Community Values Council Tackles Artificial Intelligence, Student Life

YONG DING/DEERFIELD SCROLL

The Community Values Council (CVC) as described by the Student Handbook 2025-2026 is “responsible for upholding the Academy’s values, standards, and Major School Rules. Though it can occasionally serve a fact-finding function, it is not designed to be a court of law or a judicial mechanism. Rather, a meeting with the CVC is an educational process meant to help students understand the rules.”   

The council includes two sections–academic and student life–and is composed of seven members: a co-chair Dean of Studies Lydia Hemphill (for academic infractions) or Dean of Students Sam Bicknell (for student life infractions), three student members, and three adults (class dean and two faculty members). These seven members each have one vote. The CVC-ed student may choose to exclude one student member from the selection pool. For the meeting, the advisor and optional advocate (Deerfield student or adult) of the CVC-ed student will also be present. These two members will not vote. 

The CVC holds a strict, organized, and standard process for each case. If work comes into concern, the teacher is expected to bring the case to the department chair. If they believe there’s an issue, a meeting will be scheduled to first meet with the student who, then, with their advisor, meets with the CVC co-chair. 

According to the result of the meeting, the co-chair will decide if the case merits CVC action. Ms. Hemphill said, “Many students, it’s hard for them to come up with the whole truth right off the bat. But there's a window that is expected, within which a student should be willing to own up to what they've done.” 

Specifically, with the rise in AI-related breaches in recent years, the co-heads have more frequently exercised their authority to issue letters of reminder or warnings without a CVC meeting. Ms. Hemphill explained, “It was bringing together 10, 12 people in an afternoon or an evening, for sometimes what ended up being a 15 minute CVC. So we stepped a little bit back from that this year … it doesn’t change the outcome.” 

She continued to explain the trend in AI cases saying, “There tend to be more at the end of terms when there are projects due, and so, it’s been fairly steady. … it’s a tough environment for students to be making decisions about the integrity of their work given the technological temptations that now exist. And we totally get it.” 

When a meeting is needed, Executive Assistant to the Student Life Office Peg Scarborough or Administrative Assistant to the Academic Affairs Office Hannah White sends a BCC email calling for panel availability without naming the case or the CVC-ed student. The council then selects from the available pool. The CVC-ed student will first share a written reflection and then answer a series of questions from the council members. The advisors and the advocate will then speak on the CVC-ed student’s behalf on their character. 

Following, the CVC-ed student and the advocate will leave the room, while the advisor stays for a final discussion. “The council discusses whether or not they believe a Major School Rule was broken. Depending on that response, there’s a discussion and decision about what the appropriate response should be. Then, we sit down with the student afterwards to share the response and make plans for a Growth and Learning Plan or other next steps,” Mr. Bicknell said. 

Previously, the two council sections operated separately as the Academic Honor Council (AHC) for academic infractions and the Disciplinary Council (DC) for student life infractions. In the summer of 2023, the Student Life Office led the decision to merge the two councils. Mr. Bicknell explained that, “by having one Community Values Council, we could cover all the potential missteps that students make with one name.”

Additionally, the council introduced the Growth and Learning Plan. When a Major School Rule is broken, Mr. Bicknell explained that the student "authors a Growth and Learning Plan which will have some goals, either specific to the infraction or just more generally, …with the support of their advisor and the grade Dean. They will meet periodically with the grade Dean, and at the end of that plan, it's kind of a celebration to appreciate all the growth that they’ve experienced.”

The council has also modified how to balance open-communication and transparency with community confidentiality. Previously, cases that held CVC meetings and the result would be shared during All-School meetings without any naming. 

However, to support student reflection and in consideration of student comfortability, this practice is no longer in place. “I think there are two ways of thinking. I do think it is useful for students to understand what’s happening, because rumors start in the absence of concrete information. On the other hand, people felt like there was too much chatter and speculation around when there were announcements about CVCs,” Ms. Hemphill explained. 

The council emphasized the importance of confidentiality. “I lead with belief in the committee that they will honor confidentiality. I would be really upset if I felt that the committee members were not maintaining confidentiality. And I haven't heard anything about any transgressions from the committee,” Ms. Hemphill said, adding that she treated students on the committee as if they were peers. 

Student members support this. Two-year student member Sophie Simonds ’26 explained how “a lot of the meeting times are well hidden throughout the day in a classroom in the MSB. In the fall, in the spring, it’ll be after sit-down, or, in the winter, it would often be 3 p.m. and I think some students are very public about the fact that they’ve gotten a CVC.”

Being on the council has provided opportunities for members to grow. English Teacher Andy Stallings reflected how his experience has helped him better evaluate rules. “It was surprising to me to be named because I was pretty new to the school when that happened. … And at first it was sort of a jarring thing. …What I did was pay close attention to how they [co-heads] thought about things, because they’d had a lot of experience,” he said.  

From the student perspective, being on the council gave an opportunity to interact more deeply with faculty members. Simonds noted, “that’s the moment where I feel most equal and on the same level as both my peers and the faculty. So having discussions with faculty that feel very open and where we have the same amount of power, same amount of vote is really helpful to my building relationships with those faculty.”

Being on the CVC since 2012 and chairing since 2020, Ms. Hemphill reflected on her personal growth. “I mean, I'm not saying I love this part of my job, but you know, in my whole life, I’ve cared very much about, consistency, fairness, respecting the rules, but also knowing that there are moments to think ‘Are there mitigating circumstances that might make us make a different decision?’ I’ve gotten better at thinking about this in more complex ways as I’ve matured, so I feel proud of the process,” she said. 

Faculty and rising juniors and seniors apply to join the council during the spring term. Faculty belong to both sections while students belong to only one section, according to their preference on the application. Training sessions are then held for adequate preparation. 

“The most knowledge you can get is just from sitting in on a meeting. …you just kind of learn from your peers, and you learn from your peers’ behavior, and for the most part, the meetings are very respectful, and you’re asking a lot of insightful questions,” Simonds said. 

Simonds encouraged rising juniors and seniors to take the opportunity and apply. “There’s sometimes this idea or this reputation that, ‘Oh, you’re the [Non-Athletic Regular Person], you’re opting on these people or reporting on them,’” she said. But she rejects this, saying “I’ve been friends with people I’ve had meetings with, and that hasn’t really impacted our relationship at all.”

The modifications to the CVC have improved the system to better benefit the Deerfield community. “In the last 10 to 15 years, we’ve gone from a system that I think was somewhat black and white…to a place where I think we really recognize the complexities of the adolescent experience and being at a high school and boarding school in this day and age,” Mr. Bicknell concluded.