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Leadership guide/Make the policy yours

Make the policy yours

Your mission.
Your culture.
Your policy.

Start with a research-backed model and a clear account of the choices. Shape it into a policy your institution understands, owns and can put into practice.

Download the editable policy↓Understand the foundation→

Human-First, AI-ForwardUse the research.
Bring your judgment.

The model provides a considered starting position. Your people provide the context: what the institution values, who it serves, how decisions are made and what it can support.

Adapting the policy is part of the work. It is how a researched document becomes an institutional commitment.

Six dimensions
of institutional fit.

Keep the safeguards coherent while making the choices that depend on your context explicit.

Mission and culture

What should responsible AI make possible here?

Connect the purpose to your educational mission, community relationships and expectations of trust. Choose language people recognize as their institution’s own.

Explore the decision→

Academic judgment

Which decisions belong to faculty, programs and the institution?

Set shared expectations for integrity, access and demonstrated learning. Preserve the appropriate academic authority to determine how AI fits a course or discipline.

Explore the decision→

Governance and authority

Who recommends, decides, implements and provides assurance?

Fit the policy into existing decision rights. Give leaders a workable operating structure and trustees the assurance appropriate to their oversight role.

Explore the decision→

Information and risk

Which uses require additional safeguards or approval?

Map actual data classes, systems, contracts and consequential activities. Preserve applicable obligations while choosing workable review thresholds and procedures.

Explore the decision→

Learners, employees and the region

What capabilities and support do your people need?

Consider working adults, dual-enrollment learners, accessibility, clinical and technical settings, workforce partners and the human skills people need for changing work.

Explore the decision→

Capacity and implementation

What can your institution sustain?

Name real owners, support routes and resources. Stage the work to fit staffing, consultation and approval calendars. Set dates and triggers for review.

Explore the decision→

A practical way
to make it yours.

Work in the editable document and your own shared systems. Every decision should leave a usable record.

1. Accept. Confirm the provisions that fit. Record a reasoned acceptance so the team can move on.
2. Adapt. Replace general language with your roles, rules, services and institutional vocabulary.
3. Resolve. Bring material choices to the right authority with options, tradeoffs and a recommendation.
4. Assign and test. Name owners and resources. Walk through realistic academic and administrative situations before approval.
5. Adopt and revisit. Follow your approval process, communicate the decision and establish when it will be reviewed.

What your team should leave with.

• A policy that reflects institutional purpose and approved decisions.
• A short record of the important adaptations and their reasons.
• Named responsibilities, implementation resources and supporting procedures.
• Clear expectations for faculty, staff, learners and service users.
• A review date and triggers for changing the policy as AI and institutional needs evolve.

Start with the editable policy↓Plan the task force’s work→Talk through a difficult choice→

Support for your
AI task force.

Work with HumanSkills on AI policy, governance and the decisions your institution needs to make.

Talk about task force support→