City College’s Academic Senate commenced Wednesday, Oct. 8 with discussions about AI and academic integrity.
Academic Senate President Joshua Ramirez announced a special meeting held by the Academic Senate taking place on Oct. 15. It will discuss the Program Evaluation Committee’s (PEC) revision of the program review process to make it more inclusive for students.
Physical Education Department Chair Kathleen O’Connor discussed the issue of Chromebook allocation and locations around City College. She said that a spreadsheet has been made that shows where Chromebooks are located on campus and which ones are being used.
City College has had issues with missing Chromebooks since 2,000 of the devices were purchased through federal funding during the COVID-19 pandemic. City College staff and faculty have been on the case of tracking City College Chromebooks since the issue of their disappearance was first reported.
“So finally there’s some light at the end of the tunnel,” O’Connor said.
Next, Ramirez acknowledged academic integrity concerns raised in a previous meeting held by the social science division.
There have been challenges confirming academic dishonesty in online classes and during proctoring. Concerns around privacy when accessing proctoring footage were also raised.
As existing privacy policies prevent access of proctoring footage, Ramirez said faculty are unable to reliably confirm evidence of potential student misconduct. Therefore, faculty are in a situation where they know something might be wrong, but cannot legally verify misconduct due to the aforementioned privacy restrictions.
“It’s kind of a catch-22 that you’re putting a faculty member in,” Ramirez said.
In a similar vein, AI tutoring was also discussed. Ramirez touched on intellectual property issues caused by prospective AI tutors, in which professors may not consent to having their course material uploaded to AI programs and used as training data.
Professors may also have moral reservations about feeding content into AI databases.
AI tutoring also creates issues with apportionment, complicating the process of collecting student attendance and funding credits.
However, it was acknowledged that such AI tools may be needed by students with learning disabilities.
Ramirez emphasized that the topic of AI tutoring is complicated and suggested the Academic Senate thoroughly examine its potential pros and cons in future meetings.
He noted it would be a good topic for the Senate to potentially develop new guidelines or policies.
The next Academic Senate will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 22.
