University AI-Use Policy and Resources

Dear Colleagues,

The attached University AI-Use Policy was approved by the Board of Trustees at the October 4th BOT Retreat. The policy is now in effect.

  1. All CNU employees, faculty, students, and staff must adhere to the provisions of the approved CNU AI Use Policy.
  2. It is expected that pertinent provisions will be added to course syllabi ASAP.
  3. Where the college curriculum committees proactively added language regarding the permitted and non-permissible use of AI for students and faculty (and for other uses such as research), the college must ensure alignment with university policy.

The attached policy will be added to CNU’s developing centralized policy hub. OIEA expects to launch this hub within a month. More information will be shared with everyone at the upcoming planned campus-ALO Days.

Many thanks to the University Curriculum Committee, the VP of Academic Affairs and Research, the Faculty Senate, the President’s Executive Council, members of the Board of Trustees, and others who collaboratively helped shape this policy. Thanks to CNU’s Chief Scientific Officer for his guidance regarding NIH policy. This best exemplifies shared governance in action at CNU!

Furthermore, in collaboration with the Assistant Vice President of Operations, Dr. Yang Sun, I would like to share the following rules related to AI tool usage at CNU.

  • CNU has approved the use of the AI tool “Microsoft 365 Copilot.”
    Copilot is available to all CNU employees and students. To start using Copilot, log in to office.com using your university credentials. Once logged in, you’ll have access to Copilot across supported Microsoft 365 apps. Copilot is hosted within the university domain and is designed to protect data privacy. Your data is not used to train foundation AI models, ensuring your information remains secure.

As a reminder, if you choose to use other AI tools such as ChatGPT, you may not use them for university-related tasks. Only the subscription version of ChatGPT may be used when you go to Settings > Data Controls and turn off “Improve the model for everyone,” and only in accordance with the attached policy provisions. The use of Gemini, Grok, Claude, Sora, etc., whether through free or paid accounts, is prohibited for university-related tasks due to data privacy concerns.

CNU Deans are requested to circulate this message to all students. Please let the team know if there are any questions.

Thank you!

Sincerely,

Ashim

Ashim Malhotra, PhD, FAAPE
Vice President
Institutional Effectiveness and Accreditation
California Northstate University