SPHHS Policy on Student Use of Generative AI (GAI)

All students in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences (SPHHS) are expected to be familiar with and follow all University of Massachusetts Amherst guidelines for the responsible use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) as well as the UMass Academic Integrity Policy and the UMass Research Misconduct Policy.

SPHHS is committed to providing its students with the skills, knowledge, and abilities they need to be successful in their future careers; this includes building GAI literacy and developing an ethical framework for its appropriate use. While there may be appropriate use of GAI tools to support student learning, there also are limits to its acceptable use within our academic and research programs. 

This statement describes allowed and/or prohibited uses of GAI for various aspects of academic and scholarly work by students within SPHHS. Please note that while this policy applies to all students engaged in academic and/or research work within SPHHS (including students in fully online courses and programs), departments and programs may have their own policies that build upon the SPHHS policy; such policies will be included in department/program handbooks.

We recognize that GAI is a rapidly developing technology and that the policies outlined in this document may evolve over time.  When changes to the policy are made, a notice of updates will be shared with students, faculty and staff via email to their UMass email addresses and posted on the SPHHS website. It is the responsibility of all students, faculty, and staff to stay up to date on current policies. 

If students are unclear about these expectations and/or have any questions about whether a particular use of GAI is considered acceptable, it is the student’s responsibility to ask for clarification from their instructor,  faculty advisor, and/or faculty supervisor prior to using GAI to complete any assigned task. Students with particular accessibility needs for which they receive accommodations through Disability Services may wish to use GAI tools to support their learning and academic work; these situations should be explicitly discussed with supervising faculty.

A. General Guidelines

It is preferable that any GAI use for academic and/or scholarly work utilize, to the extent possible,  the UMass GenAI Platform that is housed within UMass Amherst's secure infrastructure exclusively for the UMass community. This platform currently is rated as allowable for data categorized up to and including “Level 3: Sensitive Information, Confidentiality – Moderate.” Please refer to the GenAI Platform Privacy Statement for additional information.

Please also refer to the University’s guidance for Responsible Use of Generative AI. 

Use of GAI, when allowable, within the scope of any academic or scholarly work must be clearly indicated and cited. Many disciplines and journals have developed their own guidelines and standards for disclosure and citation of GAI use. As examples of appropriate citation formats, please refer to the APA or Chicago style guidelines.

B. Courses and Independent Studies

All course syllabi within SPHHS departments will include a clear statement of the allowed and/or prohibited uses of GAI within that course. Because academic freedom is an important value of SPHHS and UMass, faculty have the right to set their own policies for their courses, including those related to use of GAI.  Some courses may allow GAI on some assignments while prohibiting it in others. Students should read all assignments and syllabi carefully and adhere to the stated GAI policies. Any questions regarding course GAI policies should be directed to the course instructor. All suspected unauthorized student use of GAI will be addressed by the course instructor in accordance with the UMass Academic Integrity Policy.

Similarly, faculty overseeing an independent study may determine allowed and/or prohibited uses of GAI for such work. At a minimum, students and faculty should discuss expectations around GAI use at the beginning of the independent study. Ideally, allowed/prohibited uses of GAI will be communicated to the student in writing and reviewed together during a meeting.

Regardless of whether GAI is allowed within a particular course and/or assignment, students should be aware that they may be asked, at any time, to defend, reproduce, and/or otherwise explain their work and process in writing and/or verbally.

C. PhD Qualifying and/or Comprehensive Exams

Because PhD qualifying and comprehensive exams represent a key milestone for PhD students in their degree process, it is critical that students’ mastery of key concepts is assessed accurately. Individual PhD programs will establish their own procedures for qualifying and/or comprehensive exams, which ideally will include a component designed to directly test students' knowledge and skills in a setting where GAI cannot be used, such as an in-person paper-based exam and/or an oral exam.

All suspected unauthorized student use of GAI on PhD Qualifying and/or Comprehensive Exams will be addressed by the Graduate Program Director, or other faculty designee, in accordance with the UMass Academic Integrity Policy.

D. Graduate Teaching Assistants (TAs) and Undergraduate Course Assistants (UCAs)

TAs and UCAs should discuss allowable and/or prohibited uses of GAI in their roles as a TA with the faculty course instructor. These discussions should, at a minimum, occur at the beginning of each semester.

TAs should be aware that use of GAI outside the boundaries established by the course instructor(s) may trigger disciplinary action, following the procedures outlined in Article 26 of the Graduate Employee Organization (GEO) Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). As stated in the CBA, “All disciplinary action against a graduate student employee pertaining to their job performance shall be given in writing to the graduate student employee with a timely notice to the union.”

UCAs should be aware that use of GAI outside the boundaries established by the course instructor may be treated as a violation of the UMass Academic Integrity Policy.

E. Research Assistants (RAs) and Scholarly Work

Research data should be handled with appropriate security protections based on the type of data. Students must be aware of the data categorization security level of their research data as well as any additional requirements for securely handling their data. 

Individual faculty will set their own policies related to GAI use for research. Students should discuss allowable and/or prohibited uses of GAI with their faculty supervisor(s) for all RA work and other scholarly work. At a minimum, this discussion should occur prior to the commencement of research activities. Students and faculty are encouraged to have open and ongoing dialogue around GAI use for research.

Often, research projects are sponsored by external funding agencies, which may have their own policies related to GAI use in research; students and their faculty supervisors should review such policies together and ensure adherence to the policy. GAI policies of funding agencies also should be reviewed and adhered to when developing and submitting grant applications. Likewise, students and faculty supervisors should review and adhere to GAI policies of individual journals to which a manuscript will be submitted.

RAs should be aware that use of GAI outside the boundaries established by their RA supervisor(s) may trigger disciplinary action, following the procedures outlined in Article 26 of the Graduate Employee Organization (GEO) Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). As stated in the CBA, “All disciplinary action against a graduate student employee pertaining to their job performance shall be given in writing to the graduate student employee with a timely notice to the union.” 

All graduate and undergraduate students, regardless of whether research engagement is credit-earning and/or is paid or unpaid, should be aware that use of GAI outside the boundaries established by their supervisor(s) also may result in charges of research misconduct, which will be addressed by the faculty chair/supervisor in accordance with the UMass Research Misconduct Policy. Research activities that are credit-bearing are also subject to the UMass Academic Integrity Policy.

F. Theses, Dissertations and/or Culminating Projects

Because theses, dissertations, and culminating projects often represent both academic and scholarly work, all guidelines specified for “Courses” and for “Research Assistants and Scholarly Work” also apply to theses, dissertations, and culminating projects. Students should explicitly discuss allowable and/or prohibited uses of GAI within their thesis, dissertation, or culminating project work with their academic advisor, committee chair, committee members, and/or culminating project instructor.

All suspected unauthorized student use of GAI on theses, dissertations, and/or culminating projects will be addressed by the faculty chair/supervisor in accordance with the UMass Academic Integrity Policy. Students and faculty should be aware that such instances also may result in charges of research misconduct, which will be addressed by the faculty chair/supervisor in accordance with the UMass Research Misconduct Policy.