In Spring 2026 we conducted a survey, followed up by a focus group discussion in Summer 2026, to understand how Wellesley College students are thinking about the role of and increasing normalization of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools in their lives. Read about our methods, findings, and recommendations by navigating to the appropriate sections.
Here we provide the framework and rationale for our investigation and how the survey and data analysis were conducted.
This is a repository of all the survey questions together with the results (presented as bar charts) for each question.
We share the results of the Latent Class Analysis and show how student responses cluster into three groups: AI Adopters, AI Ambivalents, and AI Resisters.
We discuss findings indicating increased moral anxiety, increased friction, concerns about agency, and the effects of surveillance in courses and offer recommendations for how students can approach these issues.
We highlight patterns that suggest ways that faculty and senior leadership can better align academic integrity with students' expectations for future employability. To this end, we offer recommendations for interventions that can serve this dual role.
Get to know the members of our interdisciplinary team composed of faculty and students.