Progress: Sustainability Education

General Education
In Fall 2017, Aquinas College passed a new undergraduate general education learning outcome related to sustainability. The outcomes reads: “Acquire awareness and tools to foster human flourishing and a sustainable world”, and will help assure all of our students graduate with sustainability literacy. It went into effect for the 2018/19 school year.

First Year Experience
One of the practices included in our general education curriculum is a first year experience required by all incoming freshmen. Beginning in Fall Semester 2014, our First Year Seminar includes a series of six lectures for first semester students, each followed by small group discussion and reflection assignments led by full-time faculty members from across the disciplines. The vision of Economicology and sustainability is included in the First Year Seminar.

Dedicated Sustainability Academic Programs:

• The Environmental Science major is an option at Aquinas, with a concentration in ecology, chemistry, or earth science.

 
Integrating Sustainability into Existing Programs
Our dedicated sustainable business programs are graduating agents of change each year, but we are also working hard to integrate the concepts of sustainability into existing academic programs. In 2019, Aquinas College used the AASHE STARS system of identifying courses that are dedicated to sustainability and courses that include sustainability as a module or unit. A few noteworthy data points include:
• Exceptional performance in the academic section (44.73 out of 58 possible points) and the campus engagement section (17.80 out of 21.0 possible points).
• 20.61% of Aquinas academic courses have a sustainability component, including 21.9% of undergraduate courses and 9.1% of graduate courses.
• 75.8% of academic departments have sustainability course offerings.