Like many small liberal arts colleges, we at Davidson College set out in the spring of 2024 to explore generative AI and its impacts on teaching and learning for our campus. Our initial approaches were thoughtful, intentional, and ultimately inadequate due in large part to the perennial challenges of communication and coordination. Fast-forwarding to this spring (2026), we have embarked upon a more inclusive, more institutional model — the Davidson AI Collaborative — with the goal of honoring domain specificity across campus while staying connected vis-à-vis our approaches to generative AI. My lightning talk will offer a brief recap of our journey, connect our past to our present, and, most importantly, offer arguments as to how the Collaborative’s model thoughtfully and intentionally addresses our challenges, even as it, too, may not be permanent. (And why that is okay.)
