The November 2022 public release of ChatGPT marked a watershed moment in higher 
education. Within months, surveys revealed widespread student adoption: by early 2023, 
over 30% of college students reported using generative AI for coursework (Wang et al., 
2023), a figure that climbed to 70% by 2025. Yet institutional responses remained fragmented 
and reactive. While debates about ChatGPT and academic integrity dominated headlines, 
a more fundamental question persisted: What are faculty actually telling students about AI 
in their syllabi?
The syllabus functions as a pedagogical contract, institutional document, and statement 
of values (Parkes & Harris, 2002). When faculty remain silent about AI, that silence itself 
constitutes a position of leaving students navigating ambiguous expectations across 
courses and semesters. UNESCO’s (2023) Guidance for Generative AI in Education and 
Research emphasizes that education systems must “develop clear policies and frameworks” 
rather than defaulting to prohibition or unstructured adoption. Yet research on the top 100 
U.S. universities found that fewer than 40% had developed institution-wide AI policies by 
late 2023 (Wang et al., 2023), suggesting that guidance has not reached classroom-level 
implementation.
SILENCE IS A P
AI Policy Absence in C
College Art Syllabi
David Moya
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TRENDS 2026 	
	
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