Academic Integrity
The fundamental purpose of our academic community is the pursuit of knowledge in an open, honest and responsible manner. Academic integrity is a commitment to honesty and ethical conduct and is a basic guiding principle for all our work at the College. Academic work represents not only what we have learned about a subject but also how we have learned it. Faculty, staff, and students uphold the tenets of academic integrity, including honesty, fairness, respect, responsibility, courage, and trustworthiness.
Academic Integrity and the Role of AI at the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø
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The Value of Foundational Learning
The education students receive at the College is not merely a pathway to a credential—it is an essential journey through which we learn about ourselves and our world and engage deeply with the interdisciplinary and foundational knowledge of our chosen fields.
- Proficiency in core principles equips us to think critically, reason analytically, and engage in informed debate.
- Foundational learning nurtures writing, quantitative reasoning, and scientific inquiry—vital skills applicable across disciplines and professions.
- Consistent practice with these skills helps to contextualize new information, evaluate its validity, and build upon it responsibly.
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The Uniquely Human Capacity to Think and Problem-Solve
Education is not about information acquisition alone; it is about improving our ability to approach and solve problems from multiple perspectives.
- We learn not just answers, but how to ask better questions
- We understand that learning includes iterative processes of successes and failures, reflection, and rethinking our approaches
- We cultivate divergent thinking and explore different ways of knowing by grappling with open-ended problems
- We deepen inherently human qualities of empathy, cultural sensitivity, and moral reasoning as we sharpen decision-making skills in a complex world
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The Experimental Role of AI in Education
The ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø acknowledges the transformative potential of generative AI and similar tools for teaching and learning. An important part of a college education is developing critical awareness about how and when to integrate the intentional use of AI.
Used appropriately, tools like AI-assisted summarization or data analysis can streamline routine tasks. AI cannot replace foundational learning, but instead may, in certain situations, allow more time to focus on complex reasoning.
AI can be a meaningful part of the learning process, serving as a feedback tool, tutor, or creative partner. Through thoughtful and transparent integration, we promote responsibility, critical engagement, and deeper understanding of both content and process.
- Promote responsibility: Encourage intentional use of AI that supports, rather than replaces, the learning process. Responsible use involves understanding the capabilities and limits of AI, citing assistance appropriately, and remaining accountable for one’s own work.
- Foster critical engagement: Emphasize reflection, interpretation, and judgment when working with AI-generated outputs. Critical engagement helps learners question assumptions, assess the quality of information, and make informed decisions.
- Deepen understanding of both content and process: Use AI not just to produce answers, but to better understand the reasoning behind them, enhancing both subject knowledge and metacognitive awareness.
- Encourage transparency: Not because transparency makes AI use “acceptable,” but because it fosters accountability, supports deeper learning, and aligns with our academic values. Transparency allows others, instructors, peers, and future collaborators, to understand how AI contributed to the work.
The College’s commitment to academic integrity is upheld by all members of the College community. We approach generative AI ethically, understanding its possibilities and challenges, making intentional decisions about when and how to use it to support learning, and acting responsibly and transparently when we choose to engage with it.