AI Use Guidelines

SCC AI Use Guidelines

Why This Exists

People across campus are using AI tools to create event posters, flyers, and other promotional pieces, often because our team can't get to every request in time. That's a good instinct. This document sets ground rules for that work while the comprehensive SCC brand and AI guidelines are developed. It is not meant to slow you down or send AI use underground. It exists so that what goes out under the SCC name is accurate and looks like it belongs to us.

What This Covers

Any AI-assisted image, graphic, video, or written communication created to represent SCC for an audience beyond your own desk: posters, flyers, social graphics, digital signage, event promotion, press and PR materials, and similar. This document does not yet cover athletics branding, the mascot costume, Lil Champ, or detailed editorial style. Those are part of the comprehensive guidelines still in development.

The Bright Line: No Fake SCC

Do not use AI to generate photorealistic images that invent people, buildings, or locations and present them as SCC. If a piece shows students, staff, or campus, it needs to be actual SCC people, with the usual permissions, and actual SCC locations. Same for the logo: never let AI generate a stand-in version of it. This line applies no matter how good the intent behind the piece is.

Illustrated and Cartoon Treatments

A photorealistic-only rule is easy to draw. Illustrated, caricature, or cartoon-style AI content is harder, and we don't want every illustrated poster to require a conversation with marketing first. Use it without pre-approval if it meets all four of these:

  • Reads clearly as an illustration or cartoon, not an attempt at a photo
  • Does not depict a specific, identifiable real person by name or likeness
  • Does not depict a specific real campus building or location in a way that could be mistaken for it
  • Does not include the SCC logo, seal, wordmark, or athletic marks

If your piece meets all four, go ahead and use it. If you're unsure about even one, that's the signal to check with marketing before it goes out, not after.

Logos and Brand Marks

Don't ask AI to generate the SCC logo, seal, athletic marks, or Lil Champ under any circumstance. Use the real files. An AI-safe Canva brand kit with pre-approved templates and assets is in development and expected later this fall. Once it's live, that will be the preferred path for anyone creating their own materials.

How Much AI Is Too Much

There's a real difference between AI helping you finish something and AI making the thing. Using AI to brainstorm layout ideas, generate a background texture, or speed up a step you're still directing is a normal design tool and doesn't need a disclosure or sign-off. A finished piece that's essentially the AI's first or second output, with little real design direction behind it, is a different matter. You'll usually recognize the look: an overly symmetrical layout, the same font treatment, that generic AI sameness. That kind of output isn't ready to represent the college publicly. Targeted, responsible use is fine. Wholesale AI creation is not.

Written Communications and Public Relations

The same principles apply to text: news releases, pitches, official statements, web copy, and mass emails. Don't let AI invent statistics, quotes, program details, or institutional claims and present them as fact. If a number or detail isn't confirmed, say so or leave it out. AI-generated content is fine to go out through automated systems (via CRM-triggered emails or drip campaigns) once a person has reviewed and approved the finished version. What's not okay is AI drafting and sending outreach with no human reviewing it first. A person must review and approve all AI-generated content.

The Internal Writing Assistant

The SCC voice GPT is approved for marketing office use: emails, web copy, social captions, and similar writing tasks. As with general AI use mentioned above, first draft raw output shouldn't be used. Do not distribute anything without review, and it does not touch logos or images.

If Something Needs to Come Down

Marketing owns the college's visual identity, and that includes AI-assisted materials. If a piece doesn't fit these guidelines, we'll reach out directly, and we may ask that it come down or get revised while we work it out together. This isn't about catching anyone. It's about protecting how SCC looks to the people we're trying to reach, and we'd rather have that conversation early than clean up after the fact.

Questions

Bottom line: AI is powerful and can be a game-changer. With great power comes great responsibility. If you’re ever unsure about what to do, contact Jeff Ebbing before you post/share/print, not after.

We'd rather answer a question than take down a poster.