New in AI: Chicago Rethinks Writing, EIU Students Want Rules – Inside Higher Ed

While many universities have announced more artificial intelligence–focused initiatives this fall, one is creating a space designed to help college students develop their own ideas and express them in an authentic voice with—and without—the use of the technology.

Late last month, the University of Chicago launched the Chicago Center for Writing, which is designed to “enrich the teaching and practice of writing” across the university by “advancing writing as an intellectual, creative and collaborative practice,” the university said in a news release.

“The center will provide a throughline for the practice and pedagogy of writing across the University at a time when rapid technological change is raising new questions about how we write, learn and teach,” Abigail Reardon, executive director of the center, said. “Our goal is to extend Chicago’s rich culture of writing by making more space for the practice of writing itself and for thinking together about the often solitary work of drafting and revising.”

Beginning next fall, all first-year students will be required to take an AI-free writing course administered through the center. The center is also developing other writing courses, writing labs and campus partnerships that will allow students and faculty to “experiment with the practices and technologies of writing, both old and new.”

But as faculty all over the country are recognizing, integrating AI into their teaching and research processes can be murky. In fact, the entire higher education landscape is awash with AI-related debates, developments and dustups, which is why Inside Higher Ed is gathering some recent noteworthy happenings in a new monthly roundup.

So far this fall, students and faculty are trying to figure out what appropriate AI use looks like.

AI Backlash: At the same time that faculty are trying to keep original thought at the center of students’ written work, students also want to ensure that faculty aren’t relying too much on AI.

In September, students at Eastern Illinois University started a petition against AI in the classroom. While the university has policies on how students can use AI in their coursework, “we have nothing preventing professors from using AI as a substitute for learning materials,” reads the petition, which had 529 signatures as of Sunday. “This is ultimately problematic as AI is unreliable as a source, and by using it gives the impression that our course material is not important, and takes away value from our education.” By early October, the EIU Student Senate had passed a resolution calling on administrators to regulate faculty AI use.

And just a couple of weeks after that, on Oct. 28 the resignation of Dartmouth College Provost Santiago Schnell showed why having clear guidelines in place may help faculty navigate the murky waters of using AI as a writing tool.

Schnell stepped down about a month after the student newspaper ran several of his articles through an AI detector, which flagged them as partially AI-generated and fueled calls for his firing. A subsequent internal review determined his attempts at disclosing his AI use weren’t in line with the college’s ethics policies, though Schnell’s lawyer has since told The Washington Post that he was not “afforded a meaningful opportunity to present his account” during the review.

Fighting AI With AI? Faculty who are trying to preserve the traditional writing process are increasingly turning to handwritten assignments. But a University of California, Berkeley, graduate student who was tasked with grading such papers noticed that grading was time-consuming and sometimes inconsistent. Earlier this year, Travis Fraser used AI to build Rubrica, a secure platform that grades handwritten exams based on an instructor’s rubric. Although the instructor reviews the results before issuing a final grade, a small study showed that 85 percent of Rubrica’s scores matched human scores.

AI Embrace: A few instances of AI backlash haven’t stopped many other universities from moving forward with investing in AI.

Some highlights of the past month include:

• Purdue University announced that starting in January it will begin providing student and faculty researchers access to Google’s Tensor Processing Unit, which will increase the university’s AI capacity by 30 percent.
• Rice University launched a “transformational” AI initiative that includes hiring 75 faculty whose work focuses on AI and building a new facility to foster collaboration among students, researchers, industry leaders and partners.
• The University of Iowa unveiled AI Gateway, a university-managed workspace that allows researchers to explore multiple AI tools and build custom AI agents. It’s open to UI faculty and staff, postdoctoral scholars, and graduate students sponsored by a faculty adviser.
• Stanford University is investing $10 million to help faculty redesign majors for the AI era. According to the university’s announcement, questions such as “What should students learn, demonstrate, and do on their own when AI tools can write, code, and create at their behest?” will drive the project.