Episode 57: Kelly Ahuna

"The future of the asynchronous online class, I think, is really in jeopardy. The classes are fine, but the assessments are completely cooked."

"We're not going to win this on compliance. We're not going to win this with students because we say, 'We told you not to.' We have to win it on the value of learning."

In this 57th episode of The Opposite of Cheating Podcast, David is joined by Dr. Kelly Ahuna, Director of the Office of Academic Integrity at the University at Buffalo (SUNY), to discuss the nuts and bolts of running one of the most active academic integrity programs in the country. Kelly shares how UB built its centralized office from scratch in 2019, placing it under academic affairs rather than student affairs — a deliberate choice that shapes their education-first approach.

The conversation covers UB's innovative remediation process for first-time offenders, their student integrity ambassador program, and their annual Academic Integrity Awards ceremony held near National Honesty Day. Kelly and David also dig into the practical challenges AI poses — from repeat offenses driven by students' perception that AI-assisted cheating "doesn't feel as bad," to the impossibility of drawing a clear line between brainstorming and writing when the tools keep asking "would you like me to do more?"

Throughout, Kelly emphasizes that enforcement alone will never solve the problem — the path forward lies in values-based education, peer-to-peer conversation, and building a culture where integrity is celebrated, not just policed.

You can learn more about Kelly and the University of Buffalo's approach to academic integrity at https://www.buffalo.edu/academic-integrity.html

(Disclaimer: episode quotes and summary were created using Youtube's Transcript and Anthropic's Claude but edited by a human. Any errors are the responsibility of the human).