University of Montana
AC-2: Learning Outcomes

The University of Montana general education requirements include three groups of required courses that speak to the social, political, and ecological dimensions of sustainability. Group IX: Democracy & Citizenship is a cluster of courses meant to ground students in the ideas, institutions, and practices of democratic societies and their historical antecedents. Group X: Cultural & International Diversity, is a cluster of general education courses from which students can choose that "foster an appreciation for diverse cultures, their histories and values, and their struggles to both maintain their ways of life and gain equal positions in world spheres of power and change." The third bundle of courses are all Natural Science courses (Group XI) that "present scientific conclusions about the structure and function of the natural world and demonstrate or exemplify scientific questioning and validation of findings."

The courses that make up the Cultural & International Diversity group include the following learning outcomes.
Students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate an understanding of the diverse ways humans structure their social, political, and cultural lives;
2. Interpret human activities, ideas, and institutions with reference to diverse cultural, historical, and geo-political perspectives and physical environments;
3. Recognize the complexities of inter-cultural and international communications and collaborative endeavors and relate this to the complex challenges of the 21st century.

The courses that make up the Natural Science cluster of UM's general education have the following learning outcomes:
Students will be able to:
1. Understand the methodology and activities scientists use to gather, validate, and interpret data related to natural processes;
2. Understand how scientific laws and theories are verified by quantitative measurement, scientific observation, and logical/critical reasoning;
3. Understand the means by which analytic uncertainty is quantified and expressed in the natural sciences.

Lastly, the courses that make up the Democracy & Citizenship are guided by the following learning outcomes:
1. Demonstrate informed and reasoned understanding of democratic ideas, institutions, and practices from historical and/or contemporary perspectives;
2. Analyze and evaluate the significance and complexities of engaged citizenship; 3. Articulate the causes and consequences of key historical and/or contemporary struggles within democratic systems or their antecedents, including but not limited to those pertaining to issues of diversity, equity, and justice.

The Office of the Registrar provided a count of graduates who received a degree with a major, minor, or certificate in those programs identified as sustainability-focused in 2019. The Registrar's Office also provided the number of total students earning degrees (1799) in 2019. We eliminated names that appeared multiple times (students, for example, who earned a Bachelor's in Environmental Studies with a Climate Change Studies minor were only counted once).

Sustainability-focused programs

Certificate in Sustainable Business:
- Students will display knowledge of how to incorporate sustainability considerations into the strategic decisions of business, including enhancing customer value throughout the value chain
- Students will have a “systems perspective” understanding of the inter-relationships between and among the various facets of a company’s eco-system of partners and stakeholders

Minor in Climate Change Studies:
- Students will have an understanding of the global climate system, including significant interactions and feedbacks that range over time and space

Major in Forestry:
- Students will be able to interpret the biological, ecological, and physical processes and properties of forested landscapes and natural resources

Major in Wildlife Biology:
- Students will have an understanding of the biotic and abiotic environment as applied to wildlife conservation, including competencies in physical sciences, biological sciences, ecology, and specialized animal sciences
- Students will have an understanding of the multiple values associated with wildlife conservation

Major in Resource Conservation:
- Students will have an understanding of complex ecological and social concepts and connections, and how they apply to natural resources and conservation

Major in Parks, Tourism, and Recreation Management:
- Students will understand the relationship between society, the environment, and economy in the context of parks, tourism, and recreation management
- Students will be able to explain theories related to recreation behavior, sustainable tourism, leadership, and visitor management
- Students will be able to evaluate social, economic, cultural, and environmental impacts associated with recreation and tourism

Major in Environmental Studies:
- Students will understand the core concepts, possibilities, and challenges around sustainable communities and develop their knowledge of particular environmental problems and how communities respond in different contexts.

Environmental Philosophy:
- Students will confront the scientific facts and theories of climate change and environmental sustainability, apply standard ethics to the challenges of sustainability, and investigate the underlying moral culture that took us to the present predicament and articulate the beginnings of a constructive future.

Certificate in Environmental Ethics:
- Requires multiple sustainability-focused courses including Ethics of Climate Change; Communication, Consumption, & Nature; Environmental Politics & Policies.

Ecological Restoration:
- Students will study ecology and how ecosystems work, learn how to solve pressing environmental problems, and how to restore degraded ecosystems. Two focal tracks are available: aquatic and terrestrial, both of which study how organisms and their environment interact across multiple scales of biological organization.

Environmental Health:
- Students who study environmental health will examine the relationship between the environment and human health. This includes the impact that environmental contaminants and other environmental issues (air pollution, soil pollution, water pollution, hazardous waste, climate change, etc.) have on rural and underserved populations of the Northern Rocky Mountain region.

Environmental Science and Natural Resource Journalism:
- This Master’s degree requires courses in both journalism and natural resources or environmental science, including sustainability-focused courses like The Human Role in Environmental Change (GPHY), Economics of the Environment, Topics in Environmental Philosophy, and others.

Forest & Conservation Sciences
- Students will engage in research and service in support of conserving nature and social well-being on both local and international scales. This program educates students and contributes to service and research focused on natural resource management and sustainable conservation policy, seeking a better understanding of how human values and interests shape our experiences in nature, our natural resource institutions, and the politics of environmental decision-making.

Systems Ecology (grad)
- SE is an intercollegiate graduate degree program that emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches to understanding ecological and human systems.
- Students will learn about the biological, physical, chemical, and human processes that shape social-ecological systems across spatial and temporal scales.