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An Interdisciplinary Sustainability Coordinator Associate of Applied Science Degree at Lane Community College
Margaret Robertson, ASLA, Lane Community College
Claudia Owen, PhD, Lane Community College
AASHE 2011 Monday, October 10, 2011 / 2:50 PM / Room 411

Summary:
The Sustainability Coordinator Associate of Applied Science is an interdisciplinary degree developed through a collaborative process. It is the first program of its kind in the nation. Unlike other, discipline-specific degrees, this degree draws its interconnected content from across the curriculum. A set of professional outcomes was developed by team members, who then interviewed faculty and reviewed syllabi to find established courses which met these outcomes. 99 percent of the outcomes were met by existing courses; a 1-credit seminar by Lane's Sustainability Coordinator will meet the remaining one percent. This program provides leading-edge training for sustainability professionals while incurring no additional cost to the College.

This presentation will address how the degree was developed including the market survey of employers, development of outcomes, mapping outcomes to existing courses, and successes and challenges as the first cohort graduates.

Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.

Sustainability Cooordinator degree
• Developed outcomes
• Matched course
• Full 2-year degree
• One course
• Cost: $0

Outcomes=Knowledge, skills and abilities

Skills for Sustainability Coordinators:
• Broad knowledge
• Systems thinking
• Critical thinking skills
• People skills

Step 1: Develop outcomes.
The most important thing you can do is get the outcomes right.

Sustainability as the discipline:
• New field, still emerging
• Interdisciplinary

How to develop a new degree?
No single, authoritative...
• Professional society
• Journal
• Body of knowledge

Sources:
• Job descriptions. But limited to what exists now.
• Surveys. But limited to what respondents already know.
Regional market surveys
ISSP practitioners survey
AASHE
• Literature
Books, articles, soewcific topics
Look for text from Margaret Robertson in 2012, Sustainability: Theory and Practice, outline available now.
• Other programs
You are welcome to use Lane's outcomes
• Advisory committees
• Collaboration: an approach modeled on natural systems.
Symbiosis: a fundamental process
Cooperation generates much of life on earth

Claudia

Info available, posted at AASHE and at lanecc.edu

Science outcomes:
Science foundation = how sustainable systems work
Tripe bottom line: environment, economics, equity all connected

Other Outcomes:
• Nuts and bolts skills for leaders
• Management
• Data analysis
• Measurements for indicator reports
• Leaders as change agents. Important!

World ahead will not be like it is now.

Margaret:

Summary of Outcomes
• science foundation
• tech skills
• managing orgs
• skills for change agents

Step 2: Map existing courses to outcomes
Researching existing courses:
• Catalog descriptions
• Review syllabi
• Interview instructors
• Data from sustainability infusion or environmental literacy program, if one exists.

Step 3: Identify gaps
At LCC, the gap was one percent, a one-credit course

Step 4: Create courses to fill gaps
• In house experts
• Community experts

Step 5: Align with your institution's graduation requirements

Claudia

We still need:
• Introductory course
• Capstone course

Challenges:

Collaboration
• Messy
• Field still forming
Tools for matching courses to outcomes
Developing new courses
• In-house experts
• Community experts

Working now on watershed science program
Hope to included more formal survey of instructors

Margaret

Building a cohort
• Big issue for interdisciplinary program

Q&A:
• Number of credits: approximately 90 in a quarter system
• How did you sell this to the administration, related to jobs? A market survey.
• Number of people in program: 20, not counting new students fall term
• This is the type of degree where a person can create their own job.
• Minors, customization: that is something we would work to improve.
• Oregon requirements: able to match sustainability-focused courses to the State requirements.
• LCC was able to match requirements of existing classes on file to insure sustainability infusion.
• There have been different models for creating these kinds of degrees, from minors to a Sustainability designation, etc.

Contact info:
• Claudia Owen, 541-463-4052 / owenc@lanecc.edu
• Margaret Robertson, 541-463-3143 / robertsonm@lanecc.edu
Sustainability Coordinator Degree: www.lanecc.edu/advtech/SUST/index.htm