At the Feb. 18 Faculty Assembly meeting, the University Senate discussed a new affinity group, changes to teaching surveys and the use of artificial intelligence on Pitt’s campus.
John Radzilowicz, director of the University Center for Teaching and Learning, gave a presentation on integrating AI into Pitt’s curriculum. He shared the work the Teaching Center has been doing on when to let students use AI and when to say no.
“From our perspective, generative AI is a powerful tool with great potential for teaching and learning, but we are very aware of the numerous risks and serious concerns that faculty have and others have about a variety of issues,” Radzilowicz said.
The Teaching Center has hosted workshops and panels to help instructors decide when AI is appropriate in the classroom, stressing that foundational skills like writing, reasoning and critical thinking must come first.
“We see [AI] as another tool in the tool belt to be used, but we are very aware that if you wield a tool correctly, you can get some really good results,” Razilowicz said. “Give a carpenter a hammer and you get some great things. Give a vandal a hammer and you end up with a lot of broken things.”
Another presentation given by Michael Colaresi, associate vice provost for data science and a political science professor, discussed the Hub for AI and Data Science Leadership. HAIL, which started in January, is focused on addressing the challenges of responsible AI use, according to Colaresi.
“AI is faster — it’s everywhere all at once at the same time,” Colaresi said. “It’s opaque and interdisciplinary, and I am in awe by [its] challenges.”
Rather than claiming to solve these problems, HAIL is aiming to coordinate interdisciplinary efforts across campus faculty. The hub will connect different people and offices to better guide responsible AI practices and decision-making, according to Colaresi.
“AI is affecting nearly everyone,” Colaresi said. “I want to speak to and hear from as many faculty and as many nooks and crannies as possible about what’s working and what’s not, which is why shared governance is so amazing.”
David Salcido, assistant professor of emergency medicine and chair of the Campus Utilization, Planning, and Safety Committee, announced a new affinity group representing health sciences faculty. Affinity groups represent specified University communities and address their specific needs or niches among the University population.
The new affinity group will tackle issues within the School of Medicine and other health sciences faculty, according to Salcido.
“This [affinity group] will give us a formal mechanism for continuing the work we’ve already been doing,” Salcido said. “I think it’s fair to say, for the past several years, the faculty assembly members from the health sciences have been meeting with the senior vice chancellor for the health sciences to discuss issues.”
The Senate passed the creation of the affinity group with no objections. John Maier, an assistant professor of family medicine, said the move to make this affinity group has been “long standing.”
“As a faculty member in the School of Medicine who’s been part of this body for a number of years, this move to make an affinity group [has] made a lot of sense for a long time,” Maier said. “This isn’t just something brand new. This is a really nice way to bring together faculty to help our University get better.”
President Kristin Kanthak announced she is working with representatives from the Provost Office and the Educational Policies Committee to create a new ad hoc committee. The new committee will be dedicated to including shared governance in the process of “approving and assessing [new general education] curricular decisions.”
“The new [general educational] requirements will simplify the process for undergraduate students who wish to switch to another school within the University or to pursue a course of study that traverses one or more schools,” Kanthak said.
Kanthak also said the educational policies committee is looking into the effects of ClassRanked, a new teaching survey administration system that will replace OMET for all teaching evaluations by this summer. There has been concern from faculty members about this change and how it will be included in future faculty evaluations, according to Kanthak.
“The Senate was not included in the decision to move to the class rate system, so the educational policies [committee] is working now to ensure that the principles of shared governance are upheld as much as they can be,” Kanthak said.
John Stoner, member of the education policies committee and history professor, said the ClassRank software does not always have shared governance implications, but could, in some cases. While the Senate was not included in the decision to change the software, Stoner assured that there has been positive feedback about ClassRank.
“Some of the concerns are from Google search research about ClassRank and its potential functionality,” Stoner said. “[This was] not necessarily through an informed process. But we welcomed both the concerns as well as the reassurance that it had not been a completely unilateral decision.”
Radzilowicz, director of the University Center for Teaching and Learning, said this switch is just a platform change.
“The OMETS are not going away, and the form of the OMETS is not going away,” Radzilowicz said. “The process for evaluation is not changing. It is strictly a software change.”
Kanthak announced the Senate Research Committee has been investigating recent plans to change the Microsoft OneDrive usage policies for data storage. The committee has already learned there are no definitive plans for OneDrive yet and will continue to investigate as the semester progresses.
Finishing up her report, Kanthak announced vice provost for enrollment, Marc Harding, is retiring.
“Marc has been a great friend to shared governance and to many of us here in the Senate, and we wish him the best in this new chapter,” Kanthak said.