\n<\/p>\n
The world\u2019s largest professional organization of writing educators disagrees with the notion that the rise of generative artificial intelligence in the classroom is unavoidable. <\/p>\n
Earlier this month, the Conference on College Composition and Communication passed a resolution affirming the rights of students and faculty to refuse the use of generative AI in the writing classroom. \u201cUnsubstantiated claims about how generative AI increases productivity\u201d and a string of other concerns underpinned the resolution including the technology\u2019s corrosive implications for data privacy, labor rights, academic freedom, the environment and the critical thinking skills humans develop through the process of writing. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe work of college writing instruction should be attentive to industry trends\u2014among many other external factors\u2014but not driven by the goal of workforce preparation through a narrow focus on specific technological skills,\u201d reads the resolution. \u201cAs a profession, rhetoric, composition, and writing studies is committed to preparing students to write in a world that is bigger than just work. We understand that students learn to write to navigate uncertainty, gain access to resources, make sense of phenomena, connect with others, build community, process feelings and experiences, and engage in civic participation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The resolution, which the CCCC overwhelmingly approved at its annual convention in Cleveland two weeks ago, reflects the writing education community\u2019s support for the right to opt out of using generative AI in the classroom, according to Jennifer Sano-Franchini, an associate professor of English at West Virginia University and immediate past chair of the CCCC. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an academic freedom issue, and students and teachers should be able to make a choice. That\u2019s something that\u2019s being denied when people say things like, \u2018You just have to use it,\u2019 \u2018It\u2019s here to stay\u2019 or \u2018Students need to be able to use it for their careers,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cThose are all claims we can unpack more, but I\u2019m not particularly convinced.\u201d <\/p>\n
The CCCC\u2019s resolution comes three-plus years after OpenAI launched ChatGPT\u2014which can generate research papers, essays and fictional stories in seconds\u2014precipitating the current wave of partnerships between higher education and profit-driven tech companies. <\/p>\n
At first, ChatGPT and other generative AI tools sparked fears among educators that cheating would become easier, more common and harder to catch. While data shows that is indeed happening, colleges and universities have also been inundated with the tech sector\u2019s predictions that generative AI will wipe out many entry-level white collar jobs\u2014and its claims that AI-savvy job seekers will have a leg up. <\/p>\n
\u201cI felt pressured to learn about it and look into it,\u201d Sano-Franchini told Inside Higher Ed<\/em>. \u201cOver time, I noticed some students using it inappropriately\u00a0\u2026 Now I don\u2019t ban it, but I don\u2019t encourage it.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead, Sano-Franchini\u2014whose research explores the intersection of culture, power and technology\u2014crafts writing assignments that may be difficult for a large language model to complete, including by incorporating elements of previous class discussions. But she\u2019s aware that other faculty members may be making different choices about how to integrate AI into their teaching, and she\u2019s worried about what students are missing out on as many become more reliant on such tools to write. <\/p>\n \u201cThese companies and the marketing they use prey on people\u2019s writing anxieties. Writing is hard, and I can see why [offloading it to an LLM] is appealing to some people,\u201d Sano-Franchini said. \u201cBut when people are not taking the time to read and understand what other people are saying and the arguments they\u2019re making, it\u2019s really difficult to have a shared conversation about a topic and develop our thinking about it.\u201d <\/p>\n Some of her students\u2014who, she says, have become increasingly negative about generative AI\u2019s hold on modern culture\u2014are also grappling with the implications of refusing the technology.<\/p>\n Colleen Benison, a master\u2019s student studying writing and editing at WVU, said that while her program has been insulated from pressure to adopt generative AI, she knows it\u2019s very much present for other students. And they should have the ability to opt out, she told Inside Higher Ed<\/em>. <\/p>\n \u201cIf higher education is about gaining new knowledge and sharpening critical thinking skills and contributing to scholarly conversations, students are actively neglecting these things when they use AI,\u201d said Benison, who doesn\u2019t use generative AI at all. \u201cThere\u2019s rhetoric about inevitability and not being left behind, but there\u2019s more value in rediscovering why human intelligence is so valuable. I don\u2019t think we\u2019re being left behind by refusing it.\u201d <\/p>\n Despite the qualms of some students and faculty, many colleges and universities are rushing to hop on the generative AI bandwagon. Some are paying big money. <\/p>\n Numerous institutions, including Arizona State University, the California State University system and the University of Colorado system, have signed multimillion-dollar deals with tech companies to offer students and faculty access to proprietary generative AI tools in the name of workforce development and AI literacy.<\/p>\n Students and faculty have reported that they\u2019re often left out of those decisions, yet don\u2019t have a choice when it comes to using generative AI. <\/p>\n According to a 2025 survey by the American Association of University Professors, 15\u00a0percent of faculty said their college or university mandates the use of AI, and 81\u00a0percent said they\u2019re required to use learning management systems and other education technology embedded with AI tools that they can\u2019t turn off. At the same time, 69\u00a0percent said AI is hurting student success and 95\u00a0percent stressed the importance of implementing meaningful opt-out policies. <\/p>\n The CCCC\u2019s resolution says there\u2019s agency in refusing AI. <\/p>\n \u201cRefusal of generative AI enables us to take a step back from the compulsory opt-in culture that has become ubiquitous through Big Tech, and it (re)opens possible rethinking around how we interact with and engage corporate proprietary technologies that involve profiting from student and teacher data and intellectual labor, including plagiarism detection software, learning management systems, and telecommunication technologies,\u201d it reads.<\/p>\n The CCCC isn\u2019t the first professional academic society to publicize its concerns about the threats generative AI poses to teaching and learning, though others have stopped short of granting faculty and students permission to flat out refuse the technology. <\/p>\n \u201cStudents of all kinds already rely on generative AI tools and will continue to do so,\u201d reads the American Historical Association\u2019s guiding principles for AI in history education. \u201cSome committed educators have chosen to reject generative AI for its ethical, environmental, and economic consequences, but ignoring this technology will neither halt its spread nor shield our discipline and students from its reach.\u201d <\/p>\n The CCCC intentionally left its resolution free of assumptions about the inevitable spread of generative AI. \u201cWe\u2019re not saying you have to use it or you can\u2019t use it,\u201d Sano-Franchini said. \u201cFor a long time, people were made to feel like they don\u2019t have a choice\u2014if they didn\u2019t want to use it, they\u2019re putting their heads in the sand and avoiding the inevitable. But we\u2019re trying to resist that and say there are really good reasons for not wanting to use it and here\u2019s why.\u201d<\/p>\n Even if other disciplines haven\u2019t explicitly endorsed opting out, the CCCC has joined a growing opt-out movement that many individual faculty support. <\/p>\n Last summer, more than 1,000 education professionals from universities across the globe signed an open letter in support of refusing \u201cthe call to adopt GenAI in education,\u201d describing it as \u201ca threat to student learning and wellbeing\u201d fueled by \u201ca massive marketing push to position these products as essential to students\u2019 future livelihoods\u201d despite \u201cinsufficient evidence\u201d that they lead to learning gains. <\/p>\n For academics and others who want to advance the AI-resistance movement, focusing on the right to refuse the technology and directing criticism toward tech companies offers the best path forward, said Sonja Drimmer, an associate professor of medieval art and architecture at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst who has written at length about resisting generative AI in education. <\/p>\n \u201cWorries about plagiarism are distractions to pit teachers against students so that we forget that our actual opponents in this battle are profiteers and opportunists,\u201d she said. \u201cThe word \u2018inevitability\u2019 has long been used to defuse and deflate any kind of resistance or rejection to anything. It\u2019s important to ask who is promoting that narrative and why.\u201d <\/p>\n And while those and other questions about generative AI\u2019s ability to improve student outcomes remain largely unanswered, the higher education sector should take time to first question where the pressure to adopt the tools now is coming from, Drimmer added. <\/p>\n It\u2019s also why she believes the CCCC\u2019s resolution offers such an effective defense against that pressure. <\/p>\n \u201cUrgency is meant to flood the mind of the customer so they can\u2019t take a pause to consider whether the thing that\u2019s being sold really needs to be bought,\u201d she said. \u201cI see no need for urgency. I understand that the phrase \u2018But we\u2019re going to fall behind\u2019 can be very convincing. But no one is really asking, \u2018Fall behind what?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The world\u2019s largest professional organization of writing educators disagrees with the notion that the rise of generative artificial intelligence in the classroom is unavoidable. Earlier this month, the Conference on College Composition and Communication passed a resolution affirming the rights of students and faculty to refuse the use of generative AI in the writing classroom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[3350,1092,13843,3407],"class_list":{"0":"post-46933","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-faculty","9":"tag-push","10":"tag-refuse","11":"tag-writing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2018Profiteers and Opportunists\u2019<\/h2>\n