Building the AI-Ready Graduate School: CGS Member Toolkit

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Generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) is the new normal in higher education. Most students are already using AI tools, with over fifty percent of students surveyed in a recent Gallup poll saying they use generative AI in their coursework every week. Graduate deans today face a difficult balancing act: generative AI is reshaping how students learn and conduct research, yet many institutions lack clear, consistent policies to guide its use. This toolkit is designed to help you meet that challenge with practical, low- and no-cost resources tailored to the realities of graduate administration.

The toolkit features eight tools that guide graduate education administrators through the full policy lifecycle, from initial creation through institutional alignment and long-term review. While the tools follow a logical sequence, the toolkit is flexible by design: use only what is relevant to your context, and in whatever order makes sense. The eight tools are:

• AI Stakeholder Framework — A framework to assess the major campus stakeholders in AI policy creation, their concerns, and levels of engagement.
• Know Your LLMs — An overview of the most widely used AI models, their data privacy practices, and what each means for your institution.
• Building A Digital Hub — A guide for developing a web-based repository for university resources as well as a reflection of the university’s continued commitment to helping its community navigate the uncertainties of generative AI.
• AI Literacy Map – A diagnostic tool and list of profiles to understand where community members sit in terms of their AI literacy and attitude towards AI. Each profile comes with recommended follow-up activities to expand AI literacy and improve the effectiveness of new policy implementation.
• Generative AI Compliance Checklist for Graduate Schools — A fillable checklist for ensuring your policies meet key institutional compliance benchmarks.
• Creating Policies with Graduate Programs in Mind — Guidance on addressing the distinct roles graduate students play as both consumers and producers of research and scholarship.
• Keeping AI Policies Relevant — Strategies for maintaining policies as technologies evolve and institutional staff changes.
• Roleplays for AI Integrity Situations — Scenario-based exercises to help administrators and faculty navigate real-world generative AI integrity challenges.

The toolkit is adaptable to both centralized and decentralized graduate units and non-U.S. institutions where no graduate dean or centralized graduate unit exists, responding to requests from CGS membership for resources that recognize the diversity of individual institutional contexts. CGS plans to update the toolkit as gen AI technologies continue to evolve. To suggest additions or changes, please contact Matthew Linton.