Artificial Intelligence and the Next Generation of Higher Ed: "Engage" or "All stop, hold your position"?

Please join us for this exciting Lunch with MACRAO hosted by the Admissions and Recruitment Subcommittee.

Presenter: Erik Trump - Director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning and Professor of Political Science at Saginaw Valley State University.

Using a Star Trek metaphor, this presentation imagines AI as an approaching and alien force confronting higher education. Should universities resist, cautiously adapt, or boldly reinvent themselves? Trump argues that generative AI is not merely a new instructional tool, but a disruptive technological, political, and cultural force reshaping employer expectations, public trust, academic integrity, and the structure of higher education itself. While many university leaders frame AI as an opportunity, faculty responses often range from skepticism to resistance. Rather than recommending denial or minor adjustments, the lecture calls for a more ambitious response: sustained investment in faculty development, accelerated curricular experimentation, and a willingness to rethink traditional course and institutional models. The session closes with an urgent question: in the face of rapid change, what are we going to do.

MACRAO members received an email invite with a zoom link on Feb. 16.