The Guiding Principles for Artificial Intelligence at Lehigh University are the result of an ongoing, campus-wide conversation and now encompass the full breadth of university life, including education, research, and administrative operations. At the same time, they are designed to be living principles that allow us to remain agile as this technology develops and our understanding of its myriad applications continues to evolve.
We invited members of the Lehigh community to share feedback on Draft Guiding Principles through a confidential survey. The comment period ended February 28, 2026. Feedback was reviewed and considered and helped inform the final version below.
Guiding Principles for Artificial Intelligence at Lehigh University
AI-based tools 1 are increasingly part of how universities teach, learn, conduct research, and run day-to-day operations. At Lehigh, many faculty, staff, and students are engaging these tools thoughtfully, testing what they make easier, identifying what they complicate, and raising real questions about quality, integrity, equity, privacy, workload, and the character of our relationships. This document is a reflection of many of these conversations.
These principles are not intended to function as policy statements or a mandate. They are shared guideposts: a common starting point to support units, departments, and teams as they continue local, discipline-appropriate conversations about productive and responsible AI use.
Because the technologies and our institutional uses of them are changing rapidly, we expect these principles to evolve. These principles should be treated as a living framework: refined over time through shared experience, evidence about impact, and ongoing conversation.
1. We will be guided by Lehigh’s mission and values in every decision about AI.
As with everything we do, use of AI technologies must align with the university’s mission of “advancing learning through the integration of teaching, research, and service to others.” We will draw on Lehigh’s deep expertise across disciplines to navigate AI’s complexities. Guided by our strategic priority to create “A Lehigh for Everyone,” we will favor AI tools, platforms, and practices that expand access, reduce barriers, and support an inclusive environment for everyone.
Importantly, this principle also means recognizing that advancing our mission will sometimes require deciding not to use AI. Informed decisions not to adopt AI tools, whether on pedagogical, ethical, research integrity, or values grounds, are appropriate outcomes of thoughtful evaluation and are supported by the university. Faculty should decide how AI is used in their teaching, research, and service.
2. We will keep people, relationships, and human agency at the center of everything we do.
This means putting people first. AI will not replace meaningful human judgment, decisions, relationships, care, or mentorship. We will use AI tools and platforms where and when they effectively support and empower the work of students, faculty, and staff.
This principle also entails a commitment to agency and authenticity in learning and scholarship: AI may assist human work, but the intellectual effort, responsibility, and ownership that define genuine learning, discovery, and creative production must remain with the person.
3. We will build our community’s capacity to understand, use, evaluate, and critically engage with AI.
This means investing in our community’s capacity to use AI skillfully and responsibly. We will provide training and support so students, faculty, and staff understand how AI tools and platforms function and can apply them effectively in their work, including the ability to critically evaluate and validate their results.
This principle also means continuing to engage in open dialogue about AI. We will continue to create opportunities for open and critical dialogue about AI’s capabilities and limitations, as well as its societal, economic, and environmental impacts.
4. We will pursue innovation in the use and development of AI in the service of better learning, advanced discovery, and more effective work.
This means encouraging exploration and experimentation with AI across the university to enhance creativity, understanding, and efficiency, and refining our approaches as technologies and needs evolve. It means encouraging curiosity about the potential applications of new AI tools. In the educational domain, we will prioritize AI uses that improve student learning and outcomes, rigorously and continuously assessing the impact of AI tools and platforms in educational contexts. In the research domain we will support uses of AI that have the potential to accelerate processes of discovery and enhance our ability to creatively understand and address important global challenges.
5. We will use AI lawfully, ethically, and securely.
This means ensuring that all AI use complies with existing policies, codes of conduct, and applicable laws. For example, we will protect institutional, student, and employee data by adhering to institutional, state, and federal regulations and by refraining from entering sensitive or high-level data into unvetted or insecure AI tools and platforms.
Academic integrity remains a fundamental expectation for all members of our community. Whether assisted by AI tools or not, every individual is responsible for the work they produce and the ideas they claim as their own.
This principle also means governing AI ethically, fairly, and transparently. We will set standards for how AI tools and platforms are procured, vetted, used and monitored, prioritizing fairness, explaining AI-supported decisions, and ensuring appropriate human responsibility and review for high-impact uses.
Norms of how to use AI technologies appropriately will continue to be debated and evolve in individual disciplines and in society. As an academic community, we are well situated to contribute substantively to these conversations both here at Lehigh and in society at large.
1While AI is a broad category, these principles are primarily responsive to recent and rapid developments in computer-based systems that can generate text, images, code, and other outputs, analyze information, or make recommendations in ways that resemble human responses. These include widely available generative and agentic tools (such as chatbots, image generators, and automated assistants).