Learning with AI: VCSU’s Vision for Education

By Jerry Rostad, VCSU Director of Special Projects

Artificial intelligence has vividly captured public attention. It’s routinely characterized as either a looming threat or a technological miracle. Or both. Valley City State University launched the AI Institute for Teaching and Learning this past fall to prepare students for a future in which AI is woven into every profession, while ensuring that the human element remains at the center of education.

When we launched the AI Institute, one of our first steps was to survey faculty, students, and staff to understand their current attitudes toward AI. What emerged from the anonymous surveys was neither fear nor blind enthusiasm, but something much more promising: a campus community willing to approach AI with curiosity, caution, and a shared commitment to preserving the core of what education is about.

Across the campus, respondents generally leaned positively about AI’s potential, although each group identified different concerns and hopes. About half the faculty expressed optimism about AI as a learning and productivity tool. Equally, a significant minority of faculty remained skeptical, citing worries about academic integrity, the erosion of critical thinking, and uncertainty about long‑term impacts on creativity.

Staff responses showed a similar balance. They expressed an openness to AI for brainstorming, writing, and research while pairing concerns around privacy, accuracy, and over-reliance.

Students indicated they are experimenting with AI, using it to help edit, plan, or clarify ideas while recognizing potential limits and risks.

This gentle mix of optimism and caution from the faculty, staff and students is exactly where a learning community should be.

One of the clearest themes that emerged from the surveys is the emphasis that AI may support learning but it cannot replace it. Faculty worry that students might bypass the cognitive effort necessary for true education. Students worry about misinformation, accuracy, and unclear policy expectations. Staff worry about privacy and the importance of human judgment. These concerns are not signals to halt AI. Rather, they are evidence of a campus prepared to engage with AI ethically and deliberately.

What may be most encouraging is how consistently students, faculty, and staff all affirm the enduring importance of human skills. When asked what competencies matter most for the future workforce, respondents overwhelmingly highlighted communication, creativity, leadership, ethical judgment, and analytical thinking. Technical skills like AI still matter, but no one argued that AI expertise outweighs the timeless foundations of an educated mind. In fact, the surveys suggested the opposite. As AI becomes more present in our work and daily lives, the uniquely human abilities to interpret, question, imagine, and connect become even more essential.

Simply, AI cannot cultivate wisdom or character. Those responsibilities remain ours. In that sense, AI challenges universities not to dilute their purpose, but to recommit to it.

The creation of VCSU’s AI Institute is not about chasing trends or replacing traditional education. It is about preparing students for a world where AI will be present. It is about supporting faculty and staff as they explore how AI might improve teaching, enhance services, or streamline routine tasks. And, it is about ensuring that as we adopt new technologies, we do so with the integrity, thoughtfulness, and human focus that define this institution.

While public debates about AI often seem polarized, VCSU’s internal conversation offers something more constructive: nuance. VCSU is choosing a future in which innovation serves learning, not replaces it. Where tools support human judgment rather than overshadow it. Where students graduate not only familiar with emerging technologies but grounded in deeper habits of inquiry and understanding.

AI will continue to evolve and so will our classrooms. Yet curiosity, knowledge, critical thinking, and the human capacity to grow will remain unchanged. The heart of education. Valley City State University believes AI is not a threat to that mission, it is an invitation to renew it.