Overview
- Serrano allowed take-home midterms in spring 2026 after students said they feared in-class exams following a December 2025 shooting on campus, and enrollment in his ECON 1170 section rose to 86 students.
- The class averaged roughly 96% on the take-home midterm, then averaged about 48.6% on a supervised in-person final after Serrano warned the midterm might be voided; 18 students dropped the course, nine skipped the final, and 19 ultimately failed.
- Serrano and his graders ran midterm questions through ChatGPT and found similar answers, then voided the midterm, made the final worth 80% of the grade, and lowered the passing cutoff to 40% to set final course outcomes.
- Serrano gave his data to Brown’s Standing Committee on the Academic Code and publicized a paired-grade chart in early July 2026; Brown says it needs formal, individual complaints and copies of student work before pursuing disciplinary cases.
- The episode has intensified campus debates about generative-AI, highlighted limits of automated AI detectors, exposed tensions between safety-driven accommodations and assessment integrity, and follows broader studies and policy shifts that show widespread student use of AI.