DU Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Mary Clark and Vice-Chancellor and Chief Information Officer Russel Kaurloto sent out an email on Feb. 15 announcing the formation of DU’s AI Steering Committee. The committee was formed late fall of this academic year with the intention to build task forces that will revolutionize higher education in the areas of business operations, research, teaching and learning according to the committee’s website page.
Provost Clark said that her first exposure to AI in the fall of 2022 was from academic journals that framed AI as a negative influence on academic integrity. Clark, however, has come to disagree with this type of thinking.
“I think we need to be pragmatic and mindful of the downsides, but really lean into the positive opportunities,” Clark said. “Our students are going to be graduating into worlds that are using AI to craft first drafts or to craft outlines for concepts. That’s really a springboard to take your thinking to a further level.”
Clark oversees the research task force that is responsible for identifying the best ways to use AI to give the university’s research a competitive edge. Additionally, this portion of the committee is tasked with protecting the property of DU in the event that AI is used for things like taking notes during meetings. “We had to be confident that there were some boundaries placed on any information that we were collecting through AI,” Clark said.
The teaching and learning task force is led by three of the university’s deans from Daniels, Ritchie and University College. This task force focuses on figuring out the best ways AI can influence DU’s classrooms. This portion of the committee is essential to the entire community’s learning as technology advances. With AI as our present and future, “teaching is what faculty do; learning is what hopefully both faculty and students do,” Clark said.
The task forces are not limited to just instructors, researchers and students. The business operations task force acknowledges the potential ways that AI can help DU become more efficient from a business standpoint. AI is a potential tool for management, budgeting, student advising and forecasting. This task force is led by Vice Chancellor Kaurloto.
For students in all areas of studies, the steering committee has “been talking about standing up a sort of a pooled resource of courses related to AI that could then be foundational for students,” Clark said. The hope is that DU students can build off of their baseline knowledge of AI and further their learning with upper-level courses focused on AI for their specific discipline.
On April 5, the Burwell Center will be holding an AI Try-a-thon. Tech firms such as Microsoft and Zoom will provide AI tools for students, staff and faculty to “try on” and test outcomes in terms of teaching and learning, research and business operations.
Individuals at Microsoft have been extremely supportive of DU’s approach to accepting AI and its benefits. “They think we’re on the leading edge of leaning into this space,” Clark said. She is enthusiastic about the opportunities AI presents for DU, but mindful of the potential concerns in the uncharted territory of AI.
