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University Launches Tiered AI Program to Empower Faculty Across Disciplines
On April 12, a leading university announced a three‑tiered artificial‑intelligence (AI) initiative designed to gather faculty feedback, provide training, and equip professors with the resources needed to guide peers in AI adoption.
The program, called the AI in a Domain cohort, is part of the institution’s broader strategy to embed AI across campus through collaboration rather than centralized decision‑making. Instead of a top‑down mandate, the university is letting faculty members shape how AI tools are used in research, teaching, and operations.
The cohort is divided into three subgroups. Campus Champions will serve as local points of contact within their colleges, sharing resources, gathering feedback, and promoting best practices. AI Fellows will take on research projects that apply AI to advance teaching, research, or operations. Associate Directors will occupy leadership roles in their departments, helping to translate university‑wide AI guidance into discipline‑specific practice. The university received 250 applications across the three tracks, and it has already selected 27 Campus Champions and 10 Fellows; Associate Director appointments are still being finalized.
According to Chief AI and Data Science Officer David Ebert, the initiative follows the creation of an Office of Responsible AI, a secure AI platform available to all students, faculty and staff, and expanded training through weekly workshops and the Google AI for Education Accelerator. “We feel that our success is based on input from the entire community so that we understand the needs we have, the expertise and the ideas across campus,” Ebert said. “The way to get more active engagement was to create a tiered program of involvement in our chief AI office.”
Campus Champions undergo a six‑week training course to ensure a baseline understanding of AI skills and institutional strategy. Once trained, they commit only a few hours a week to their roles. “What I found is, there are many extremely smart people who are so busy with what they’re doing, they haven’t had the chance to see how to incorporate a number of these tools into what they do on a daily basis,” Ebert said. “Having a colleague be able to show them how they’re doing it is so much easier than a computer scientist come in and say, ‘AI could do this for you.’”
AI Fellows work more deeply on projects in areas the university sees as high‑impact for AI. One Fellow comes from the Pacific Northwest Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, a program that has explored the intersection of public policy with psychology and public health since 1990. The new fellow track, in partnership with the chief AI office, will provide funding for research on AI in public policy. “That’s an area that we see great opportunity for, but also the work in critical minerals and mining, in sustainable energy infusion, in space and defense, and then in sustainable agriculture and the environment,” Ebert said.
Associate Directors commit eight hours a week for two years in a strategic capacity. They meet every two weeks, while Fellows meet monthly. The meetings are designed to help the cohort inform and translate university‑level AI guidance across a campus of more than 50,000 students and 3,000 faculty. “We’re looking at three months at a time. Where do we want to be in three months to get us to the ultimate direction of effective and responsible use of AI? By having this group, we can make sure that we are getting that across campus,” Ebert said. “We’re not coming up with a five‑year strategic plan for AI on campus, because the technology is so rapidly changing.”
The cohort spans engineering, health, business, and the arts. The initiative underscores the university’s focus on faculty input and cross‑disciplinary collaboration. By embedding AI expertise in each department, the university hopes to accelerate responsible AI adoption while maintaining a flexible, responsive framework that can adapt to rapid technological shifts.
As the cohort moves forward, the university will monitor the program’s impact on research outputs, teaching practices, and operational efficiencies. The Office of Responsible AI will continue to oversee strategy, while the secure AI platform and training resources remain available to all campus members. The next phase will likely involve scaling the model to additional departments and refining the program based on faculty feedback and evolving AI capabilities.
The program, called the AI in a Domain cohort, is part of the institution’s broader strategy to embed AI across campus through collaboration rather than centralized decision‑making. Instead of a top‑down mandate, the university is letting faculty members shape how AI tools are used in research, teaching, and operations.
The cohort is divided into three subgroups. Campus Champions will serve as local points of contact within their colleges, sharing resources, gathering feedback, and promoting best practices. AI Fellows will take on research projects that apply AI to advance teaching, research, or operations. Associate Directors will occupy leadership roles in their departments, helping to translate university‑wide AI guidance into discipline‑specific practice. The university received 250 applications across the three tracks, and it has already selected 27 Campus Champions and 10 Fellows; Associate Director appointments are still being finalized.
According to Chief AI and Data Science Officer David Ebert, the initiative follows the creation of an Office of Responsible AI, a secure AI platform available to all students, faculty and staff, and expanded training through weekly workshops and the Google AI for Education Accelerator. “We feel that our success is based on input from the entire community so that we understand the needs we have, the expertise and the ideas across campus,” Ebert said. “The way to get more active engagement was to create a tiered program of involvement in our chief AI office.”
Campus Champions undergo a six‑week training course to ensure a baseline understanding of AI skills and institutional strategy. Once trained, they commit only a few hours a week to their roles. “What I found is, there are many extremely smart people who are so busy with what they’re doing, they haven’t had the chance to see how to incorporate a number of these tools into what they do on a daily basis,” Ebert said. “Having a colleague be able to show them how they’re doing it is so much easier than a computer scientist come in and say, ‘AI could do this for you.’”
AI Fellows work more deeply on projects in areas the university sees as high‑impact for AI. One Fellow comes from the Pacific Northwest Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, a program that has explored the intersection of public policy with psychology and public health since 1990. The new fellow track, in partnership with the chief AI office, will provide funding for research on AI in public policy. “That’s an area that we see great opportunity for, but also the work in critical minerals and mining, in sustainable energy infusion, in space and defense, and then in sustainable agriculture and the environment,” Ebert said.
Associate Directors commit eight hours a week for two years in a strategic capacity. They meet every two weeks, while Fellows meet monthly. The meetings are designed to help the cohort inform and translate university‑level AI guidance across a campus of more than 50,000 students and 3,000 faculty. “We’re looking at three months at a time. Where do we want to be in three months to get us to the ultimate direction of effective and responsible use of AI? By having this group, we can make sure that we are getting that across campus,” Ebert said. “We’re not coming up with a five‑year strategic plan for AI on campus, because the technology is so rapidly changing.”
The cohort spans engineering, health, business, and the arts. The initiative underscores the university’s focus on faculty input and cross‑disciplinary collaboration. By embedding AI expertise in each department, the university hopes to accelerate responsible AI adoption while maintaining a flexible, responsive framework that can adapt to rapid technological shifts.
As the cohort moves forward, the university will monitor the program’s impact on research outputs, teaching practices, and operational efficiencies. The Office of Responsible AI will continue to oversee strategy, while the secure AI platform and training resources remain available to all campus members. The next phase will likely involve scaling the model to additional departments and refining the program based on faculty feedback and evolving AI capabilities.
