President Rebecca Stoltzfus launched the AI Task Force 10 months ago, with the prospect of obtaining a grant from the Lilly Endowment Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education Initiative. She hoped this would lead to further discussions on various ways Goshen College can approach AI. 

During these AI Task Force meetings, topics such as having a Statement of Ethics and an AI Policy site for GC came up, among other AI-related conversations. 

In a process which started in February, the AI Ethics Workgroup led by Philipp Gollner, professor of history, met multiple times throughout the spring with other faculty members to draft the first versions of the Statement of Ethics.  

With multiple faculty voices ranging from computer science to the humanities, this group asked themselves, “Where are we at as an institution? What are our values long term?” Gollner shared. The group asked itself how it could incorporate GC’s mission statement of the “way of Jesus, joy, curiosity and empathy” into its ethics statement. 

Around 12-15 students from various majors were invited to the second meeting of the working ethics group to chip in their voices as well. 

When asked how he responded and incorporated the different voices as the chair of the AI Ethics workgroup, Gollner responded, “I see more upside than downside in this cultural and technological moment for a liberal arts college as well as the humanities. I would like to seize that. I would like us to seize that and not be purely defensive. For both people like me who see momentum and risks, and for folks who feel a lot of fear, it can be easy to forget that many thoughtful perspectives are still taking shape.”

“To come out with a statement that allows us all to keep having this conversation around a common table I think is a very good sign,” Gollner said. “It’s quite Goshen. As faculty, we need to be reminded that we need community in order to have those conversations.”

After a couple more meetings and continuous rewording of the statement and discussions with President Stoltzfus, the group decided that “as an institution this would serve us at least for the near future as a bit of a guideline.” Gollner stated. 

The AI policy outlines the purpose, mission and vision of AI at GC while providing a universal set of guidelines that the campus community can refer to. 

The  policy site can be divided into five main sections: purpose and governance structure, key terms, general guidance for use of AI tools at GC, academics and AI, and agentic AI, which will be coming soon.    

The AI Oversight Group, co-chaired by Ann Vendrely, academic dean and Raj Biyani, chief innovation officer, over-sees the website with three additional representatives: Jeanne Liechty as the teaching faculty representative, Paul Housholder as the Information Technology Services representative and Fritz Hartman as the administrative faculty representative. 

In May of this year, President Stoltzfus reached out to administrative faculty representatives of the AI Oversight Group and library director Fritz Hartman while forming this AI Policy. 

By this time the AI Taskforce had already begun looking at various AI policies from other schools, and they found that Quinnipiac’s model fit best with what they envisioned for Goshen College. 

With Quinnipiac’s model in mind, Hartman collated the specifics of the policy, including the language that might be used and certain policies pertaining to academics such as guidelines for professors and students. 

Once the setup was laid out, this draft policy was proposed to the AI Taskforce Group and President Stoltzfus towards the end of May.  A workshop of 20-30 faculty, staff and representatives of various groups convened to see what they had crafted at that point and what changes must be made.  

Vendrely and Suzanne Ehst, associate academic dean, both played a major role in regards to the academic portion of this policy. 

After several reviews over the summer, the AI Policy and Guidelines website went live and was presented to the GC community at the Dean’s and President’s workshop this August.

“The policy is a starting point, not a finish line,” Biyani said. “The Oversight Group will keep the policy current, protect student privacy and academic freedom, and make sure people have access to timely training. And we expect to hear back from Lilly on our implementation grant by December, which should open up exciting possibilities for the future.” 

“My hope is that people feel freedom and empowerment,” Biyani continued. “The policy gives tiered guidance based on risk, protects academic freedom, and invites faculty, staff and students to experiment within a clear framework.” 

He concluded, “We want people to try things, learn and help us get better, because this will be a living policy that grows with us.” 

Further details on the Statement of Ethics and the AI policy can be found on the Goshen College website.