Gompei's Texting Service

WPI is committed to listening to student voices and providing support when and where students need it most. We all use text every day, so Gompei's texting service is a great way for us to stay in touch and improve the student experience by:

1. Providing regular check ins helps us understand student needs and identify emerging trends we can more quickly act on. For example, feedback to a message during midterms might show that students are struggling to find study space; that’s something we can work on.
2. Answering questions 24/7 using trusted WPI resources and information. Gompei's texting service is designed to be accurate and helpful, but it can’t walk students through nuanced or complex processes. It'll help connect you to a human, because humans do that work better.
3. Helping WPI make informed decisions about programs, services, communications, and support initiatives. Our goal—always—is to ensure student voices help shape the WPI experience.  Gompei's texting service is another way students can share their voices.

Gompei texts you; you text back if you’d like. Simple as that.

Gompei's texting service will send periodic check-in messages asking about your experience, wellbeing, sense of belonging, goals, or other aspects of student life. You can also connect with Gompei's texting service anytime using an existing conversation thread. 

Participation is optional. You can:

• Respond to messages or ask questions.
• Ignore messages.
• Opt out anytime by texting STOP.
• Opt back in anytime by replying HELLO to an old thread or emailing dean-of-students@wpi.edu.

You can ask about almost anything: 

• Campus resources and services
• Opportunities to get involved in clubs or activities
• Academic support
• Health and wellness resources
• Events and activities
• Housing and dining
• General questions about student life

If Gompei's texting service can’t answer a question directly, it will direct you to the right WPI office.

No. Gompei's texting service can complement, not replace, the people and services that support you. Think of it as an easy first step for getting information, sharing feedback, or finding the right resource 24/7. 

Gompei's texting service was developed using a knowledge base of WPI information and has a number of safeguards built in:

• Its knowledge base continually updated and pulls only from WPI information; Gompei's texting service does not use external sources.
• It is not designed to speculate beyond its knowledge base.
• When its confidence about an answer is low, it tells users it’s not sure and directs them to ask campus staff.
• It won't break from its guardrails, even if you ask it to. It will politely decline and point you toward a helpful campus resource instead. For example, it might say: "I can't do your homework for you, but here's a resource you may find helpful."

Many people have been involved in developing the knowledge base for Gompei's texting service, but things evolve quickly and feedback is helpful! Email dean-of-students@wpi.edu. (And thank you!)

While Gompei's texting service is smart, it is still a chatbot and doesn’t have the same understanding, judgement, or ability to understand context the way humans do. This means:  

• It can’t infer meaning, tone, motive, or ambiguity. If it tries, it might not provide the best resources or responses.
• It is not an official reporting mechanism for the university. It is not an emergency line; if you’re in crisis, call Campus Police at 508-831-5555. To submit official reports to WPI, please visit an official reporting tool.
• It isn’t designed to walk students through nuanced or complex processes; it will try to point you to WPI staff who can help. 
• It doesn’t know everything. It uses a specific knowledge base and doesn’t include all resources available through WPI’s website or external online sources. Information is always evolving and it may point you to a website that’s not updated.
• Every effort is made to ensure its knowledge base is correct, but if preloaded information isn’t updated, or if a question is asked without clear parameters, it might give imperfect responses.

If you bring up something serious, Gompei's texting service will direct you to trained WPI staff and appropriate resources, and your conversation may be flagged so a real person can follow up with you to make sure you have the help you need.

No, Gompei's texting service isn’t intended or available for such communications. It’s meant for proactive outreach to students and responding to student questions. You can use other campus tools to promote your event.

No. This tool is not a crisis response service and should not be used for emergencies. For emergencies, call:

• 911
• WPI Campus Police: 508-831-5555
• The SDCC 24/7 Crisis Line: 508-831-5540
• Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: text 988

Please note that to support the safety and well-being of all students, any messages that indicate possible violence, self-harm, or harm to others may be shared with WPI Police and appropriate university staff for follow-up.

Messages are not anonymous. Most conversations are managed automatically; staff don’t review every text. But if the chatbot or staff see a message that suggests a student needs additional help with academic issues or mental health concerns, or that a student is experiencing violence, text threads may be routed to appropriate WPI staff so they can follow up and help connect the student to resources. 

We encourage students to contact share concerning or important information directly with WPI’s designated offices that can provide support.

Your information will be used only to support your success and to help WPI understand student trends. All student information is managed according to FERPA, which protects students’ privacy, and will not be sold or rented.

Information shared with Gompei's texting service helps WPI better understand student experiences and improve support services. Conversations may be reviewed by WPI staff trained to support students, who may follow up if they think a student needs help. Only those staff who help run the platform can access conversation data, if needed to provide the service.

To operate Gompei's texting service and ensure it gives students what they need, WPI shares with EdSights basic contact information such as name, email, phone number, and general information on academic standing (first year, second year, etc.), academic major, enrollment status, advisors, and any affiliations (residential, Greek, athletic, etc.). WPI does not share more data than is necessary to support student success.

Your privacy is protected in a few specific ways:

• Only your most recent message and recent conversation history are used to generate a response to you. Other information about you, including personally identifying details, is kept separate and is never sent to the chatbot.
• Your specific texts are not used to train, fine-tune, or improve any AI models. Gompei’s texting service uses a prompt-based approach, where WPI-approved content and instructions guide how the AI responds at the time of the interaction.
• Your data is not shared with or used to train external AI tools, like ChatGPT or other public AI systems.
• Your information is protected with encryption, access controls, and role-based permissions, meaning only people who need access to do their jobs can see it.
• Gompei's texting service and WPI staff follow FERPA and institutional privacy standards.
• Student data is not sold or used for marketing.
• Data is stored and processed in the United States and is protected through security and privacy safeguards.

If you opt out and want to exercise your rights under FERPA, you can ask for a copy of information collected about you, correct your personal information, or request your personal information be deleted. Just email dean-of-students@wpi.edu. EdSights complies with all requests to delete customer data and ensures requests are processed in a timely manner. 

If information is retained after you opt out, it stays within the platform's secure systems. WPI may also keep information already shared with staff as part of student support, recordkeeping, or compliance. Deleting a text message from your phone does not delete it from these systems; it may still exist in the platform or WPI's records. This information stays protected under applicable privacy and security rules.

Gompei's texting service uses pre-trained AI models, so it avoids the energy-intensive process of training a model from scratch. A single conversation with the chatbot uses about as much energy as, or less than, everyday things like streaming a show or using an app.

Please reach out to  dean-of-students@wpi.edu.