AI Policy

Although generative and agentic Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) has made great strides, the skills of critical thinking, insightful analysis, persuasive writing, and deep research remain vital to a liberal arts education. Most of our students will never again have the opportunity to learn to read, write, and think with the leisure and freedom afforded by their undergraduate years. This is not a privilege that should be outsourced to AI. 

We have no doubt that AI use will be tempting when one’s time and energy are constrained. We know that enforcing any AI prohibition may be difficult. There may indeed be ways in which AI will be useful to one’s learning and work, and there are plenty of other venues in which students can receive that training. In Social Studies, however, we ask that you trust your faculty and respect the labor, expertise, and pedagogical approaches we have brought to this community and revised since our founding in 1960. Indeed, even the most enthusiastic AI users may find that a Social Studies education without pervasive reliance on AI will equip them even better for the world ahead. 

Policy: the use of generative or agentic AI in any form is prohibited for aid in analyzing, idea-generation, research, formatting, organizing, outlining, drafting, revising, or editing any work submitted in Social Studies courses or other concentration requirements. This includes, but is not limited to, papers or responses or posts of any kind or length, in-class presentations, exams and quizzes, preparatory work for the senior thesis (e.g., the Prospectus), research and analysis for the senior thesis, and the drafting, editing, or revising of the senior thesis. 

Scope: The Policy serves as the default AI policy for all Social Studies courses, including any for which there is no explicitly stated AI policy. Individual instructors may utilize an alternative AI policy if they deem it pedagogically appropriate. Instructors will notify students in writing of any alternative policy on the syllabus and must require students to disclose the use of AI in all assignment submissions (e.g., a prefatory statement or footnotes throughout).

Enforcement: Student work violating the Policy will be considered below the academic standard expected in our courses and may constitute academic misconduct. Consequences for violation of the Policy or any other AI policy will be severe and can include, but are not limited to, being required to completely redo, from scratch, all work that contains AI material, receiving a reduced or failing grade on an assignment or in a course, and being referred to the Honor Council. Even if the Honor Council does not find disciplinary wrongdoing, instructors may impose a grade penalty on grounds that work performed using AI does not meet the academic standards of a course.

Senior Thesis: The Policy applies to all work related to the senior thesis, including all aspects of thesis-related research and analysis, from Prospectus development to the drafting, editing, revising, and all other components of thesis itself, to the Oral Defense and General Exam process. AI-assisted work completed for another course (even one permitting AI use) may not be used in the Senior Thesis. Students will be required to complete an AI Policy Attestation form (linked here) in consultation with their supervisor upon submission of the Prospectus and again in the senior year.

Exceptions: In a few specific cases (such as transcription, translation, and quantitative analysis), students may be granted an exception to this policy and permitted to use AI in their theses. Requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis, and approval should neither be expected nor assumed. To request an exception, students must first consult with and secure the approval of their thesis supervisor. Next, they must complete (or resubmit, if already completed) the AI Policy Attestation form section on requesting AI usage exceptions. The DUS may ask for additional information or to meet to discuss the request. Approval from the DUS must be secured no later than November 1 of the senior year (or April 1 for off-cycle seniors graduating in the fall).

Examples: What follows is a partial list of prohibited AI usage. Unless one has an approved AI Usage Exception, it is NOT permitted to use any AI tool to:

  • Summarize or analyze course readings or slides
  • Brainstorm, draft, or edit a Canvas post, reading response, or discussion questions
  • Brainstorm, draft, edit, organize, or create content for an in-class presentation 
  • Refine, or strengthen the question, argument, or analysis of a paper or the thesis
  • Identify, summarize, or analyze primary or secondary sources for a paper or the thesis
  • Organize, code, analyze, summarize, or evaluate data for a paper or the thesis
  • Create or utilize a script or program for analyzing data for a paper or the thesis 
  • Brainstorm, draft, revise, edit, or polish the syntax, prose, grammar, or structure of a paper or the thesis
  • Format citations or the bibliography for a paper or the thesis
  • Brainstorm, draft, edit, or enhance an outline or preparatory materials for an open-note exam