GovState accepted into prestigious Institute on AI
By Lisa Redmond, Staff Writer
With rising interest in Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education, institutions must balance AI's benefits, such as voice recognition capabilities that support students with disabilities, multilingual learners, and others, with the obvious academic integrity issues that arise when AI technology writes for students. Joining the conversation, Governors State University (GovState) has recently been accepted into the American Association of Colleges and Universities’ (AAC&U) 2025-2026 Institute on AI, Pedagogy, and the Curriculum (IAIPC).
IAIPC is designed to help colleges and universities tackle the challenges and opportunities AI presents in a learning environment.
“This is more than a professional development opportunity—it’s a strategic inflection point. We are building institutional frameworks for using AI with academic integrity, transparency, and purpose, while empowering faculty to reimagine learning in every classroom,” said Dr. Jason Zingsheim, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
Another priority that must be considered involves helping educators navigate methods to reduce the transmission of bias through AI systems within learning and research environments. These and other benefits and concerns about AI in education will be explored by the GovState team attending the institute. Led by Dr. Zingsheim, the full team (shown at left) includes Dr. Ali Demirbas (College of Health and Human Services), Dr. Rasha Elhage (College of Education and Human Development), Dr. John Sowa (College of Arts and Sciences), and Dr. Junyao Yang (College of Business).
“It’s an honor to lead a team of faculty who are not only experts in their fields but also deeply committed to equity and innovation. Together, we’re working to ensure that AI becomes a tool for transformation—not just automation,” said Dr. Zingsheim.
Once selected through a highly competitive application process, participating teams will design and implement pedagogical and curricular strategies to address some of the challenges and opportunities presented by AI, rethinking teaching, learning, and assessment approaches related to AI within and across courses.
“We are preparing students — many of whom come from communities historically excluded from tech innovation — not just to adapt to the future, but to lead it. This Institute allows us to expand our vision for AI-integrated education that is rigorous, ethical, and inclusive of every learner,” said Dr. Zingsheim.
With a kickoff event planned for September 2025, participants will engage in activities designed to help them understand the current moment regarding AI and higher education as well as develop an AI action plan. IAIPC concludes in April 2026 with a Closing Capstone Event.
“This Institute brings our existing, vibrant work in the use of AI in teaching and research to an advanced level as we formalize our efforts to transform learning within our new strategic plan and the Digital Learning Masterplan 2.0,” said Dr. Beverly Schneller, Provost at Governors State University. “Our team is strong, committed and has the vision and experience to bring great things to the university.”