Deliberate by design: The College’s approach to Artificial Intelligence

The beginning of AI

Conversations about artificial intelligence (AI) began in earnest in the 1950s, when Alan Turing theorized that a machine’s capabilities could advance beyond its original programming. In 1956, Dartmouth College mathematics professor John McCarthy convened a group of researchers across the fields of computing and cognitive science for a summer seminar to explore the concepts and essentially founded the field and coined the term “artificial intelligence.” While the field has been growing exponentially since then, the discussion and debate have taken on a life of their own since OpenAI publicly released ChatGPT, its free, generative AI chatbot, in November 2022.

As easy and instant access to AI tools began reshaping classrooms across all levels of education, faculty and staff at The College of St. Scholastica encouraged the community to proceed cautiously with AI use while taking a characteristically deliberate approach: convening a cross-disciplinary group of staff and faculty tasked with exploring the best institutional response for our community. Instead of looking for an easy, one-size-fits-all policy, the goal was to find a solution that reflected the College’s innovative spirit and heritage.

Welcoming disagreement

In August 2025, the AI Governance Advisory Group was formed, and a broader academic working group took on the specific charge of drafting an Ethical Use of AI statement. The core team consisted of Dr. Matt Ridenour, associate professor and director of the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment; John Eastvold, engagement technologies manager; Kris Church, director of Institutional Effectiveness; and Dr. Emily Woster ’06, assistant professor and director of the Rose Warner Writing and Critical Thinking Center. They faced an immediate question: How do you take people with different roles, different disciplines, and genuinely different views on AI and build something together?

Their answer was to welcome disagreement rather than minimize it. The deans suggested faculty from all three schools and key staff divisions were represented. Crucially, the group wasn’t stacked with enthusiasts. “These were not all people who are pro AI,” Ridenour said. “We wanted people who were adamant about not using AI in their disciplines, people who saw it as an efficiency, people who saw it as a content creator, [and] people who saw it as a creativity killer. Those dissenting voices were just as critical, maybe even more so.” About 20 people met twice a month through the fall semester, researching peer institutions, drafting ideas, and debating language, focusing on getting it right rather than getting it done.

One decision stood out as both intentional and symbolic: The group never used AI to write the statement. “We wanted people to know that these were our ideas, period,” Ridenour said.

Learning what AI can and can’t do

After an open faculty comment period, the draft was submitted to the President’s Cabinet and was ratified in January 2026. The result is a ten-point framework that describes the College’s approach as human-centered, transparent, equitable, and committed to academic integrity. It’s also explicitly designed to evolve and be reviewed annually by a fresh set of eyes without a vested interest in defending what was built before.

Ridenour has been putting the statement’s values to work in his own classroom. In one exercise, students read an article, wrote their responses, and then watched AI attempt the same task. “The whole class was like, ‘Our version is way better,’” he said, and that’s the point: not to treat AI as a threat or a shortcut but to know what it can and can’t do. And as AI models evolve and change, the conversation within the Saints community about how we choose to engage with AI will evolve and change, too, as we continue to prepare students not just for the world we inhabit today, but for the world they will lead tomorrow.

In all of our work at The College of St. Scholastica, we value thoughtful decision-making. We also value rigorous, human-led learning where AI can be an assistant rather than a replacement to critical thinking, and we want our students to be transparent about its use. As tools, models, and discourse evolve, we will continue exploration of the best way forward for our Saints community.

Learn more about the College’s approach to AI usage through our AI Ethical Use Statement.