‘Hypocrisy’: US students are calling out college leaders for using AI
Mark Arsenault and Alan Blinder
NEW YORK - College professors and administrators have been busting students for cheating with artificial intelligence for several years.
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professors → call → years
Now, the professors and administrators are getting in trouble, too.
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professors → get → trouble
Dartmouth College in New Hampshire last week announced it was investigating its provost, Santiago Schnell, after the college’s student-run newspaper found that some of his published writing appeared written by AI.
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some → announce → AI
Schnell, a mathematical biologist, is perhaps the most prominent in a growing cast of college professors and administrators who have been accused of using AI in a way that crosses ethical lines.
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that → grow → lines
He issued a statement apologising.
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He → issue → statement
Administrators wring their hands, and sometime issue punishments, when students outsource writing assignments to a robot to save time or avoid the hard work of thinking.
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students → wring → thinking
Some students are calling out the examples of faculty doing the same thing as hypocritical.
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faculty → call → thing
“It just goes against all the values of our institution and the concept of academia,” Eli Moyse, a Dartmouth senior, said in an interview.
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Moyse → go → interview
A working group at George Washington University said in a report in August that many students reported “doubts that faculty themselves are using AI ethically and transparently”.
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faculty → work → AI
And at Brown University in Rhode Island, a survey found that close to two-thirds of undergraduate students who responded had some worries about faculty members relying on AI to develop course lectures and other content.
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members → find → lectures
At Dartmouth, Schnell’s AI use in public writing came up in an investigation in August by news site Semafor about AI-created writing appearing in the opinion pages of major publications.
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writing → come → publications
That investigation said an Aug 9 commentary by Schnell in The Washington Post was written by AI.
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commentary → say → AI
The opinion article was about AI cheating in school.
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AI → cheat → school
The Semafor investigation also found indications of AI writing in New York Times opinion articles.
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investigation → find → articles
The follow-up investigation in September by the student publication, The Dartmouth, found extensive AI use in Schnell’s published work in 2026.
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investigation → find → 2026
Schnell told The Dartmouth in a statement that he used AI “for language refinement, copyediting, improving clarity and organisation and making writing processes more efficient”.
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processes → tell → clarity
The newspaper then ran Schnell’s statement on his AI use through an AI detector, which flagged the statement itself as apparently written by AI.
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which → run → AI
Schnell did not respond to a request for comment.
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Schnell → respond → comment
In a note to her campus announcing the review of Schnell, Dartmouth’s president, Sian Beilock, said that being an early leader on AI was “messy”.
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being → announce → AI
Beilock recently called for more AI use at her university.
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Beilock → call → university
“There will be mis-steps,” she wrote, “and that’s part of how an institution learns”.
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institution → write → ?
Dartmouth declined to comment beyond what Beilock had already written.
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Beilock → decline → what
There should also be consequences, said Moyse, who called the AI scandal a “completely cartoonish” display of hypocrisy.
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who → say → hypocrisy
“He should resign immediately or get fired,” he said of Schnell.
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he → resign → Schnell
“Passing something off as your work when it isn’t your work is just plagiarism, even if it’s written by a robot.”
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it → pass → robot
In a letter published on Sept 25 in The Dartmouth, the provost apologised for not always disclosing AI use in his public writing.
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provost → publish → writing
“Suffice it to say, I am more aware than ever of the need for robust intellectual discussions about the appropriate use of AI in the higher education landscape,” Schnell wrote.
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Schnell → suffice → landscape
The scope of AI use by university employees is not entirely clear, but one of the most comprehensive surveys, conducted in the autumn of 2025 by Elon University and the American Association of Colleges and Universities, found that about a quarter of the 1,057 faculty members from across the country who responded were not using generative AI tools.
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who → conduct → tools
Meanwhile, polling suggests US college students lean heavily on AI in their coursework.
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students → suggest → coursework
More than half say they use it at least weekly, and one in 5 say they use it every day.
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they → say → it
Among faculty, nearly nine in 10 said they were not using AI for grading, according to the Elon survey.
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they → say → survey
And just 6% said they used AI “a lot” when preparing their own research papers.
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they → say → papers
Close to half, though, said they turned to AI at least somewhat as they created or changed “traditional assignments”.
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they → say → assignments
At the University of California, Berkeley, the student-run paper, The Daily Californian, ran dozens of campus communications through AI detectors and found that some missives from top administrators were apparently written or altered by AI.
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missives → run → AI
Dan Mogulof, a spokesperson for Berkeley, said in an e-mail that university leaders and communicators were using AI as a tool within certain guidelines and “so long as the final product accurately and authentically captures and expresses the author’s thoughts, perspectives, tone and objectives”.
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product → say → thoughts
He added: “We have found that not to be possible without extensive revision, editing and/or embellishment of whatever an AI agent might initially produce.”
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agent → add → whatever
Student journalists also tested a long essay published by Berkeley math professor Zvezdelina Stankova in The San Francisco Standard.
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journalists → test → Standard
AI detector Pangram flagged the essay as “33% AI-generated or AI-assisted writing”, the paper wrote.
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paper → flag → writing
Stankova, who declined to comment, told the student paper that she had used AI for editing, but the essay, about the shaky math skills of many new Berkeley students, was the result of “intensive human work and deliberation”.
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essay → decline → work
Some schools have specific policies on AI use among employees.
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schools → have → employees
…and 12 more, not listed.
The Aporia
