Dear Faculty and Staff Colleagues,
Over the past several years, as has been widely discussed, developments in artificial intelligence have begun to affect many aspects of higher education: how students learn, how faculty teach and conduct scholarship, how organizations such as ours operate, and how colleges and universities consider how to best prepare students for lives and careers after college.
In response to these developments, I have appointed a University Task Force on Artificial Intelligence, charged with helping ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ consider both the opportunities and the challenges presented by the rapidly evolving AI technologies.
The Task Force has been asked to help guide ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ’s engagement with artificial intelligence in a manner consistent with our core mission as a liberal arts institution: educating students with intellectual rigor and breadth, advancing knowledge, and preparing students for thoughtful and consequential lives.
The Task Force will focus on three broad areas of responsibility:
- developing principles to guide ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ’s engagement with AI in teaching, learning, research, administrative work, and institutional communication;
- recommending governance and review processes for AI-related decisions involving such matters as academic integrity, technology platforms, partnerships, data security, and institutional investments; and
- advising the President and Board of Trustees on emerging opportunities, partnerships, pilot programs, and other AI-related developments that require timely institutional consideration and governance.
Importantly, the Task Force is asked to proceed from the conviction that the liberal arts are not peripheral to preparation for an AI-influenced world, but central to it. The habits of mind cultivated through a liberal arts education — critical reasoning, ethical judgment, creativity, communication, historical understanding, and scientific and quantitative literacy — remain essential foundations for the responsible and effective use of these technologies.
The Task Force will begin its work this summer and provide an initial memorandum to the Board of Trustees in the fall, followed by a more formal report in spring 2027.
I am grateful to the members of the Task Force for their willingness to undertake this important work.
Sincerely,
Brian W. Casey
President
Task Force Co-Chairs:
Lesleigh Cushing, Provost and Dean of the Faculty, Mark S. Siegel University Professor in Religion and Jewish Studies
Christopher Wells, Vice President for Administration
Members:
Dan Benton ’80, H’10, P’10, Trustee
Ben Child, Associate Professor of English; University Professor, CORE Conversations
Niranjan Davray, Chief Information Officer
Carmine DiSibio ’85, P’18,’21, Trustee
Joseph S. Hope, Senior Vice President for Finance and Chief Investment Officer
Krista Ingram, Professor of Biology
Jason Meyers, Professor of Biology and Neuroscience; Chair, Committee on Faculty Affairs
Vijay Ramachandran, Associate Professor of Computer Science
Mary Simonson, Daniel C. Benton ’80 Endowed Chair in Arts, Creativity, and Innovation; Professor of Film & Media Studies and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Maria Zhang P’27, Trustee