Office of the President

Future Belongs to Those Who Embrace AI  
  
Dr. Marsha Danielson, President Minnesota State College Southeast  
  
Having artificial intelligence (AI) at our fingertips elicits many reactions.  

We all know a family member or friend who insists they will never use AI or are opposed to it. These modern-day Luddites insist that we need to stop AI.   

It is amazing how pervasive AI has become since the introduction of ChatGPT in November 2022.   

Many suggest the United States is in a new information arms race with China, India and other nations to build the best AI. That race (and all that might be at stake) contributes significantly to the tensions surrounding whether or not more guard rails need to be placed around the use and development of AI.  

In academia, the greatest fear is that students will use AI to cheat or write papers. Earlier this month, Inside Higher Ed reported on several new AI tools that could thwart safeguards to maintain academic integrity. The Chronicle of Higher Education ran an essay titled: “Will Agentic AI Break Higher Education?”  

For those who still believe AI is something that can be boxed up or avoided, that ship has sailed.  

Rather than fight AI, all of us in higher education will do our students a huge favor by embracing it and helping them learn how to use it to work more efficiently, and ethically.  

Gone is the day of expecting students to retain and regurgitate all kinds of facts and figures. Today, we need graduates who are innately curious, who know how to engage with AI responsibly, and who can verify its accuracy—so they leave college equipped to thrive in an AI‑driven workplace.  

Minnesota State College Southeast’s College Information Officer, Scott Fillman, was among the early adopters of finding ways to teach students how to use AI responsibly.   

As a part-time, temporary instructor for Minnesota State Community & Technical College, Scott suspected some students in his coding and web design courses were copying and pasting code for their assignments.  

To counter that, Scott developed assignments that encouraged students to use AI if they’d like, but he added a step. Students had to write or record a short explanation of the steps they took and why, asking them to use their critical thinking and problem-solving skills.  

“Students can copy and paste code, but that doesn’t demonstrate comprehension,” Scott said. “They need to demonstrate understanding and explain their logic.”  

Other times, Scott presented students with broken or defective code, and they had to troubleshoot the problem and document the steps they took to remedy it.  

Today’s AI is like the initial response to calculators in math classes. The tool could help do the math faster, but the user still had to know the formulas and how to use them to get the correct answer.  

AI relies heavily on probability, so it is not always right. We need to be vigilant and call out inaccuracies.  

Scott sees AI as a paradigm shift and thinks it is exciting for community colleges like Southeast to be on the cutting edge.   

“We need to be a place where local businesses seeking help with how to improve their operations can get the support to help them use AI to grow and flourish,” he said. I agree that it is important for our institution to act quickly enough to prepare students for an evolving workforce, while balancing AI’s ethical and educational implications.  

Equity must sit at the heart of any institution’s AI strategy. By strengthening digital literacy, weaving AI competencies throughout the curriculum, and helping students grasp both the possibilities and the limitations of AI tools, institutions make AI more accessible to all learners.   

Rather than viewing AI as a threat, Scott sees it as a powerful resource for narrowing equity gaps—because it can present concepts in multiple formats that align with different learning styles. AI enables instruction to be personalized and delivered in the way each student learns best.   

History remembers the Luddites for their opposition to technological advancement, but despite their efforts, innovation and improvements prevailed.  

AI will keep advancing, but our mission stays the same: to broaden opportunities, deepen learning, and strengthen our communities. I choose to see AI not as something to fear, but as a tool that empowers people to do more and reach further.