Meeting & Agendas

The committee reviewed meeting minutes from November 7, 2024.

Decisions/Actions: Mervin Jones motioned to approve minutes, the initial motion was made by Emily Olson, seconded by Estrella Barrera and all Committee approved.                                                                                  

The minutes were approved.

Emily Schneider Olson: A really quick update. So, in November everyone on this committee who was there at that meeting was able to receive an overview of the work the subcommittees have done to the student code of conduct. And so, these Sister ARs went up to ASAC in December, where they were presented and reviewed and discussed, and they decided to well, we reviewed 2 out of the 3 in December, and so we returned in February. We reviewed the last and final part of the 3 ARs and the G/Ps. Actually, for student conduct. They were all approved to move forward and out to the community for comments. And so, you would have received that email a couple of days ago from the Vice Chancellor of Instruction, that is out for comments, and they will receive and collect all of them, and review them in the March meeting. And then they will let us know what they want us to work on, and how what they want us to implement. And then the various subcommittees will convene and continue the work and then bring back those updates to this wonderful committee here. 

Mervin Jones: Asked the committee if they had any additional thoughts or questions.

Meritza Tamez: I'll just add that I think, depending on the comments that we see. We may have to bring it back to this group, and then it may have to just continue through the same process and go back to legal. If there are significant changes that are being proposed, so we may not be at the finish line just yet, but hopefully, we are close.

Emily Schneider Olson: Much closer than we were. That's for sure.

Mervin Jones: I just applaud you all for the work and persistence. 

Dr. Herb Coleman: Yeah, not to throw a wrench or talk about constant updates and things. So, you know part of the group that I'm also with is, of course, the group drafting policy on AI, and we have to charge to come forth with something by the fall. So, what I'm seeing here is probably what's going to happen. Is this all going to get approved as of now and then beginning in the fall, we're going to have to incorporate AI into these policies.  So hopefully that'll just reflect that. And then maybe just adding the words in there should be enough. We'll see how that goes, I don't know. 

Emily Schneider Olson: It has been 10 years since this has been revised and we've been under revision of this academic integrity for at least the past 4 years. We are excited to have gotten it to the point where it is now. There is no ACC policy on AI for us to integrate, even though it's been brought up many, many times within this committee, and by full-time faculty. I know adjunct faculty as well, and so I think it will be fairly easy for us to integrate that language into this as an amendment, or you know it's a draft as this works, once you have that policy finished.

Mervin Jones: Dr. Coleman, can I ask you if would you mind sharing who the chair of the AI Committee is?

Dr. Herb Coleman: Stephanie Long is the person who's coordinating all that. I think she doesn't refer to herself as the chair in this case, because 4 subcommittees also work within that group, looking at various aspects, but one academic one looks at the work, environment, ethics, and what the 4th one is so. So, all these different aspects are being looked at in it. But as far as the academic and student conduct which is the committee that I'm co-chairing. That's going be the one that's going probably most impact this in terms of the language. And so, what I will do, is remind them to go look at this, as we go through the effect. After this, after my 3rd meeting today, I will be meeting with my co-chair, and we're going talk about how to go forward and how to proceed. I'll make sure that you know we are constantly keeping up with what's happening. With this, as we go forward.

Mervin Jones: This is so timely because I think in our last meeting Emily recommended that we coordinate with the library to give us an overview on AI. It's such a broad topic. At noon, Jennifer Weber, who's the head librarian for this campus along with Betsy Young are going to give us a presentation on AI and some of the cool things that could be done. And then what's also even interesting? I love the idea that the college is looking at how we proceed with that. Some folks look at it as the scary thing, when the other people are looking at this huge opportunity for growth. And I'm just always eager to see where we're going to land as the institution with it. I'm excited about it. Thanks, Emily, for everything that you've done and how you've guided us. We're going to go ahead, and if we don't have any other comments related to this topic, we'll transition to Christine. We're going to receive an update on Clery, hazing from Kristine Elderkin.  

Kristine Elderkin: Just to give an overview and show how things fit together regarding our hazing policy. I'm sure you hear about it in the news all the time. There's on average one death per year attributed to hazing activities in the US. And so, it is a problematic type of behavior that is addressed through our student code of conduct. There has been a State hazing law for at least 10 years. Hazing is prohibited in our student code of conduct and addressed through board policy and student life training.  Our student affairs have put together a hazing website. And it reflects what's in board policy, what is in the student code of conduct, and what is in state law, and student organizations. This is focused on student organizations that are trained by student life. As they come on board their executives and their officers are trained on the prohibition of hazing at ACC and always before they go on trips as well. We have not had any reports of hazing. I don't get a sense when I talk to people that hazing is an issue at ACC, but as we've seen in the past, as we raise awareness around an issue. Sometimes more reports come forward. So, the communications around this are starting to increase. You may have noticed an email at the beginning of January that went out to students talking about hazing that came from Dr. Reinhart's office and student affairs, and that will be a consistent part of our communications to students to try to raise that awareness. I learned about these state requirements, and how ACC is addressing them because I was watching some Federal legislation that has been in the works for 10 years and that passed with strong bipartisan support in December. It was signed into law on December 23rd by President Biden. That makes hazing an offense that must be counted as part of our crime statistics that are disclosed in the annual security report that comes from my office. The Clery Act is a campus, safety and security law. It's what requires us to send you alerts, crime alerts, and emergency notifications. It obliges us to keep a daily crime log. It requires us to produce an annual security report and report specific crimes to the Department of Education for disclosure on their website so that people can go and compare the crime statistics at different schools and see this is a consumer protection law that gives you information that you need to make an informed decision for your safety. When the Stop Campus Hazing Act passed in December it amended the Clery Act and added the crime of hazing and several requirements. Those requirements include collecting training for our campus security authorities. They are mandatory reporters at ACC to report any type of hazing behavior. It requires us to have policy statements and prevention-type training in place and to communicate that we must report hazing in our annual security report. And we also need to amend that website. That 1st link that I sent to you has 5 years of data on hazing at the institution, and several different dates and pieces of information like whether or not the hazing involved the illegal use of drugs and alcohol. So, Student Affairs, Student Life, and I have been coordinating to understand all of these new requirements. I think we're really on track to sort of catch up with all these other topics that we've just discussed that might alter the student code of conduct. We're looking now to see whether the definition of hazing that is in the student code of conduct is sufficient, that it covers all of these different requirements so hopefully, by the time the student code of conduct gets published, we've got that covered in there as well.  Meritza, do you have anything to add?

https://students.austincc.edu/student-rights-responsibilities/hazing/      https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/5646/text 

Meritza Tamez: No, I think you covered it all.

Kristine Elderkin: Right, that's all I have, unless there are questions.

Mervin Jones: Thank you so much, Kristine. Any questions (to the committee members)? Are there any examples that you want to share where you think that you may have witnessed anything like that?  It should be a good opportunity to get it cleared up.

Kristine Elderkin: We have 63 student organizations registered with Student Life, my understanding is that we have additional student organizations throughout the college that may be being sponsored by a department.  I don't have a list of those, and if we're obliged to train student organizations, I need to find them. So, if you know of any, please shoot me an email or put it into the chat so that I can follow up. We're not looking to change anything about what we're, what they're doing. We're just looking to provide them with the required information.

Estrella Barrera: Can you please share the existing list that you have of the organizations?  Are those posted anywhere? So I'm thinking about our Health Science Division that we go through and see because I know lots of our programs have student organizations. Now, whether they're quote official or not official. 

Kristine Elderkin: Okay, can I just ask Student Life for that list and send it to you?

Estrella Barrera: Oh, that'd be great! Thank you.

Kristine Elderkin: Okay. Thanks.

Mervin Jones: Thanks. That's a great question. Estrella. Pamela has a question.

Kristine Elderkin: Hey, Pamela.

Pamela Chukwuneke: Hi, how are you? I just have a quick question. So, in terms of hazing, we're talking about students within ACC who are part of student organizations. Or we just think about students, even though, even when they are outside of ACC's surroundings.

Kristine Elderkin: it's interesting. The State and Federal definitions are a little different on this, and the requirements are different on this. So, for disclosures of the crime of hazing for the Clery Act. the Clery Act's daily crime log and crime statistics. We are taking reports of hazing that involve any type of let's see if I can put here any type of club. They say a club society association, varsity or Junior Varsity athletic team, club sports team, fraternity, sorority band, or student government. Those are sort of the categories that they list, but they can be formal or informal, recognized or not recognized by the institution whereas the report that goes on the hazing website, the campus hazing transparency report will only list incidents of hazing that were adjudicated through the student code of conduct through the student conduct process. where the organization was found responsible for a hazing incident.

Pamela Chukwuneke: Okay

Kristine Elderkin: It's quite different. What were those? The numbers are going to look very different.

Pamela Chukwuneke: Okay, thank you so much.

Kristine Elderkin: You're welcome.

Patty Zuniga: Here is SL's website for registered organizations and the website includes SGA, PTK, Clubs, and I.S. 

https://austincc.campuslabs.com/engage/organizations

https://sites.austincc.edu/sl/programs/orgs/

Kristine Elderkin: Estrella. Did you see the lists that Patty put in the chat? Okay.

Estrella Barrera: Yes, I am and I was going through them now, making notes of which programs ours are in there. So, thank you very much for sharing that Patty.

Mervin Jones: Maybe like a 20-minute break, and then resume at 12. Would you all be opposed to that?

Estrella Barrera: Oh, that's a good idea!

Mervin Jones: Let's resume back at 11:55 am, please. Okay. thank you all. 

Jennifer Weber: We always appreciate every opportunity to meet with all of you. And I'm sure that AI, for some of you is something you're more comfortable with, some have different levels of comfort. So, we're kind of presenting here at an initial level. But we do have a lot of opportunities here for the next thing. Let me start the PowerPoint. You can get to these links from the slideshow: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/157Xe6SiRcin8X0-deKYwfXr7cWwDPjqtcW2FMAflTLA/edit?usp=sharing

Betsy Young: Thanks, Jen. My sincere apologies for jumping in at the last minute. I'm a faculty librarian at the Northridge campus. I've been at ACC for 15 years now 14 and a half at Northridge since 2016, and I will share my experience with AI am very skeptical fearful, and almost very worried about what is going to happen. Maybe I've just seen Terminator too many times. but it was a good thing for me to start working on this because then I can learn about some healthy ways for it to be used, and what we need to do as a college to work on it. To make sure our students are using it in the best ways. 

Jennifer Weber: And I don't know if, as a committee, you guys have started talking about this, or maybe you've already run into some situations with students and AI, you know. So those are some of the things we know as librarians that we are hearing already questions from faculty about how to present it in their courses, and how to work in situations where they suspect that maybe some plagiarism or some attribution has not happened so kind of moving up. I just want to jump in here. I put together this list, and we have a whole lot of resources that we're going to share with you and links to this presentation as well. These are a list of things that we know our AI can do to help us elevate learning so from things like creating outlines and study guides to increasing engagement, to helping students with time management. Maybe students, for who English is not their native language can use AI for translation, which is fantastic for our inclusion opportunities here it can help proofread. I don't know about you all, but Grammarly saves me in my email from embarrassing myself quite frequently. So, thank you to Grammarly, and I'm sure many students feel that way as well. So, we've already seen with our colleagues the use of some of the different chats. Sorry chat, GPT, and different AI, for maybe when you have to write that email that maybe you have a lot of feelings about. But you want chat to make to chat. GPT, to make sure you are keeping a professional tone. We've shared, using AI for that opportunity as well. So, you know, I don't want to spend too much time talking about what it can do. But I'm going to turn the mic over to Betsy here a little bit to recap some of the Well, I'm sorry. Let me do this, and then she'll talk about some of the concerns that faculty have we already know at ACC that we have seen a demand from our workforce for AI competencies. We know that a lot of programs are being rewritten this summer. I heard somewhere through the grapevine. 27 programs are going forward through CAC very soon for review. Many of those changes are related to AI and learning outcomes related to AI, and as well as we know that AI has the potential to boost our student learning, retention success, and success numbers, and even streamline the registration onboarding process. So, what the college hasn't defined yet is whether we will adopt a college-wide statement on the use of AI. And we'll talk about that here in just a little bit. And I'm throwing this out before this committee is some thought as to whether there's anything in the academic integrity guidelines that needs to be updated because of AI. So, I don't know if that's something you guys are already working on, or put on your slate for the next year. Is there anything specific to AI that you all would like to see happen at ACC?

Betsy Young: Yeah, thanks, Jen, you know, like I said, I have some concerns about it. And, like Mervin was saying, I've definitely there's an English professor I work with quite regularly here at Northridge for every semester for the last couple of years, and she's like, no, I just tell them you can't use it at all, and then I know that some of my librarian colleagues at other campuses are doing AI demos in other classes that they're invited to visit. So, there is a wide disparity, and that is absolutely, Mervin. Something that would be ideal to address what I'm hearing from the sort of late adopter side of the house is it's moving so quickly. Students are already way far ahead. How do we catch up? It feels like as soon as we learn about one thing, it's already obsolete, and the students are on to the other. A big concern for specifically English faculty who are writing a lot having their students write a lot of papers, and then also for librarians, is our students using generative AI to plagiarize. And how can we tell? The tools are getting so sophisticated as long as you don't ask them to generate an image of human hands. You know. How can we tell, and what should we do about it? And is there a gray Area library service hosted? An AI. I think they called it a symposium a couple of weeks ago faculty were invited, and we talked about it. Well, sure, having a student put in a writing prompt into Chat GPT, and have it generate a paper. That's plagiarism. But what about getting help with an outline or getting help with polishing some of their writing? Where is the line? Where is it? Is it a hard and fast line? Is it more of a gradation of what is plagiarism? What isn't? I think that's going to be an ongoing conversation and I think a lot of professors are just super overwhelmed with it. This is an entirely new experience. We're going to have to change everything, and it's a daunting lack of time. We don't even know how these things are working. So how do we account for them in our assignments? It can be really scary if someone's been comfortable with an assignment for years and years, and then all of a sudden they have to change it completely. That segues nicely into what the library has right now in terms of helping faculty with AI and helping students with AI. I like, the 1st link on the left there, this generative AI research guide. This was put together by librarians. I think my Northridge colleague, Jeremy Donald, had a lot to do with it in its inception and it has a lot of information. It has a lot of news links that are currently updated. It has academic journal articles about it. It lists AI resources specific by discipline. So, no matter what you teach here at the college. There's some information there that can help you. Of course, you can request a librarian instruction session to come, and visit your class, and we can work on an assignment. You can talk to librarians individually. There is a link in the slideshow. There I've linked librarians by subject, but any librarian at any campus can help you. 

Jennifer Weber: Thanks. I just wanted to point out I'm clicking on the link here. You guys all can get to it. But also, specifically, this second tab on here is really good, I think, for this committee which is citing AI sources and academic honesty. So, this might be one that you want to bookmark and get to know very well if you are dealing with any of those situations as well. So, let me go back to the presentation. Go ahead, Betsy.

Betsy Young: No, thank you. It's good to get it out there visually. And then again, my Northridge colleague, Jeremy Donald, along with Dave Wilson, worked a lot on our library tutorials that have been around for quite a while. They did some massive rewrites and updates to 2 of them academic honesty, tutorials, and evaluating information and fake news which is really important, and probably going to become even more important in the coming years. But it has information about how to use AI ethically, and what you need to do if you want to use it. If a student wants to use it, and then also how to critically evaluate information. To see if it's AI, or if it's real. I don't know what non-AI or non-generative AI does anybody have any questions about that or follow-ups? 

Pamela Chukwuneke: Yes, I just wanted to support what Dr. Herb was saying. I've taken a couple of classes here, of course, through the C program here at ACC. And yes, there is a disparity in how faculty members view it. AI. I've taken classes in which they've said, No, AI use altogether, and then, much more recently, I'm currently taking a creative writing class. And the professor was like, Yes, you can use AI, and he stated clearly how you can use it not for a generative basis, but you can use it in terms of like, you know, the formatting things like that. So, I'm just kind of concurring with what he's saying, that there doesn't seem to be a standard view in terms of how AI is used. It seems to be kind of up to the Professor and his department or department on how they intend to use it.

Jennifer Weber: Awesome. And we have some of this information on a slide. So, I'm going to table the part about the college policies here for a minute, and just finish up a couple of things on this slide before we move on, which is, I want to make sure you all know that there is an opportunity for faculty to request a librarian to come to their classroom session, or to bring in some cases the class to the library. If the library has room to cover many of these kinds of things related to the tutorials or related to AI. Specifically, the link is there in the slideshow. We get very busy at times of the semester. It seems like everyone wants them in the same week of the semester, of course, so we do encourage faculty to request that ahead of time, but it is our opportunity to help both the faculty and the students become more comfortable with what is happening out there in the wild, and maybe make that shift from no AI to AI in X context. And we are continually seeing. As I said, the industry demands for that. And so, I think that to prepare our students for real-world job opportunities, the more we can do to help them practice with it. I think the more competitive they're going to be. And then, lastly, the other part we're hearing, which Betsy mentioned in her slide is that a lot of faculty are realizing that they're having to rewrite their assignments altogether. So maybe changing what may be incorporating AI into the assignment as a step or having them critique the AI responses. There are all kinds of really interesting assignments out there, and so librarians are available to consult with faculty as well, who are working on rewriting their assignments. We have our instructional designers also as part of T-led that can assist with course, rewrites. But definitely, librarians are happy to help with having that discussion and that kind of thing by appointment. So. moving forward here just a little bit.

Estrella Barrera: It was a quick question about the librarians at each campus. 

Jennifer Weber: Sure.

Estrella Barrera: So, someone at the Eastview campus could come into our spaces classrooms to do the presentation you're doing now or any additional resources. Everyone.

Betsy Young: Yeah. And I just dropped the direct link into the chat. You just fill out a form. Put your preferred dates and your campus. We take care of it online. We do that, too.

Jennifer Weber: And thank you, Angela, for those comments. I agree. And you know I can go back to the group and see what we can do. The definition of reputable and established is becoming gray. So, I don't have. That's the nicest thing I could say right now. So, lastly, just on here, I want to on this slide share with you another excellent guide to AI. Which is this T-led guide to generative AI. So, Herb. You might have worked with Maurice on this as well, or seen this one. I like how this one is organized because it reaches out to some different outcomes that you can obtain with a generative AI. So, I encourage you to take a look at that. And then, if you are interested in kind of becoming an expert in AI kind of starting from the bottom up, I would encourage you to take this ACC, micro-credential course, which is problem-solving with AI. I'm hearing great things from my colleagues. I have not gone through this course, but I have heard great things about it, and one of my colleagues, Lola, is also helping. She's 1 of the learning experts in that course as well. So, a push for that. There's no charge for ACC employees, and you can earn your badge by completing that micro-credential.

Estrella Barrera: We have linked on here the draft policies here. These are the same ones, right? We don't have 2 sets.

Jennifer Weber: One set of the draft policies that are out there, and then we've got wanted to share that. The Department of Composition Literacy Studies formerly known as the English Department has put together some guidelines for generative AI that go in all of their syllabi for their department. I think they've had to because of the nature of their courses jump out there and put something together because they did even last year and the year before start seeing some concerns. And then I also wanted to link here to Packback, which is the AI tool in Blackboard. So, you'll hear a lot about that maybe someone was using Pacback, or how they use Pacback. We're hearing a lot from faculty. I think Carrie Pope is leading the way on that one. Are there any other favorite ACC tools and resources? And, Pamela, please jump in.

Dr. Herb Coleman: https://offices.austincc.edu/institutional-effectiveness-and-grant-development/master-syllabi/artificial-intelligence-draft-policies/

Pamela Chukwuneke: Oh, yeah, I just wanted to agree with the ACC micro-credential course. I did take it. It was a great course, and actually, it addressed a lot of the questions that some people have been raising like, how do you differentiate? If the answer you are receiving is actually legit or not valid, so I'm just saying it's a great cause. Just take it if you have. 

https://library.austincc.edu/help/iloptions.php#request

Jennifer Weber: I think I just wanted to further emphasize that we are available to help. You know, this is just the very tip of an AI iceberg that's coming and Kristine has a really good question in chat about power usage and data centers. I think that we are a year from now going to see a lot of things change. You know where we put our resources, how staffing happens, what you know. Streamlining, you know. Dare I say, efficiency that is coming? And that will impact us. So just I would say buckle up and get ready. It's going to be wild, but we're here to help, and that brings me to the last slide here. If it's working. it's not working, but basically, it's in the slideshow. But you know, come to the library website. Come in person to the library. We have a reference librarian on the desk. A lot of people don't know that the library also has 24, 7 chat. So, if you have a quick question that you want to get answered, please put it in there. If it's 2 in the morning, and you're having AI nightmares, you know. Put it in there, and even if that library can't get your immediate answer. We will follow up with you and give you the resources in hand that you need. So, with that, I'll say, are there any other questions that you all have?  Is he chat human? Or AI? He's humans are human. So.

Betsy Young: That's hilarious. Because we have started getting chats. Where? It's so obvious. The student thinks it's AI and then they get really scared when they realize it's human, and they just bolt. And it's hysterical. Any other questions or comments or answers, as our old Dean used to say? Thank you so much, Mervin, for having us. 

Patty Zuniga: https://tled.austincc.edu/faculty-support/course-development/instructional-material-development/tled-guide-to-generative-ai/

Mervin Jones: Oh, thank you all. Let's give them a round of applause. Thanks, guys, do it this way. Sign language way, whatever you want to do thank you all. I appreciate you all. Thank you all for coming.

Jennifer Weber: You all have a great Friday. Enjoy your weekend.

Mervin: Thanked everyone, and this meeting is adjourned.

Meeting Adjourned: 12:38 pm

Next Meeting Date: April 11th, 2025
Time: 11:00 am - 12:30 pm
Location: Zoom