The Office of Community Standards (OCS) invited the faculty senate to examine Stanford’s disciplinary policies on artificial intelligence (AI) and class credit at the faculty senate meeting on Thursday. Senators also remembered three past faculty members.
In a presentation about OCS’s response to AI policy violations, interim OCS Director Larry Marshall told the senate about the office’s approach to student discipline and goal of providing students with “a sense of love.”
“They [might] have stumbled, but it does not define their time at Stanford, or their worth,” Marshall said.
Stanford’s class retake policy allows students who received no credit in a class due to an academic violation to retake the same class for full credit. Upon retaking the class, the no credit (NC) is removed from their transcript and replaced with repeated course (RP), removing any indication that there was a violation and raising a possible signaling concern. Stanford is one of three universities with this retake policy.
But signaling is a significant issue for enforcing academic violations, Marshall said. He noted that if the University indicates that violating AI policies is not a “big deal,” then the issue will continue to permeate among students.
Marshall invited the senate to study the policy but did not propose any immediate changes.
The senate also passed memorial resolutions for late faculty members Clayton Wilson Bates Jr., Jonathan Bendor and Gerald Ernest Paul Gillespie.
Vice Provost and Dean of Research Arthur Bienstock remembered Clayton Wilson Bates Jr., former professor of materials science and engineering, who passed away on Feb. 18, 2024. He was memorialized for his contributions to X-ray research and planning of the Stanford Society of Black Scientists and Engineers (SBSE). He was also the first Black person to hold a tenured position in the School of Engineering.
“This kind, gentle and productive gentleman will be a sad loss to the nation and our community, having made his mark as a very able scientist/engineer, mentor and encourager of aspiring African-American STEM students and great family man,” Bienstock and other professors wrote in Bates’ memorial resolution.
Jonathan Bendor, the Walter and Elise Haas Professor of Political Economics and Organizations, Emeritus (1950-2025) at the Graduate School of Business (GSB), passed away on Nov. 6, 2025. He was memorialized by GSB professor Ken Shotts.
Bendor is remembered for his “contributions to the study of bureaucracies, collective action and elections,” according to his memorial resolution. He also helped create “stimulating and generous spaces” in the classroom.
Gerald Ernest Paul Gillespie, a professor of German studies and comparative literature, was remembered by his colleague Russell Berman for his work on the Baroque period in Germany, romanticism and 20th-century modernism. Gillespie passed away on July 20, 2025.
Berman and other German studies faculty members wrote in Gillespie’s resolution about his “heated debates at Stanford and beyond concerning the changing character of American higher education.”