An independent research preview · covering the California Community Colleges
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Environmental Scan
AI Landscape by Region
Spring 2025 baseline · June 2026 update

The Environmental Scan, made filterable

Spring 2025 baseline — 8 regions, 122 colleges, 3 entries, 18 notes · updated scan (latest: June 2026) adds 13 source-verified findings (13 new). Every entry is tagged with one or more Vision 2030 domains: People · Policy · Systems · Resources.

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Saddleback College

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Engaged People
  • 🆕District-wide AI Taskforce with Saddleback College AI Workgroup. The SOCCCD AI Use Guidelines were authored by a 'District-wide AI Taskforce, SC AI Workgroup [Saddleback College], and IVC AI Taskforce,' indicating Saddleback has a dedicated campus AI workgroup operating under district AI governance. 2025 · high confidence — source
  • 🆕SOCCCD/Saddleback official AI commitment and resource hub. SOCCCD maintains an Artificial Intelligence page stating the district and colleges are 'committed to the ethical and responsible use of AI technologies to advance teaching, learning, research, and district services,' linking AI Use Guidelines, AI Learning Materials, related ARs (3726, 5040, 5500, etc.), and the statewide AI Across the California Community Colleges resource. 2025 · high confidence — source
  • 🆕AI Learning Materials for faculty and staff (Google AI tracks). SOCCCD's AI Learning page provides educator-focused training including 'Getting Started with Google AI in Higher Education' (Gemini, Gemini for Workspace, NotebookLM), Google's 'Generative AI for Educators,' '50+ Ways to Use Gemini in Higher Education,' and a 'Teaching Responsible Use of AI' guide. 2025 · high confidence — source
  • 🆕Saddleback College AI Summit 2025. On Nov 3, 2025, President Dr. Elliot Stern hosted a college AI summit on integrating AI while maintaining academic integrity, featuring administrators (Dean of Instructional Support Kim d'Arcy, VP Instruction Tram Vo-Kumamoto, VP Student Services Jennifer Labounty, Director of Technology Services Thurman Brown), a student panel, and demos of Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Napkin, Playlab, Big Interview, and Nectir AI. 2025 · high confidence — source
  • 🆕Presidential AI Town Hall (April 2025). Saddleback College President Dr. Elliot Stern hosted an AI Town Hall on April 21, 2025 (recorded on the college's YouTube channel). 2025 · medium confidence — source
  • 🆕President Elliot Stern retirement; AI literacy as priority. President Dr. Elliot Stern, who hosted the college's AI summit and town hall, announced retirement (announced Oct 7, 2025; effective summer 2026) and framed preparing students with 'AI literacy, AI software skills' as essential for workforce competitiveness. 2025 · medium confidence — source
  • 🆕Faculty syllabus AI policy guidance shared internally. Faculty (e.g., Brett Myhren) have shared sample AI policies for instructors to consider including on their syllabi, per college search/resource references; no single standardized college-wide syllabus statement was located as a fetchable primary document. 2025 · low confidence — source
PeoplePolicy
Team/Lead: Saddleback College/Online Ed Committee, all schools/divisions, college-wide AI workgroup, Kim d'Arcy/ district-wide AI Taskforce/students, employees, grants office AI pilots
  • AI Workgroup
  • AI has been a shared college-wide topic. The AI Workgroup is representative of constituency groups across campus. Information has been disseminated out across campus for varying levels of participation.
  • Projects are focusing on: Infrastructure, policies, pedagogy/practices, grants, professional development, operational use, security, data privacy, compliance, and accessibility.
Policies
  • 🆕SOCCCD AI Use Guidelines for Employees. District-wide guidelines (created 12.04.25; proposed revision 1.23.26) covering Saddleback employees set DOs/DON'Ts: human-led oversight and review of AI output, checking for bias/fairness, and prohibiting entry of personal/proprietary/confidential information into AI tools (FERPA/HIPAA) and use of AI in confidential meetings without approval. 2025 · high confidence — source
Policy
Team/Lead: Saddleback College
1 linked resource(s) — show status
Resources
  • 🆕$150,000 California Education Learning Lab AI FAST Challenge grant. Saddleback College won a $150,000 AI FAST Challenge grant (2024-25 RFP, announced Nov 13, 2024) for 'AI for Language Acquisition,' led by PI Kim d'Arcy and Co-I Christopher Stillwell, to use generative AI to support language instruction across ESL, English, reading, sign language, communications, and international languages. 2024 · high confidence — source
  • 🆕AI for Language Acquisition project (grant scope and reach). The funded project analyzes student AI usage patterns, runs surveys/focus groups, holds workshops on 'AI interaction and ethical use,' pilots AI applications, and creates Open Educational Resources; it anticipates reaching 8,797 students and 188 faculty. 2025 · high confidence — source
  • 🆕Cross-department operational AI adoption by staff. A Dec 15, 2025 Lariat article documents staff/faculty using AI operationally: the Promise Program and MESA for scheduling, email, event planning and Zoom AI meeting transcription; DSPS for accessible reading/writing/memory support and multi-format summaries; and a math professor generating problems, exams, and quizzes. 2025 · high confidence — source
  • 🆕Library 'Evaluation and Ethics in AI' workshop. The Saddleback College Library offers an online Canvas workshop 'Evaluation and Ethics in AI' (offered Summer 2026) that helps students understand, use, and critically evaluate AI-generated content. 2026 · high confidence — source
  • 🆕Career Center AI workshops for job/internship search. The Career Resource Center has run student events such as 'A Conversation on AI and Your Job Search' (July 31, 2025) and 'AI Tools to Land Internships and Jobs' to help students use AI in career preparation. 2025 · high confidence — source
PeopleResourcesSystems
Team/Lead: Saddleback College
5 linked resource(s) — show status
2 contacts →