University of Notre Dame Reviews Data Governance for AI

Data Analytics Allow for Flexible Decision-Making

Notre Dame has engaged with a consulting firm to review existing policies to simplify and make them more flexible when possible, she says.

Working closely with the information governance committee, information security team and the office of general counsel, “we are taking a look at everything and making sure that it still makes sense, and simplifying, modifying, enhancing where we can, especially through the lens of AI,” she says. 

 In 2016, Notre Dame began implementing an on-demand data analytics platform called dataND to allow university administrators and staff to make better data-driven decisions, Livingston says. Today, they can analyze data and run reports on dashboards through data lakes using Snowflake on Amazon Web Services.

LEARN MORE: Effective AI requires effective AI data governance.

“Using that project as a lens through which to think about data governance allowed us to mature our data governance program — in particular around access management — and we can use AI initiatives in a similar way by helping us to continue to evolve our data governance programs,” Livingston says.

Since implementing generative AI tools, the university has created data use guidelines for each. Through its software license, Google has extended data privacy protections to its education users. As a result, the university allows campus users to use Google Gemini and NotebookLM.

“We’re talking to our community and doing a lot of listening about what gaps there are, so that we can come up with helpful guidance,” she says.

Overall, data governance is complicated, but universities can use their AI efforts to strengthen it, Livingston says.

“Data governance is really hard. So, sometimes, when you look at data governance through the lens of a particular initiative that’s strategic for your institution, it can help accelerate your path to maturity,” she says. “AI could act as a facilitator for a lot of institutions in maturing their programs.”

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