Blimey! Researchers at East Carolina University (home of PeeDee the Pirate) fittingly discovered four shipwrecks off the coast of North Carolina.
The ECU marine archaeologists stumbled upon the booty in Brunswick County. It was all hands on deck when a graduate student discovered what researchers believe are the remains of a Spanish privateer ship called La Fortuna that sank nearly 300 years ago.
Fair winds to ye all as the academic year begins!
—Erin Gretzinger
📚 Today’s Syllabus
1. N.C. Schools Tackle AI
2. UNC-CH vice chancellor details an indirect costs proposal
3. Updates to our Kettering story
4. Wake Forest University shutters its DEI office and more required reading
N.C. Schools Tackle AI
As faculty prepare their fall syllabi, one knotty question to consider is whether to draft an AI policy. Their institutions are offering a range of recommendations on what to tell students about the new technology.
Generative artificial intelligence tools have become increasingly accessible, changing how students take notes and summarize readings, as well as how teachers generate course content and grade assignments.
The Quad looked into how North Carolina schools are keeping pace with the rapidly evolving technology, from launching AI platforms for students to crafting syllabus recommendations for faculty. None of the five universities surveyed issues a blanket ban on AI in all classrooms.
Schools like UNC Charlotte and North Carolina State University have provided sample syllabus statements that range from restricting AI usage to incorporating the tools into coursework. Duke has rolled out its own derivative of ChatGPT, called DukeGPT—an interface allowing all Duke community members access to a host of language models.
The UNC System has facilitated faculty discussion on AI issues in education and launched a task force to draft its own guidelines.
Wade Maki, philosophy professor at UNC Greensboro and chair of the UNC System Faculty Assembly, said that a one-size-fits-all policy for AI use is not sustainable and that school guidelines should allow plenty of wiggle room for faculty to craft their own rules. He added that AI is not going away, so higher education should embrace the opportunities the technology brings.
“The Wild West is how we always start with these things, and then it gets less wild, and the roads get paved, and there’s more law and order,” Maki said.
— Lucas Lin
Thanks for reading The Quad, a higher education newsletter written by Matt Hartman and Erin Gretzinger and edited by Emily Stephenson. Reach us with tips or ideas at highered@theassemblync.com.
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Making Indirect Costs ‘FAIR’
Last month, the Joint Associations Group (a.k.a a coalition of 10 national associations that picked the most higher-ed name ever) released a proposal to counter President Donald Trump’s plans to cut reimbursement rates for research indirect costs to 15 percent.
The alternative model, dubbed “FAIR” for “Financial Accountability in Research,” would replace the flat-percentage rate with a system that accounts for the varied costs institutions incur for different kinds of research, considering factors like equipment and technology needs and government-mandated compliance requirements.
Penny Gordon-Larsen, UNC-Chapel Hill’s vice chancellor for research who helped develop the model, told The Assembly that the committee spent “countless hours,” nights, and weekends over two months coming up with the plan.
“It took a lot of deliberation and a lot of questions about what is the right model, but we knew we wanted to address the transparency, and we knew we wanted to address the real costs of carrying out research,” she said. “So that’s where we landed, with a model that creates pathways to identifying those costs that are not too cumbersome for the institutions and that are also auditable for the federal agencies.”
While the higher ed groups endorsing FAIR argue it is the best path forward amid Trump’s threats, others in the research community have criticized the model as too complicated.
Read more about the proposal and what Gordon-Larsen said about getting buy-in from the White House (and some skeptical faculty).
—Erin Gretzinger
Kettering Correction and Connection
We’ve got a couple of updates to last week’s scoop about UNC-CH’s scuttled proposal to purchase Michigan’s Kettering University.
The first is a correction. The original item said that the General Assembly required UNC-CH to open an engineering school, but that provision never passed. It was removed during subsequent negotiations. I apologize for getting that wrong.
Second, a reader let us know that we missed an interesting connection between UNC-CH and Kettering.
Kettering’s president, Robert McMahan, previously taught in UNC-CH’s Department of Physics and Astronomy alongside former Provost Chris Clemens, who convened the working group that proposed the Kettering acquisition. The two were involved in constructing the Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope in Chile.
McMahan’s North Carolina ties go beyond Chapel Hill, too. He was the founding dean of Western Carolina University’s College of Engineering and Technology, and he served as senior advisor on science and technology to former Gov. Mike Easley. Before all of that, McMahan was a Duke University undergrad.
Clemens and McMahan both declined to comment.
— Matt Hartman
Assigned Reading
Another DEI Domino: Wake Forest University will close its Office of Diversity and Inclusion, the Winston-Salem Journal reports. In June, The Assembly reported that Wake Forest announced it would make changes to its DEI efforts following a summer review. Wake Forest’s latest move is more evidence that private universities are changing course on DEI in response to the Trump administration’s scrutiny of such efforts.
Enrollment Bump: With less than two weeks until the semester begins, The Duke Chronicle reports that Duke University added 50 students to the Class of 2029. Duke hasn’t explained the unusual move and why it reopened the waitlist so close to the start of the semester. With the backdrop of layoffs and Trump’s target on the school, one university official said the extra students would provide a revenue “enhancement.”
International Uncertainty: The News & Observer examined the potential fallout from Trump’s immigration and visa policies on international student enrollment in North Carolina. A recent report estimated that international student enrollment could drop by as much as 30 to 40 percent this fall, projecting a decline in North Carolina from 25,753 students last year to 21,890 students this academic year.
No Application Required: More than 62,000 North Carolina students received direct admission to 34 in-state colleges, thanks to a new initiative called NC College Connect. EdNC spotlights the new program, which grants admission to juniors with a weighted GPA of 2.8 or above. Mo Green, the state’s superintendent of public instruction, called it a “defining moment” for education in North Carolina.
Let us know what’s on your radar at highered@theassemblync.com.