About This Session
In the world of generative AI, the most critical architecture isn't the software — it's the humans who use it. Small, residential liberal arts colleges face a unique challenge: balancing a commitment to real, in-person, human-centered connections with the new artificial, computer-mediated interactions of AI. How we teach and learn are deeply disrupted by AI, and so are our operations.
Join colleagues from four CLAC institutions as they share their AI governance and committee journeys, moving from institutional overviews to a candid discussion focused on crowdsourcing solutions to the shared challenges facing our community.
Session Format
- Part 1Institutional Overviews — Each institution provides a brief overview of their AI committee structure and governance journey, including what they built, what changed, and what they're still figuring out
- Part 2Candid Discussion — Open conversation with attendees to crowdsource solutions to the shared challenges facing CLAC institutions — because the road is shorter when traveled together
Key Themes
Governance
How to build AI governance structures that respect shared institutional values while enabling meaningful adoption — without bureaucracy that slows the work.
People
The human dimension of AI adoption — faculty courage, staff resistance, student expectations, and the role of IT as bridge-builder between communities.
Trust
Building the institutional trust needed for AI initiatives to land — across faculty governance, student life, and senior leadership simultaneously.
Community
What the CLAC community can achieve together that no institution can achieve alone — shared frameworks, shared lessons, shared courage.
Learning Outcomes
- Learn AI governance approaches from four CLAC institutions — their committee structures, decision frameworks, and the lessons they'd pass on.
- Share your institution's own approaches and discover options you haven't considered through structured peer exchange.
- Leave with at least one concrete, transferable governance strategy and a clearer sense of the shared challenges the CLAC community is navigating together.