07/13/2026

Summer Series Post-Webinar Blog 4: Co-owning integrity work with students in the age of AI

by Kate Marzen

The most recent ICAI Summer Series webinar, held on Thursday, July 9, 2026, showcased two significant academic integrity processes currently in use at University of New South Wales, Sydney and University of California, Santa Cruz. The presenters offered attendees two distinct approaches to managing misconduct concerns, yet one key theme was threaded throughout the discussion: meaningfully including students in an institution’s process is essential to academic integrity success.

The session opened with an overview of Courageous Conversations facilitated by Shaun Lehmann. The Courageous Conversations model, originally researched by Murdoch and House (2024), examines the distressing nature of academic integrity processes for students and the complicated and lengthy process requirements for university staff. It offers a path forward by reforming procedures so students can take responsibility for their mistakes and learn through a shorter experience centered on human connection and empathy. Courageous Conversations stand in stark contrast to the legal-style procedures many universities still rely on and the data behind it makes a compelling case for institutional change.

For the second half of the session, Jessa Kirk and Isabel White discussed University of California Santa Cruz’s approach, which centers around Peer Educators and in-person meetings scaled to the severity of the case outcome. Their Integrity Tutorial pairs independent learning with an in-person meeting with a Peer Educator. The Integrity Mentorship Program provides students with the opportunity to engage in 3 one-on-one sessions with a Peer Educator throughout the term, and the Integrity Program provides 10 weeks of group learning in lieu of suspension. These approaches receive consistently positive feedback from both responsible students and the Peer Educators, who keep the process student centered. This process also highlights the importance of face-to-face learning as artificial intelligence continues to permeate higher education.

This webinar was a timely reminder of how much human connection matters in the age of artificial intelligence. I found myself resonating with Isabel’s greatest source of frustration, which she shared in the pre-webinar blog: “The sneaky ways in which AI has been integrated into every facet of my university experience. A personal (least) favorite is my school’s mascot, the banana slug, turning into an AI Chatbot assistant on the UCSC website.” So many of us are feeling this same tension as we watch artificial intelligence reliance grow and mourn the loss of human connection. This connection is necessary for robust well-rounded learning, particularly in cases of academic misconduct. This session helped me to re-center my own student-focused perspective as I continue planning for the new academic year. I expect that the Courageous Conversations model and Peer Educator program will continue to gain momentum as institutions find ways to better integrate students in their pre- and post-violation education and refocus on learning over punishment.   

References

Murdoch, K., House, D. (2024). Courageous Conversations: Approaching Amnesty Through Honesty as Reparations to a Learning Community. In Eaton, S.E. (ed.), Second Handbook of Academic Integrity. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54144-5_181

Kate Marzen is the Director of Academic Integrity at Syracuse University, focusing on the promotion and understanding of Syracuse’s academic integrity policy through education, partnership, and holistic support.

The authors' views are their own.

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EDITOR'S NOTE:

This is the fourth of our post-webinar blogs with reflections by attendee Kate Marzen to accompany the ICAI Summer Series of webinars. 

Here is some recommended post-reading for webinar 4 by Shaun Lehmann, Jessa Kirk and Isabel White.

Required reading:

Cullen, C. (2025). The intersection of restorative justice practices and moral development. Integrity Matters  ICAI blog Oct. 6, 2025.

Recommended further reading:

Einhorn, W. (2026). The honor code could do more for us. April 2026. Oberlin Review student newspaper

Martin, E. (2026). When AI use makes you uncool. Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription and/or institutional login required).