November 21, 2024

Dear York College Community,

As mentioned in a previous communication, when using AI-enabled services, especially in cloud storage, we must remain vigilant about data security. Many AI tools process, store, and sometimes share data across external servers, which may pose a risk to sensitive information. As members of the York College community, please be mindful of the type of data shared when using AI in meetings, especially data that may contain personally identifiable information (PII) or confidential college-related information. Only authorized cloud platforms that comply with our College’s data security policies should be used, and extra caution is advised with any platform not officially sanctioned by Central Office. FAILURE TO PROPERLY SAFEGUARD STUDENT DATA MAY RESULT IN A VIOLATION OF THE FEDERAL FAMILY EDUCATIONAL RIGHTS AND PRIVACY ACT OF 1974 (FERPA).

In addition, the Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Strategic Planning will not verify results that were generated through any AI system. For a proper analysis, we would need to conduct our own research, and then do a comparison with AI results. We do not have the bandwidth to support such requests. We continue to work with all stakeholder groups to support the institutional reporting needs of the College.

Thank you for your support in these matters.

Greg Vega and Lori Hoeffner