Rationale for Objective: Environmental and social justice curriculum (Maintain)

Sustainability—broadly defined to include topics such as ecology, consumption, sustainable design, sustainable business, social justice, environmental justice, environmental ethics, climate change, environmental health, conservation, and understanding the interaction of society and the environment—is present in nearly 70 percent of Evergreen’s programs. Such content appears across planning units and is found in both the undergraduate and graduate curriculum. Although this area of study is increasing in the curriculum, included in the revised mission statement, and encouraged in a variety of ways at Evergreen, it became clear during the community deliberation about this core theme that there is not a clear, shared understanding of what Evergreen means by sustainability and what the adoption of this commitment means for various areas of the college, especially in the curriculum. In particular, faculty from different areas of the college have different definitions and concerns about the inclusion of sustainability studies in the curriculum, and such tensions reveal a need to foster opportunities for interdisciplinary and multidimensional dialogue about the value of addressing sustainability in the curriculum and to share both concerns and effective practices. Evergreen will strive to maintain recent growth in this curricular focus.

Summary of Indicators for Core Theme 3, Objective 2 (PDF)

• Indicator 1: Programs address sustainability
• Indicator 2: Alumni satisfaction: Sustainability learning

View key sources of data used to measure the indicators