We Let Students Write Part of Our AI Policy. Here’s What Happened.
Vice-principal in Quebec. Sharing a process that genuinely changed our outcomes.
In September 2025, instead of rolling out an AI policy developed by administration and presented to students, we involved the student council in policy drafting. Three sessions over six weeks. Students sat at the table with department heads and contributed language on what they considered fair, what they needed to be transparent about, and what was genuinely unclear to them.
The policy that came out of that process is more specific than what administration had drafted and in some ways more conservative – students themselves argued for clearer lines than we were proposing.
Compliance is measurably better. Not perfect. But the number of disclosed AI use notes on submissions went up 300% compared to the previous year’s cohort. Students who helped write the policy explain it to their peers. It’s self-propagating.
The insight: students are more likely to follow rules they understand the reasoning for, and even more likely when they helped write them.
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wait 300% increase in disclosed AI use? thats actually wild. like students are being honest about it when they had a hand in writing the rules? that makes total sense but i wouldnt have guessed the magnitude.
Ce résultat est cohérent avec la recherche en participation étudiante dans la gouvernance scolaire. Les élèves qui se sentent entendus dans l'élaboration des politiques développent un sentiment de responsabilité partagée envers ces politiques. Le résultat de divulgation à 300% n'est pas surprenant - c'est la différence entre une règle imposée et une norme que vous avez contribué à définir.
trying this next semester. the part about students feeling heard is the outcome that will make the policy stick. worth the time it takes.
the insight that students drew a clear line between AI as a thinking tool vs AI as a replacement for thinking is significant. that distinction is more nuanced than most faculty-written policies I've read. students understand the ethics when given space to articulate them - we often don't give them that space.
student co-authorship of policy is underused and the results you're describing are predictable: students who helped write the rules understand why the rules exist and feel ownership over them. top-down policies that students had no part in creating produce compliance behavior at best and active circumvention at worst. the process is the policy.