On Feb. 6, the College discontinued its Grammarly subscription. This decision was collaboratively made by the Center for Information Technology, Committee on Writing, Educational Plans and Policies Committee, as well as faculty and College and Conservatory leadership.
“Grammarly is no longer just a grammar checker,” Andrea Simakis, director of media relations, wrote in an email to the Review. “It now includes tools that generate ideas, suggest sources, predict grades, and ‘humanize’ AI-written text. Faculty felt those features blur the line between editing and doing the intellectual work for students, which conflicts with the learning goals of Oberlin’s writing requirement.”
According to Simakis, visiting experts in academic integrity and AI, who came as part of Oberlin’s Year of AI Exploration, as well as Student Senate, recommended this decision. Simakis said that the major concern brought up by faculty was that Grammarly’s new AI features could diminish writing and research skills and cause concerns surrounding academic integrity.
However, student opinions center around using older features of Grammarly as a method to improve their writing skills, particularly to revise their ideas for clarity, concision, and grammar, rather than to generate essays or produce original ideas.
“I just use Grammarly for a lot of things,” College second-year Destiny Doan said. “It’s something that I rely on as a tool. My pet peeve is repeating the same words over and over again, like starting a sentence with ‘however.’ Instead, Grammarly can suggest different phrases, so that the sentence structure moves more slowly [and] smoothly, so that it can help make my paper sound more concise.”
This decision was driven by the EPPC and a faculty governance committee. They charged the Committee on Writing to review writing requirements considering generative AI and Grammarly as part of a larger project, Simakis said.
The committee included faculty members from various Arts and Sciences departments, including Writing and Communication, and the Writing Center. They also consulted with English for Speakers of Other Languages leadership and the Conservatory Dean’s office for academic support.
“Utilizing generative AI at any stage of the writing process, which now includes some of Grammarly’s tools, is antithetical to our mission and values,” Writing Associates Program Coordinator Kayla Kim, OC ’25, wrote in an email to the Review. “The Writing Center does more than check for grammar or punctuation; it is a place for peer-to-peer connection in an accessible learning environment. This is something that can’t be replicated with a chatbox or essay generator.”
Kim emphasized that after Grammarly’s discontinuation, she hopes more students will use the Writing Center to build their communication skills, critical thinking, and be able to engage with their studies and research.
“AI isn’t going away,” Simakis wrote. “The goal is to engage with it thoughtfully and transparently. The focus will be on tools and practices that support learning — helping students think, write, and research more effectively — without replacing those skills.”
