HIGHER EDUCATION
Your students are protected by law. Is your AI?
Syntrovex helps universities and colleges adopt AI without tripping FERPA, accessibility law, or the civil-rights rules that protect the students you serve.
Confidential. Direct access to the principal. Limited engagements per quarter.
Higher Education Advisor
The Academic AI Frontier
Institutions are navigating a transformation. We provide the governance frameworks, policy depth, and practical leadership to ensure your AI adoption is compliant, ethical, and built for the long term.
Academic AI Governance & Policy
Institutional AI Policy
Comprehensive frameworks for departments and central administration. Policies drafted to satisfy accreditors while enabling compliant innovation across the curriculum.
Procurement & Vendor Review
Vetting AI startups and established vendors for data privacy, IP ownership, and WCAG accessibility standards before institutional investment.
Faculty Integrity Training
Workshops on balancing academic integrity with AI adoption. Training faculty to manage proctoring tools and detection bias in the classroom.
THE CHALLENGE
Governing AI on Campus.
Protected Data
Student records are flowing into AI tools no one reviewed against FERPA.
Equity & Access
Detection and proctoring tools fall hardest on students with disabilities, neurodivergent students, and non-native English speakers.
Accreditation & Audit
Accreditors and the Office for Civil Rights now ask how AI is governed, and being careful is not a documented answer.
Without a governance framework
AI tools adopted by faculty, staff, and students with no inventory and no policy.
Student records moving through AI systems no one reviewed against FERPA.
Detection and proctoring tools in use with no check for disability, language, or racial bias.
Accessibility gaps in student-facing AI under Section 504 and the ADA.
No named owner when an accreditor, the Office for Civil Rights, or a family starts asking.
With Syntrovex
An AI use inventory across teaching, learning, and research.
A governance framework mapped to FERPA and the NIST AI Risk Management Framework.
Detection and assessment tools reviewed for disability, language, and civil-rights impact.
Section 504 and ADA accessibility evaluation built into deployment.
A named accountable owner with a documented review cycle.
AI Governance Offerings
Institutional AI Risk Assessment
A review of your AI footprint across academic and administrative units, measured against FERPA and the NIST AI Risk Management Framework.
AI Policy & Framework Design
Accreditor-ready AI policy that holds up to the Office for Civil Rights, your accreditors, and your counsel.
Accessibility & Civil-Rights Review
Evaluation of detection, proctoring, and student-facing AI for disability, language, and racial bias under Section 504, the ADA, and Title VI.
Vendor & Contract Governance
AI and data terms for your EdTech vendors, plus a read on the third-party AI risk you already carry.
Why Syntrovex for Higher Education
Practitioner inside the institution
18 years running educational technology and vendor governance inside a major research university, including AI contract execution.
Legal grounding
Master of Law in Technology and Intellectual Property from Penn Carey Law School, with formal work on AI, accessibility, and civil rights in education.
Equity expertise
Deep focus on how AI detection and proctoring tools affect students with disabilities, neurodivergent students, non-native English speakers, and Black students.
A regulator's eye
Eight years reviewing registrations under SEC and FINRA rules, so documentation is built the way oversight bodies actually read it.
Academic Impact & Case Studies
VETERINARY MEDICINE
AI-Supported Diagnostics Curriculum
Leading a major veterinary school through the complex integration of AI image recognition in clinical training. We established a governance framework that managed vendor liability while ensuring faculty-led academic oversight and data security.
POLICY DEVELOPMENT
Inclusive Academic Integrity Protocols
Developed specialized policy analysis to address the disproportionate impact of AI proctoring on neurodivergent students. We balanced integrity requirements with accessibility standards to mitigate civil rights litigation risks.
COMPLIANCE
Procurement Language Alignment
Bridging the gap between the General Counsel and IT Procurement to standardize AI-specific riders. We secured institutional data rights and privacy safeguards across all new digital research tool acquisitions.
An AI contract executed inside a research university
At the University of Pennsylvania, Tonya moved an AI vendor contract from negotiation through execution, putting governed AI-supported curriculum and analytics into real use.
A track record you can verify.
Syntrovex is a new firm. The experience behind it is not. Here is work Tonya has personally led.
Institutional AI policy, written and implemented
She has drafted and stood up AI governance policy inside a major research university, the same work she now brings to academic leaders.
Legal analysis of AI, accessibility, and civil rights
A formal legal analysis of how AI detection and proctoring tools affect protected students under Title VI, Section 504, the ADA, and FERPA.
Built for regulated environments.
Syntrovex serves universities and colleges, where getting AI wrong carries legal, accreditation, and human consequences.
Regulatory DNA
Legal training
Master of Law in Technology and Intellectual Property from Penn Carey Law School, with a Law Certificate in AI Ethics, Policy and Governance.
Operational experience
18 years running educational technology and vendor governance inside a major research university, including AI contract execution.
Regulatory experience
Eight years at NASDAQ PHLX reviewing registrations under SEC and FINRA rules. Governance grounded in how regulators actually read documentation.
Get started in 3 easy steps
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Send a note
Email tonya@syntrovex.com with a few lines about your institution and what is prompting the conversation.
Scoping conversation
Fixed-scope proposal
A focused call to understand your environment, your exposure, and your stakeholders.
Clear scope, timeline, and investment. No open-ended retainers to start.
Govern your AI before an accreditor, a regulator, or a family asks how.
Syntrovex accepts a limited number of engagements per quarter. Confidential, with a response from the principal, not a sales team.