For decades, the modern university has operated on a tacit agreement between faculty and student: the former assigns the essay as a proxy for critical thought, and the latter produces it to demonstrate comprehension. This compact, however, was fraying long before the public release of ChatGPT. The arrival of large language models did not act as a battering ram against a fortified castle of learning; rather, it was the gentle push that toppled a structure already hollowed out by grade inflation, administrative bloat, and a transactional view of credentialing. As academia scrambles to rewrite integrity policies, a deeper, more uncomfortable truth is emerging from the faculty lounge to the dean’s office: the crisis is not technological, but pedagogical.
