BC creates Data & AI Governance Working Group
Boston College has created the Data & AI Governance Working Group to develop a comprehensive set of policies and relevant guidelines to better understand and shape the use of new and emerging computing tools by faculty, staff, and students, according to the offices of the Provost and the Executive Vice President.
The 11-person working group will formulate two different but coordinated policies: one governing University Data and the other governing Artificial Intelligence. The group's findings will be presented in late spring 2027.
Winston Provost and Dean of Faculties David Quigley (Lee Pellegrini)
“We anticipate that this working group will help us to maintain the momentum we have generated by focusing on some of the challenging areas of implementation, innovation, and ethics,” said Winston Provost and Dean of Faculties David Quigley. “We want to make sure that the uses of data and AI tools at Boston College will align with the University’s mission and strengthen institutional strategic planning. The working group is being asked to help provide guidance to administrators, faculty, and leadership in an era of rapid technological change.”
Members of the working group include: Facilities’ Director of Planning & Information Systems Lynn Berkley, Associate General Counsel Stephanie Charles, Associate University Librarian Margaret Cohen, Center for Digital Innovation in Learning Director John FitzGibbon, ITS Technology Director Michael Gallagher, Professor of the Practice and Director of the Executive Doctorate in Higher Education Chris Glass, Associate Vice President of Finance and University Controller Lyndsay King, Executive Director of Student Services Jen Mack, Peter F. Drucker Chair and Professor of Business Analytics Sam Ransbotham, Associate Dean for the Core Curriculum Elizabeth Shlala, and Director of Research Protections Erin Sibley.
The working group will be supported by the Offices of the Executive Vice President (Carrie Klemovitch), Provost and Dean of Faculties (Joe Carroll and Billy Soo), Information Technology Services (Scott Cann), and Institutional Research and Planning (Mara Hermano).
The working group starts from the new reality that AI models and tools must have “secure, accurate, well-defined, and properly classified institutional data,” according to the working group’s initial assignment.
Data governance places a premium on security, with specific attention on areas that include data domains, ownership and stewardship, access protocols, and privacy compliance. Additional aspects include ensuring data quality and reliability remain intact across complex data sources.
AI governance will focus on the use of AI, privacy, protecting intellectual property, vendor evaluation and broader University standards for risk tolerance and financial management.
Executive Vice President Michael Lochhead (Gary Wayne Gilbert)
Furthermore, the working group will develop a set of core values surrounding AI usage at BC that anchor use of the technology in alignment with the University’s “core Jesuit, Catholic identity and mission,” the charge states.
“BC wants to ensure that these powerful, new technological tools uphold and foster the intellectual rigor of the BC experience, include protections for human decision-making and the dignity of work, and serve the common good,” Executive Vice President Michael Lochhead said. “It is crucially important that the BC’s leadership helps guide and support the deployment of AI across campus in a responsible and ethical manner, in keeping with our mission as a Jesuit, Catholic University.”
Among the principles guiding policy development, the committee was advised to work from the perspective that the AI ecosystem on campus is a cooperative venture that has to be considered in its entirety.
“Institutional data and AI infrastructure are shared resources held in common stewardship across the university,” the committee charge notes, “rather than owned exclusively by individual units or single departments.”
Additional issues identified for the policy group include plans to supplement the current “hub” for AI resources and guidance across the University, training and competency building among faculty and staff, and the establishment of a Data Portal that would serve as a primary starting point for the use of BC’s data assets.