Committee for Accessible Technology (CATO) Questions and Answers

AI Taskforce Purpose Statement and Background Information

Grounded in the belief that artificial intelligence (AI) will fundamentally transform education, the taskforce is focused on helping institutions adopt AI in a way that is ethical, inclusive, and aligned with their mission.

As a subcommittee of the Strategic Technology Advisory Committee, the AI Taskforce and STAC will coordinate, guide, and support AI strategy and implementation across Washington’s CTC higher education institutions by:

  • Aligning institutional efforts 
  • Fostering innovation at scale
  • Ensuring ethical, inclusive, and student-centered adoption

2025-2026 WACTC-Tech Work Plan

AI Strategy Taskforce led by STAC:

  • Collaborative Innovation: Share AI best practices & tools system-wide
  • Policy Guidance:  Collect/develop AI policy templates and examples
  • AI Literacy:  Identify/establish baseline AI competencies

1.1 Charter and Authority
The AI Task Force is a subcommittee of the Strategic Technology Advisory Committee (STAC), chartered by the WACTC-Tech to advise the presidents.

Current Governance Structure:

WACTC-Tech:  Technology Committee of the Washington Association for Community & Technical College (WACTC) Presidents (WACTC Committees & Councils)
Strategic Technology Advisory Committee (STAC)


1.2 Taskforce Composition
Action Items: 

Define charter, scope, authority, decision-making processes, and deliverables. Approve by Presidents/Chancellors, SBCTC, or system-level governing board.
Membership of this Task Force will consist of representatives from Washington Community & Technical Colleges:

  • Colleges, Committees, Councils and Commissions
  • STAC
  • SBCTC

Establish focused AI working groups? (e.g., Ethics & Equity, Instructional Innovation, IT Infrastructure, Policy & Compliance)

  Strategic Goal Objectives

Alignment across the WACTC system

  • Map cross-institutional AI strategies and capabilities.
  • Identify shared goals and use cases.
  • Establish guiding principles.

Innovation

  • Share and scale AI pilot projects.
  • Create a systemwide innovation fund or sandbox.
  • Promote faculty/staff AI fluency and experimentation.
  • Develop a shared AI document repository for policy templates, use cases, and training materials.

Equity & Responsibility

  • Develop ethical AI guidelines.
  • Align with state/federal policy and FERPA/GLBA/508.
  • Center student voice in design and implementation.
  • Support inclusive and accessible AI policy development across institutions.

 Maintain transparency via a public taskforce portal and AI repository.


 Regular updates to institutional leaders, CIOs, and faculty governance.


 Host webinars, workshops, and open forums.


 Create feedback loops with students, faculty, and DEI councils.

 Ensuring equitable access and avoiding AI-driven bias or exclusion.

 Managing compliance with FERPA, copyright, and accessibility.


 Preventing policy fragmentation or vendor lock-in.


 Maintaining institutional autonomy while enabling systemwide collaboration.

Academic integrity


Data security re: staff exposing private data to insecure AI products


Financial responsibility


Communicating authentically with current and potential students, especially at-risk students