Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 65.01
Liaison Paul Mathisen
Submission Date May 23, 2017
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Worcester Polytechnic Institute
AC-9: Research and Scholarship

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 12.00 / 12.00 John Orr
Professor
Liberal Arts & Computer Engineering
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Part 1 

Total number of the institution’s faculty and/or staff that are engaged in research (headcount):
247

Number of the institution’s faculty and/or staff that are engaged in sustainability research (headcount):
61

Percentage of the institution's faculty and staff researchers that are engaged in sustainability research :
24.70

Part 2 

Total number of academic departments (or the equivalent) that include at least one faculty or staff member that conducts research:
15

Number of academic departments (or the equivalent) that include at least one faculty or staff member that conducts sustainability research:
13

Percentage of research-producing departments that are engaged in sustainability research:
86.67

Research Inventory 

A copy of the institution’s inventory of its sustainability research that includes names and department affiliations of faculty and staff engaged in sustainability research:
The institution’s inventory of its sustainability research that includes names and department affiliations of faculty and staff engaged in sustainability research:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B1Rgfbk4oFgdaGp1MElXRC1OSFU

A brief description of the methodology the institution followed to complete the research inventory (including the types of faculty and staff included as researchers):
To identify faculty who are engaged in sustainability research, we reviewed the online faculty profiles of: faculty associated with sustainability-focused academic programs; faculty who listed relevant research interests in the graduate course catalog; faculty who taught a sustainability-related course; faculty associated with a sustainability-related academic center; and other faculty members known to be engaged in sustainability research. In addition, we distributed a survey to faculty through which they were asked to describe any sustainability-related research in which they are currently engaged or were engaged within the last three years. For scoring purposes, we counted only on tenured and tenure-track faculty since conducting research is one of their job responsibilities. However, some teaching professors and other non-tenure track individuals also do substantial sustainability research. We have listed them in a separate worksheet of the inventory to recognize their work but make clear that it is not part of the scoring calculation.

Optional Fields 

The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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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.