| Overall Rating | Silver |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 58.21 |
| Liaison | Julie Hopper |
| Submission Date | July 29, 2021 |
University of Southern California
AC-9: Research and Scholarship
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
4.81 / 12.00 |
Elias
Platte-Bermeo Sustainability Program Assistant Office of Sustainability |
Total number of employees that conduct research:
Number of employees engaged in sustainability research:
Percentage of employees that conduct research that are engaged in sustainability research:
Total number of academic departments that include at least one employee who conducts research:
Number of academic departments that include at least one employee who conducts sustainability research:
Percentage of departments that conduct research that are engaged in sustainability research:
A copy of the inventory of the institution’s sustainability research (upload):
Inventory of the institution’s sustainability research:
A brief description of the methodology the institution followed to complete the research inventory:
USC has provided data for one year - between July 1, 2018, and June 30, 2019 - based on the definition of sustainability research outlined in AASHE’s Standards and Terms, and USC has included the following information for each individual researcher conducting sustainability research:
- Name
- Departmental affiliation
- Research interests/topics or a brief description justifying the individual’s inclusion.
To create an inventory of employees that conduct sustainability research, USC’s Office of Sustainability conducted the following methodology:
- Carried out a faculty-wide survey,
- Reviewed research listed on two data sources assembled by the Presidential Working Group on Sustainability in Education, Research and Operations (PWG), and
- Reviewed two data sources assembled by the non-active USC Environmental Sustainability Research Network (ESRN)
The data was collected into a spreadsheet and analyzed by the Office of Sustainability with the support of student interns.
Internal review: The USC Research Council reviewed and confirmed the faculty sustainability research inventory. The Council identified areas of opportunity for capturing more sustainability researchers, which can be incorporated into USC’s next STARS submission.
Additions and confirmation: Office of Sustainability reviewed the final data.
Third party-review: The final inventory was reviewed by GreenerU prior to STARS submission.
For a more detailed methodology, see the Additional Documentation section of this credit.
Website URL where information about the institution’s sustainability research is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Total Number of Departments: Office of Sustainability staff attempted to find a broadly-accepted number of academic departments housing faculty researchers from the Office of Institutional Research, University Human Resources, and Academic Affairs, to no avail. Since there is no broadly-accepted number of USC academic departments housing faculty researchers, USC determined this number for the AC-9 credit by finding unique values of departments listed in the HRIS report run by University Human Resources which contains all faculty and the departments in which they are housed.
Total Number of Departments: Office of Sustainability staff attempted to find a broadly-accepted number of academic departments housing faculty researchers from the Office of Institutional Research, University Human Resources, and Academic Affairs, to no avail. Since there is no broadly-accepted number of USC academic departments housing faculty researchers, USC determined this number for the AC-9 credit by finding unique values of departments listed in the HRIS report run by University Human Resources which contains all faculty and the departments in which they are housed.
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.