AI On Campus
Transforming higher ed operations
Disruptive. Transformational. Supportive. Ask Lev Gonick about the power and promise of artificial intelligence (AI), and the 25-plus year educator, technologist and smart city architect is going to shoot straight. Today, as people everywhere continue to try and make sense of just how AI will impact their lives, Gonick and his team at Arizona State University (ASU) are way ahead of the curve.
As ASU’s Chief Information Officer (CIO), he leads a diverse team from the ASU Enterprise Technology department in finding the most effective ways to leverage technology to create efficiencies. The blueprint includes finding the best strategies for reducing the amount of tedium and human labor required for administrative tasks, especially ones that take countless man hours and resources. At the top of his team’s list is generative AI.
“As ASU scales significantly, we cannot anticipate, predict or actually find the resources for staffing to support students in the ‘old ways,'” says Gonick, who also chairs the Sun Corridor Network, Arizona’s Research and Education Network. “So, it becomes incumbent on us to use technology.”
At the core of ASU’s business strategy is student success. With that tenet at the forefront, AI has become an exciting and intriguing tool in the university’s quest to help students on their academic journey and prepare them for the future of work. “There is a significant opportunity, with the appropriate guard rails, to be a first mover and leader in that direction,” Gonick says. “There are risks, but I think the even greater risk is to not lean in and face the prospects of not being able to leverage AI to enhance the university’s business operations, research activities and academic excellence—all in service of student success.”
When it comes to enhancing the experience of students and staff on a campus, ASU can be viewed as an enterprise-wide venture—one where leveraging AI technologies can help support everyone in their journeys, especially students. Gonick calls this ideal the foundation of the university’s commitment.
AI is changing the landscape as ASU students are using it to their advantage. For example, AI has become instrumental in helping navigate areas like financial aid and their academic experiences.
And while there is no instructional manual yet on how to incorporate AI into every university’s day-to-day process, Gonick says a big part of it is working on designing and building out a “coalition of the willing.” “At ASU, there’s a broad understanding that while we’ve helped to frame, educate and engage our best successes, these successes happen in partnership with the rest of the university. It is incumbent on CIOs to understand that we need to take intentional action to create single-threaded (dedicated) teams.”
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“At ASU, there’s a broad understanding that while we’ve helped to frame, educate and engage our best successes, these successes happen in partnership with the rest of the university.”
— Lev Gonick, Chief Information Officer, Arizona State University
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Today, ASU has a nearly 20-person AI acceleration team, which is a collection of talents from across IT and UI/UX backgrounds. The team includes data scientists, software engineers, machine learning specialists, natural language processing specialists, etc. “An important piece is to be very intentional about partnerships with organizations where there’s mission and vision alignment.”
Finding the path forward
One of the areas of Michael DePerro’s responsibility as Assistant Director of Executive Education for the College of Business at Ohio University is leading the Administrative Council. One of the university’s top priorities, the council was created to establish a universal definition of AI, including mapping out training and resource allocations, and to address common pain points.
“The key is to learn from initial deployments before scaling,” DePerro says. “Universities must develop or acquire the necessary data, talent and technology infrastructure. They also must create a campus-wide AI strategy that aligns to institutional priorities, as well as consider establishing an AI ethics review board as part of your strategy.”
Why is that important? According to Tyton Partners’ “GenAI in Higher Education: Fall 2023 Update Time for Class Study,” faculty members have been slower than students to adopt AI tools, with 49% of students using AI tools, but only 22% of faculty members.
DePerro says the biggest implementation challenges involve integration complexity, user adoption, skills gaps and explaining AI-driven decisions. He believes successful integration requires updated data pipelines, APIs and legacy system connectivity, all of which can be challenging in traditionally siloed organizations.
“Building trust and acceptance of AI among students and staff is also critical,” DePerro says. “Transparency and accountability will be key in this evolution. Investing in change management and training helps drive adoption, but we need to be mindful of the cultural changes that will need to accompany the operational change. Additionally, most universities lack specialized AI skills, so cultivating internal capabilities or external partnerships is key.”
When adapted (and embraced) properly on the administrative side, AI can drive efficiency gains in operations from admissions to campus facilities management. This includes automating repetitive tasks and freeing up staff capacity so they can refocus on personalization and higher function like strategy. It also can derive data-driven insights to inform planning around enrollment, curriculum design, and resource allocation.
“Overall, AI enables institutions to scale processes, reduce costs, and make more strategic decisions,” DePerro says. “The important consideration when implementing these processes will be ensuring that the efficiency gains are thoughtfully repurposed. Organizations should avoid the trap of focusing on bottom line gains or simply backfilling the time saved by increasing workloads.”
One of the areas that today’s higher education institutions will continue to monitor when it comes to AI is data privacy and algorithmic transparency. Adoption will come faster when institutions implement robust data governance policies, security safeguards, testing processes to minimize bias and documentation showing how systems arrive at predictions and recommendations.
Similar to Ohio University’s Administrative Council, having the structure in place to provide ongoing ethics reviews of AI systems will help identify problems. “Still, universities will need to stay fluid and adaptive as AI continues to evolve,” DePerro warns. “Students and staff should be informed when interacting with an AI application.”
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“Universities will need to stay fluid and adaptive as AI continues to evolve. Students and staff should be informed when interacting with an AI application.”
— Michael DePerro, CTA, Assistant Director, Executive Education, College of Business at Ohio University
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In mapping out the future of AI, Gonick believes its potential to transform higher education could have an even deeper impact than the consumer internet did three decades ago. “Since then, I haven’t seen anything with that kind of potential, like we are seeing with generative AI. I see that as tectonic, shifting the underlying ways in which we have access to and ability to synthesize information in order to guide positive educational outcomes.”
At ASU, administrators talk about the “A” in AI as an augmenting factor, i.e., augmenting human intelligence, education and the ways in which we teach and learn. “In that environment, I can envision all kinds of ways in which faculty wouldn’t have to do a lot of the tedium that is traditionally part of the teaching and learning process, so we can unleash more creativity,” Gonick says.
As AI’s integration becomes increasingly prevalent on today’s campuses, higher education institutions will continue to experience transformative changes in their operational efficiency and student experiences. Embracing AI’s potential will help them thrive in a rapidly evolving educational landscape.
