Graduate Dean Focus | April Boulton
"I believe the future belongs to individuals who can combine technological fluency with strong human skills"
AI Hub
Hood College is a learning community that isn’t just adapting to the future of AI, we’re helping shape it.
At Hood College, artificial intelligence is more than a trend. It’s an opportunity to innovate, create, and lead. Whether you want to harness the power of generative AI to solve real-world problems, enhance your teaching and learning, or develop the skills to create original masterpieces without AI, Hood provides the knowledge, tools, and expert guidance to help you succeed. Led by faculty at the forefront of AI research and innovation, our programs empower students to explore emerging technologies critically, creatively, and ethically.
At Hood, we want everyone to have the resources they need. Whether you're a student,faculty, or staff, you'll find the resources you need here. The Hood College AI Hub is the central place to find governance guidance, approved tools, training, privacy and security information, and practical support for faculty, staff, and students.
The AI policy statement below provides over-arching guidance that encompasses all other Hood College divisions and academic departments. However, individual divisions and departments are encouraged to expand this over-arching statement and provide more detailed policy guidance tailored to their specific professional and operational contexts.
In alignment with our core values and mission, Hood College views artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool that should advance, rather than replace, the fundamental principles of higher education: intellectual curiosity, academic freedom, human creativity, critical inquiry, ethical responsibility, inclusivity, transparency and respect for human dignity. When used, AI and other emergent technologies should be applied in ways that support learning, scholarship, service and operational excellence while preserving meaningful human judgment and accountability. The College also recognizes that there are settings and circumstances where limited or no use of AI is prudent and justified.
Artificial intelligence is reshaping teaching, learning, working, and decision making in higher education. Hood College approaches this moment from the foundation of our mission: to empower students to use their hearts, minds, and hands to meet personal, professional, and global challenges and to lead purposeful lives of responsibility, leadership, service, and civic engagement.
These principles apply to all members of the Hood College community — faculty, staff, students, and administrators — in any context where AI tools are used in connection with the College’s academic, research, or administrative work. They are grounded in Hood’s four Core Values, Hope, Opportunity, Obligation, and Democracy, and are intended to serve as a framework that evolves as technology and our collective understanding develop.
| # | Principle | Core Commitment |
|---|---|---|
| I | Alignment with Hood’s Mission and Core Values | Every decision about AI use must be consistent with Hood’s Core Values: Hope, Opportunity, Obligation, and Democracy. |
| II | Protection of Data and Privacy | Hood College is committed to protecting the privacy of students, employees, and the institution in all AI-related activities. |
| III | Enhancing Human Connection | Technology should be a bridge, not a barrier, to the meaningful human connections at the heart of a Hood education. |
| IV | Pedagogical Autonomy and Disciplinary Appropriateness | Faculty have the right and responsibility to determine how AI is integrated, restricted, or prohibited in their courses. |
| V | Transparency and Proper Citation | When AI is used, its use must be visible, acknowledged, and appropriately documented, consistent with expectations for academic honesty and professional integrity. |
| VI | Human Oversight and Judgment in High-Stakes Contexts | All consequential decisions involving or informed by AI must include meaningful human review. AI must never be the sole arbiter. |
| VII | Equity and Access in AI Use | The use or prohibition of AI at the institution and within individual courses must not create or reproduce inequities in access, outcomes, or opportunity. Where appropriate, the institution encourages the use of AI in ways that expand equitable access and support student success. |
| VIII | Continuous Learning and Institutional Responsibility | Hood has an obligation to monitor developments in AI and emergent technology and update its guidance accordingly. |
Current faculty and staff may view the complete guidance document, which was compiled by the AI Taskforce July 2026. This is a living document and is regularly updated by the AI standing committee: Hood College_AI Guidance Document_2026_07.pdf
Here is a synopsis of the larger guidance document for public access: AI_Guidance_Document_Hub_Summary_2026_07.pdf
If your tool and your intended use are listed below, you can proceed without requesting institutional approval. If it is not listed below, please contact the AI Taskforce for guidance before usage (boulton@hood.edu).
Hood College's institutionally licensed and approved AI tools
Hood’s existing enterprise licenses already cover several AI-capable tools, all of which are free to faculty, staff, and students at the point of use. These are the preferred starting point for any AI workflow at Hood, consistent with Guiding Principle VII on equitable access.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot. AI writing, summarization, and data analysis across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. Available to all faculty and staff with a Microsoft 365 license. Data is processed within Hood’s institutional M365 tenant; Microsoft does not train its models on institutional data under the enterprise agreement. Do not input FERPA-protected student records
or confidential employee data. - Zoom AI Companion. Meeting summaries, transcription, smart chapters, and whiteboard assistance. Available to all Zoom license holders. Student consent is required before recording or transcribing any advising or academic session; session transcripts are education records under FERPA and must be stored and managed accordingly.
- Microsoft Editor. Grammar, clarity, and style suggestions integrated into Word and Outlook. Available to all Microsoft 365 users. Does not store content beyond the session. No data restrictions beyond general institutional data classification.
- Copilot in Excel. Formula suggestions, data analysis, chart generation, and natural language queries on spreadsheets. Available to all Microsoft 365 users. Identifiable student or employee records must be de-identified or aggregated before being entered into a Copilot prompt or natural language query. Copilot may be used in the process of analyzing data, but the input to any Copilot session must not contain personally identifiable information. Offices that routinely work with identifiable records should work with IT to establish approved de-identification workflows before
using Copilot in Excel with those datasets. - Bing Chat / Copilot (web). General-purpose AI assistant for research, drafting, and
summarization. Available to all users through free-tier access. Treat as a public-facing tool: do not input confidential institutional data of any kind. - Blackboard AI Tools. Blackboard's AI Conversation tool allows instructors to test learners' depth and application of knowledge via an interactive conversation based on pedagogical best practices. The instructor sets the task parameters and complexity—and then creates an AI persona to lead the discussion. The learner responds to questions and interacts with the AI persona, exploring the subject matter in an engaging way. After the discussion, the learner reflects on their experience interacting with the AI persona and what they've learned. Both the conversation and reflection are available for the instructor to review and grade.
- Blackboard's AI Design Assistant. This embedded tool leverages AI to inspire and streamline instructors' course creation process by providing recommendations for
- Course structure: Cut down the time required to create and update online courses with AI-generated suggestions for course modules and descriptions.
- Tests and assessments: Easily generate test questions and other assessment tasks, including authentic assessments aligned with Bloom's Taxonomy, by using existing context from the course.
- Rubrics: Ensure consistency and fairness in evaluating student performance with AI-generated grading rubrics.
- Images: Add engagement to course materials with AI-generated or royalty-free
images based on the context of the course.
- New AI Tool Request? Email boulton@hood.edu to be connected with the appropriate review team.
- Want to learn more about the AI Innovation Taskforce? Email lascolette@hood.edu.
Are you ready to say Hello?
Choose a Pathway
Information will vary based on program level. Select a path to find the information you're looking for!