A look into McEwen’s view on AI in academia.
During the Board of Regents meeting on February 13, Rhonda McEwen, President of Victoria College, highlighted her prioritisation on policy review. McEwen’s focus is investment management, public statements, building data analytics, and overall development of the campus master plan. So far, she has standardised 36 policy instruments, which include policies, guidelines, and standard operating procedures.
In the process of developing a standardised policy library for Vic, McEwen has had work-study students use AI tools to aid in formatting. In a later statement, the University outlined the basic premise of her process, saying that “AI was used to help transcribe existing policies into the template (i.e., mapping content into a different format).”
The ethics of using AI in academia is something that McEwen has spoken about in a 2023 Toronto Star article. McEwen does not align with the outright banning of AI in Universities, but rather stated that “we should reconsider the implications of, and our responses, to [artificial intelligence].” She sees the emergence of AI as a fundamental game changer that academic institutions have to adapt to. McEwen believes in a positive approach to AI, which, compared to the general mood of cynicism emulated in other universities banning AI, is a radical stance. Based on her academic background in STEM and her passion for the humanities and social sciences, McEwen embraces the intersectionality that can be achieved with AI. “In academia,” McEwen said, “instead of focusing on how to distinguish AI-generated papers from traditional methods, we all need to take a seismic leap into a future that will demand an even more creative and analytical approach to information.”
McEwen noted in February’s BOR meeting that there were issues with AI not comprehending some information, difficulties with reading physical copies, and faults with standardisation and structure. There are still kinks to work out due to the inconsistency of AI, but McEwen hopes that the policy library will be finished and made accessible to the public via Victoria College’s official website by May 2025.
