Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 74.80
Liaison Gioia Thompson
Submission Date March 2, 2020

STARS v2.2

University of Vermont
AC-1: Academic Courses

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 12.86 / 14.00 Rachel Grace Purnell
Associate Registrar for CRR
Registar
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

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 3,002 377
Number of sustainability-focused courses offered 210 34
Number of sustainability-inclusive courses offered 371 51

Percentage of courses that are sustainability course offerings:
19.71

Total number of academic departments that offer courses:
67

Number of academic departments with sustainability course offerings:
50

Percentage of academic departments with sustainability course offerings:
74.63

A copy of the institution’s inventory of its sustainability course offerings and descriptions:
Do the figures reported above cover one, two, or three academic years?:
One

A brief description of the methodology used to complete the course inventory :

A list of all courses offered at the institution in academic year 2018-2019 (Fall 2018, Spring 2019, and Summer 2019), including data about the courses (e.g. department, semester, professor, etc.), was generated by the Registrar. The Education & Outreach Coordinator in the Office of Sustainability then modified the list according to STARS guidelines. This included deletion of enrollment under 5, and removal of CLN, FWRK, INTN, IS, PERF, PRAC, RSCH, STD, TA, TD instruction methods. Two columns were added to the sheet: one labeled “sustainability designation” and another labeled “sustainability justification.” The designation column had the following choices: sustainability-focused, sustainability-inclusive and neither. The justification column is for a description of what each course entails and how it relates to sustainability. Directions were written under each column heading, and another tab on the Google sheet contained a list of FAQs about the inventory and how to complete it. A second tab included text from the STARS technical manual defining the sustainability designations.

The Education & Outreach Coordinator and a Registrar staffer pre-populated a small percentage of the designation column using lists of previously identified sustainability-related courses from past STARS submissions, newly SU-designated courses, and courses with descriptions that included key terms.

The Office of Sustainability worked with the administration to generate a letter that went out to all Deans, asking them to fill in the blanks for their college. Deans then either opted to complete the work themselves, assigned the task to department chairs, or asked all faculty in the department to complete their individual portions. The Education & Outreach coordinator reviewed the inventory when complete and followed up with professors directly when more information was needed.


How were courses with multiple offerings or sections counted for the figures reported above?:
Each offering or section of a course was counted as an individual course

A brief description of how courses with multiple offerings or sections were counted:

Although multiple offerings of each course were counted as separate courses in the inventory, it is important to note that there was no double-counting of cross-listed courses. Cross-listed courses were collapsed into a single, tangible offering of the course. The Registrar’s Office used their own methodology to decide which department each cross-listed course would fall under. This methodology is described further in our codebook.


Website URL where information about the sustainability course offerings is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
---

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.