Ball State University
ER-5: Sustainability Course Identification

The university uses a multi-layered structure for defining sustainability in the curriculum. _____Layer #1: We have adopted a public statement on sustainability, which includes reference to our educational emphasis. http://cms.bsu.edu/Academics/CentersandInstitutes/COTE/Sustainability/Statement.aspx _____Layer #2: As part of the university core curriculum program, a formal definition of sustainability-related content is given under the UCC-21: WISER guidelines. Specifically courses designated with the letter E must: 1. Clearly show environmental awareness or environmental sustainability will be a substantial unit or a continuous thread of the course. 2. Clearly state how environmental awareness or environmental sustainability achieves some of the learning objectives of the course. _____Layer #3: As part of the preparation of the Minor in Sustainability, the Undergraduate Education Committee adopted the following definition for courses qualifying for the sub-categories of this minor which is available to all students across campus: upon completion of the minor, students will be able to: Explain the meaning of sustainability 1. Describe social, environmental, and economic elements of long-term human survival. 2. Understand the systems nature of the interrelationships among social, environmental and economic elements of civilization. 3. Articulate their personal values as related to this complexity. Apply concepts of sustainability in decision making 1. Articulate within a systems context the role of their discipline for long-term human survival. 2.Analyse problems using criteria for long-term human survival within the social, environmental and economic elements of civilization. 3.Identify leverage points within the social,environmental,and economic elements of civilization for interventions that will help to insure long-term human survival. _____Layer #4: Two core courses in the Sustainability Minor give definition: SUST250 Introduction to Sustainability which exposes students to the complexities of social, economic and environmental systems and their interactions; from this foundation the role of students as world citizens, in shepherding resources and valuing cultures and understanding economies is developed. SUST400 Creating A Sustainable Future, which is a hands-on, project-based, immersive learning course in which students apply to a real-world problems the awareness, understanding and ability developed in preceeding courses in the Sustainability Minor.

WISER Guidelines were established by the Education Development Action Team, Chaired by Charles Payne of the Diversity Policy Institute (DPI), with input from the 35-member Council on the Environment (COTE). As part of the member-reporting to COTE, Academic Units self-declare the courses containing sustainability-content and the percentage of time allocated for coverage. Some departments have included this in their unit-level sustainability plan.

Detailed course content is available on the map using the STARS Curriculum icon on each of the 45 campus buildings. Additional information can be found at: http://www.bsu.edu/cluster