Straws in the Wind - Part 405

From the Brown Daily Herald: The Generative AI in Teaching and Learning Committee report found asymmetric patterns of generative AI use across campus... According to the report — shared with the community Provost Francis Doyle — 56% of undergraduate respondents and 67% of graduate and medical student respondents reported intentionally using generative AI tools daily or weekly. The committee noted they found a disconnect between the ways students and faculty use generative AI. They found that while a majority of students who responded to their survey use generative AI to learn new concepts, only a quarter of faculty respondents said they asked their students to use generative AI as a tool for their coursework. When they did so, it was often to have students think critically about AI or use it as a learning assistant...

An audit of roughly 3,000 syllabi from academic years 2023-24 and 2024-25 found that more than half did not include a policy on generative AI usage in teaching and learning... The report noted that over 70% of student survey respondents in the life sciences and physical sciences identified as frequent generative AI users, while only 41% of humanities and the arts students identified as frequent users. Despite differences in AI adoption, students and faculty alike share concerns that over-reliance on generative AI could “reduce long-term critical thinking, have negative cognitive consequences and undermine academic integrity,” Doyle added. 

...For the near-term phase of the roadmap, the committee recommended that the University set baseline rules for generative AI while each department develops “standards for their areas when their expectations diverge from the baseline rules.” The recommendations also call for providing “centralized, enterprise-level GenAI tools” through the Office of Information Technology. In the next phase, the committee recommends updating the College and Graduate School academic codes to “explicitly address boundaries of AI assistance” as well as providing training to develop AI literacy among University staff. 

...The final phase recommends exploring the development of a coalition of peer institutions to set national standards for AI usage in higher education...

Full story at https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2026/07/university-report-finds-split-ai-adoption-patterns-concerns-of-risks.