Embracing AI: City College Launches AI Initiative with Historic Flex Day Announcement
City College hopes to continue to mindfully incorporate rapidly developing AI technologies as tools for education.
By Qi Mai
City College hopes to continue to mindfully incorporate rapidly developing AI technologies as tools for education.
On March 4, during the college’s annual Flex Day, more than 200 City College faculty members actively discussed AI’s transformative impact on education and the workforce.
Interim Chancellor Mitch Bailey delivered a pivotal address in MUB 140. There, he officially announced that City College is entering a new era, embracing AI in both the workplace and the classroom.
The Chancellor then gave the stage to keynote speaker Chesa Caparas, who opened the day’s itinerary with her introductory discussion “What Are We Talking About When We Talk About AI Today?”
Caparas, who teaches English and Ethnic Studies at De Anza College, focuses her work on supporting the academic and cultural success of Asian American and Pacific Islander students. She also leads professional development workshops on AI in education.
The discussion served a brief history of AI, tracing its evolution from the 1950s to the present. Drawing on her Fulbright research – which focused on teaching media and information literacy during national elections – Caparas then highlighted the many far-reaching impacts AI has had, from one’s daily life to democracy and education.
The discussion set the stage for Caparas’s subsequent workshop “Beyond the Hype: Balancing the Promise and the Problem of Generative AI in Education,” wherein she addressed college students’ use of AI.
“Curiosity, empathy and compassion” are Caparas’s attitudes for students using AI for their academic work. Caparas emphasizes AI should be used as a tool to enhance, not replace.
During a warm-up discussion, in-person and online attendees engaged in candid dialogue about AI’s fast, effective capabilities and risks. Faculty members expressed concerns about AI’s potential to facilitate academic dishonesty, such as cheating on quizzes, essays and homework.
Stephanie Williamson, a faculty member, voiced a broader fear: AI’s role in displacing jobs. Despite these concerns, Professor Caparas’s deep AI knowledge and smooth delivery earned her applause and positive feedback.
Community members later reflected on the workshop with a mix of excitement and apprehension regarding AI.
“While AI has useful applications, it’s often commercially misrepresented. Many AI queries could be simple Google searches, yet AI consumes vast amounts of water and energy, often with less accuracy,” said Sarah, a student from the Photography Department.
Sarah also raised ethical and legal questions, pointing out that AI models collect data without creators' consent.
“The AI models have scoured the internet for data to build on, without consent of the owners and creators of that data,” said Sarah. “Most current models are also a ‘black box,’ meaning even their creators don’t fully understand how they work. This leaves it open to malicious exploitation or accidental harm, with many models lacking built-in safeguards to prevent such issues.”
Rosenburg Library Technician Toni Kibby-Blackburn believes her work provides essential physical services, such as retrieving books, operating computers, handing out laptops, and other tasks that AI cannot easily replicate. She also views AI as having increasingly negative impacts.
Kibby-Blackburn shared a personal story about her daughter, who created an original piece of artwork and posted it online. Later, her daughter discovered that the image had been printed on a T-shirt without her consent, after being informed by a community artist. Feeling that her work had been stolen, Kibby-Blackburn’s daughter decided to change her major from art to the medical field.
Photography Department Peer Mentor Travis Chambers shares similar concerns. He believes AI’s influence leans more toward the negative than the positive, emphasizing that AI has been used excessively for commercial exploitation. Branding designer Scott Sidorsky acknowledges that AI was developed with commercial interests in mind, but he also recognizes its powerful and effective capabilities in his work.
Back in the day, on campus, our parents’ generation carried big heavy backpacks, shuttling from class to class like little ants moving breadcrumbs, pursuing their American Dream. Today, we simply carry nothing more than a small laptop under our arm, like Harry Potter’s magic wand, harnessing the power of technology. Every innovation has its pros and cons---and AI is no exception. What City College can do is maximize its strengths and work to minimize its drawbacks.
Some professors, like English professor Alisa Messer, have already begun to implement their own course policies:
“I expect your thinking. Unacknowledged use of AI-based generative tools and LLMs is not okay for this class. CCSF’s updated student conduct policy on Academic Dishonesty prohibits ‘the use of generative tools (including but not limited to GPT-4, ChatGPT, Claude, Cohere), without the permission of the instructor to produce responses to school tasks or activities. A student may not use generative tools to produce content that the student submits as the student’s own thoughts and/or language.” Messer’s AI policy clearly establishes the expectations for using generative AI tools like GPT-4, ChatGPT, and others in her English class.
As City College embraces this new era in technology, it’s worth looking back at the institution’s journey through AI discussions:
From 2022 to 2024, City College libraries have taken up the conversation about AI.
In 2024, Dr. Kevin Sherman, the Acting Chair of Educational Technology, joined a statewide collaborative for AI teaching and learning and participated in training programs.
On November 21, 2024, Cynthia Dewar, Chair of the Technology Committee, discussed AI’s role in education during a Participatory Governance Council meeting. She highlighted the Technology Committee’s goal of creating guidance for using AI in the classroom.
Dewar stressed the need to ensure that AI software supports educational quality, while addressing faculty concerns about AI-generated content, and uphold privacy and intellectual property standards. She also pointed out innovative AI uses in libraries and classrooms, including the implementation of such technology with both Canvas and Khan Academy.
Embracing and celebrating this groundbreaking step into the AI era also calls for remembering and recognizing the dedication and forward-thinking of these AI pioneers at City College.
Looking ahead, City College will continue exploring Artificial Intelligence with a Faculty AI Community of Practice and events on March 28 and May 2.
