Writing Center works to manage the rise of AI

Amelia DeSentis ('27, right) and Maddie Strate ('27, left) working in the Writing Center on March 11, 2026. Photo by Mac Childers.

Open Monday through Saturday, the Writing Center is a space where all Willamette students can come to receive help from Writing Center consultants, regardless of discipline or where the student is in the writing process. 

However, the rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and AI chatbots has raised concerns about how students use AI when approaching the center. While emphasizing its lack of judgement for students or courses solely based on AI usage, Writing Center staff stressed the importance of awareness for its consultants on course policies regarding AI and promoted the benefits of human editing and human connection in an AI age. 

“[AI] is forcing conversations and forcing us to be more explicit about pedagogy and the teaching of writing,” said Writing Center Director and English professor Annette Hulbert. 

She shared that she “frequently will see other writing center directors talk about how they are worried about writing centers not being used as much” because students are turning to AI instead. 

Hulbert added that while she can’t “say definitively,” she thinks that the number of students using the Writing Center has not “gone down drastically.” The Writing Center keeps record of the number of students who use it through an after-visit consultation form. 

Writing Center Consultant Kate Crosby (’27) noted a sometimes contradicting stance toward AI at Willamette. “We’re both creating a lot of classes that plan to use AI in them and at the same time trying to discourage or encourage AI [use] depending on what field of study you’re in,” she said. 

She added that students have come into the Writing Center saying that their professors have told them to use AI on an assignment. 

During weekly staff meetings, “we regularly discuss how to address AI usage,” said Hulbert. 

This includes conversations about what consultants should do if they see AI coming through the Writing Center and how the differing policies surrounding AI usage can “impact the work coming through the Writing Center.” Hulbert shared that different classes’ rules on AI can range from a complete ban on usage, to requiring an AI disclosure statement, to requiring students to write a short essay about their use of AI.

If consultants see a “clear usage of AI,” they are instructed to first check in with the visiting student to see if AI usage is permitted on the assignment, Hulbert said. But, she added, “It is rarely this clear-cut. … We want to make sure that we are following course policies and not aiding someone in violating a course policy.”

Consultants aim not only to help students with a specific paper, but to improve on their writing skills overall. But Crosby noted that the rise in AI usage has impacted the way that students are approaching writing at times.

“We’re seeing an increase in a desire for quick results [and] to become a better writer really rapidly,” she said.

Hulbert stressed the importance of the “human connection” in the Writing Center, as there are benefits to “having another student, having a peer, sitting across from you and having a dialogue with you.” She added that it is important to have more of “that kind of connection with somebody who has read your writing and is asking you genuine questions.”

Hulbert acknowledged that AI is “something that most students on some level have probably used,” and she doesn't “want to scare off people who have used ChatGPT from ever using the Writing Center.”

In Crosby’s words, “We’re not going to judge you in here.” The Writing Center is a space where students can come even when they are not quite sure what to write about. 

“Instead of turning to an AI bot, you can come and talk to us instead,” Crosby said.