2

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

104

None

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

Percentage of academic departments with sustainability course offerings:

72.12

Course Inventory

A copy of the institution’s inventory of its sustainability course offerings and descriptions:

course count fy19 - for STARS - Revised.xlsx

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 :

Total number of courses was determined both by getting a general headcount via the University of Illinois Division of Management Information as well as a department-by-department review by sustainability staff (cross checked by multiple parties). The definition of sustainability courses and sustainability content took past guidance from a chancellor-level task force and integrated inclusion of core concepts in the UN's Sustainable Development Goals to ensure an inclusive - but not overly broad - definition of sustainability was used. Many courses, especially technical ones like GIS and Biostatistics, were included if the datasets used for examples and assignments involved climate change impacts. Given the U of I's efforts toward treating campus as a living lab, a number of other opportunities arose for inclusion of courses in areas like Food Science, where food for on-campus production comes from our on-campus Sustainable Student Farm, and every class touches on principles of organic food production.

How were courses with multiple offerings or sections counted for the figures reported above?:

Other (please describe below)

A brief description of how courses with multiple offerings or sections were counted (if different from the options outlined above):

Each course was counted as a single course regardless of the number of offerings or sections on a semester by semester basis; however, there is some duplication across the Fall 2018 and Spring 2019 lists. Since this duplication includes non-sustainability courses as well, however, the total ratio of sustainability courses to non-sustainability courses remains consistent with how things were addressed in years past.

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	No
Clinical	No
Physical education	No
Performance arts	No

Optional Fields

The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:

http://sustainability.illinois.edu/education/student-resources-courses/

Additional documentation to support the submission:

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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

In a departure from previous methodology, the total number of departments was determined based on host department instead of course heading. Many departments (from Earth, Society, and Environment to Linguistics) have multiple course prefixes administered by a single department. In this case, shifting to a department-based model more accurately represents the number of programs and points of contact the average student has for sustainability education. To specifically address points from STARS Review, there has been a significant uptick in courses designated as matching scoring criteria for sustainability due to an enhanced review process and significantly increased amount of time dedicated to the course audit.