Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 75.29
Liaison Ezra Small
Submission Date Feb. 17, 2023

STARS v2.2

University of Massachusetts Amherst
AC-2: Learning Outcomes

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.63 / 8.00 Darci Connor Maresca
Project Manager, Sustainability Programming
ECo
"---" 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?:
---

A list of the institution level sustainability learning outcomes:

There are not institution level sustainability learning outcomes (SLOs) at UMass Amherst. At a division level, our School of Earth and Sustainability (SES) does have sustainability learning outcomes and all of its programs include curriculum requirements that include SLOs. However, these are division-level learning outcomes. As such, we count the graduates from relevant programs below under Program Level Learning Outcomes.


Total number of graduates from degree programs:
8,444

Number of graduates from degree programs that require an understanding of the concept of sustainability:
2,780

A brief description of how the figure above was determined:

We count all students who received a Graduate, Bachelors or Associates degree from sustainability-focused programs in AC-3 or AC-4 or programs that required at least one sustainability-focused course. Note: some of the undergraduate programs do also have sustainability learning outcomes for the program as a whole, but our approach for computing the numbers in AC-2 above was based on the required course method.

Data are taken from the UMass Amherst Office of Institutional Research on degrees awarded for 2021/22.


A list of degree programs that require an understanding of the concept of sustainability:

At a division level, the UMass School of Earth & Sustainability (SES) has adopted seven learning outcomes to transform undergraduate sustainability learning, moving beyond disciplinary knowledge in a given field to exposing students to sustainability principles and systems thinking with an explicit focus on the interdependence of ecological, social, and economic systems. The sustainability learning outcomes are:

1. Systems thinking and organizing complexity. Students should have a grounded understanding of sustainability and how systems are interrelated. Students should be able to use systems thinking for research and for practical problem solving.
2. Interdisciplinary collaboration and integration. Students should have experience with multiple disciplines and show capability to work productively and effectively within cross-disciplinary teams.
3. 21st century national and international challenges. Students should demonstrate a capacity to address 21st century national and international environmental as well as cultural challenges.
4. Current local and regional resilience challenges. Students should develop the means to indicate how sustainability issues are impacting their immediate social, economic, and political environment.
5. Civic engagement and community partnership. Students should recognize and advocate for civic engagement and inclusive practices for applying sustainability principles to local issues.
6. Personal agency and professional responsibility. Students should learn ethical principles of sustainability and how they are connected to practical issues of social justice, and environmental-economic equity.
7. Information competency. Students should develop proficiency in finding and using reliable data and documentation for support of their sustainability projects.

The SES undergraduate academic programs—which include programs from Environmental Conservation (Natural Resource Conservation, Building & Construction Technology), Geosciences (Earth Systems, Geology, Geography), Stockbridge School of Agriculture (Arboriculture, Horticultural Sciences, Plant and Soil Sciences, Sustainable Food and Farming), Environmental Science, Microbiology, Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning (Landscape Contracting, Landscape Architecture, Sustainable Community Development)—address these sustainability learning outcomes.

SES UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMS
AS Arboriculture
BS Environmental Conservation (Natural Resource Conservation and Building & Construction Technology)
BS Environmental Science
BA/BS Geosciences (Earth Sciences, Geography, Geology)
BS Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning (Landscape Architecture, Sustainable Community Development)
AS Sustainable Food and Farming
BS Stockbridge School of Agriculture (Sustainable Food and Farming, Horticultural Sciences, Plant and Soil Science, Turfgrass Management)

Additionally, there are a number of undergraduate and graduate sustainability-focused programs as well as undergraduate programs that address one or more sustainability learning outcomes. The UMass Amherst sustainability-focused academic programs that require an understanding of sustainability include:

UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMS
BBA Accounting
BA Anthropology
BA Architecture
BA/BS BDIC
BS Civil and Environmental Engineering
BA Economics
BBA Finance
BS Food Science
BBA Hospitality and Tourism Management
BBA Management
BBA Marketing
BS Mechanical & Industrial Engineering
BS Nutrition
BBA Operations and Information Management
BS Public Health Sciences
BA Resource Economics
BA Social Thought and Political Economy
BA/BS University Without Walls

GRADUATE PROGRAMS
MF Alternative Investments
M.Arch Architecture
M.Design Historic Preservation
MS/PhD Civil and Environmental Engineering
MA/PhD Economics
MS/PhD Environmental Conservation
MS/PhD Environmental Health Sciences
MS/PhD Food Science
MS Geographic Information Science and Technology
MS/PhD Geography
MS/PhD Geosciences
MS/PhD Intercampus Marine Science
MLA Landscape Architecture
MS/PhD Mechanical & Industrial Engineering
MS/PhD Microbiology
MS/PhD Nutrition
MS/PhD Organismic & Evolutionary Biology
PhD Planning
MS/PhD Plant and Soil Science
MS/PhD Plant Biology
MA/PhD Political Science
MPP Public Policy
MPPA Public Policy & Administration
MRP Regional Planning
MS/PhD Resource Economics
MS Sustainability Science


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:
32.92

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:

We count all students who received a Graduate, Bachelor or Associates's degree from sustainability-focused programs in AC-3 or AC-4 or programs that required at least one sustainability-focused course. Note: some of the undergraduate programs also have sustainability learning outcomes for the program as a whole, but our approach for computing the numbers in AC-2 above was based on the required course method.

Data are taken from the UMass Amherst Office of Institutional Research on degrees awarded for 2021/22.


We count all students who received a Graduate, Bachelor or Associates's degree from sustainability-focused programs in AC-3 or AC-4 or programs that required at least one sustainability-focused course. Note: some of the undergraduate programs also have sustainability learning outcomes for the program as a whole, but our approach for computing the numbers in AC-2 above was based on the required course method.

Data are taken from the UMass Amherst Office of Institutional Research on degrees awarded for 2021/22.

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.