That varies from providing guidelines and frameworks to creating new curriculum that includes AI as a piece of it. In some cases, it’s introduced as a new class or even a minor. At the core of each mission, though, is to ensure that graduating seniors are ready to use this tool that will be hard to avoid when entering the workforce.
We spoke to professionals from Iona University, Mercy University, and Pace University to get a better understanding of how they are developing students to learn a skill that is new for everyone.
Iona University
Iona is taking a multi-layered approach in its initiatives to support students who are interested in AI. For example, they offer a minor titled Artificial Intelligence: Foundations and Application. It kicked off in September of 2024 and grew out of a course that was run during the previous spring.
But it’s more than just offering a minor. There are students who might be studying other disciplines that are completely unrelated, yet will still see AI impact their work.
“Everybody is going to be using it,” says James Mustich, senior advisor to the president of Iona. “This presents a challenge to education on what’s worth knowing, what’s worth teaching, and what’s worth learning for a student. Those are questions that we believe we need to answer, and we can’t avoid them. It makes us double down on a commitment to education that is bigger than AI, but teaching students how to adapt to things.”
He says it is the university’s responsibility to ensure that students have the proper orientation to AI to understand how it operates and make judgments on when and how to use it. Iona has also extended its responsibility to teach the next generation of students AI by working with local high school districts to provide teachers and principals an introduction to AI.
For example, Iona’s course on Freshman Composition in Writing has been entirely reconfigured to help show the difference between writing and AI-generated writing. The course, now called Thinking Through Writing, teaches students to develop critical skills rather than mimicking the model of an essay with technology’s help.
So far, the university has seen varying attitudes from students about AI. But what they hope to do is help students at least become familiar with it by the time they graduate. In that vein, Iona launched the Gabelli Center for Teaching & Learning, which consists of four presidential fellows to develop a strategic framework for AI at the request of the president.
“The workplace is going to be very different in two years and you are unlikely to get a job you are perfectly trained for when you graduate,” says Mustich. “Other skills will be required. What’s important is that you know how to learn and you continue to learn. AI can be helpful in that”
Pace University
At Pace, faculty in the Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems (CIS) have been thinking about AI from a theoretical perspective for decades. But now, the university will have two masters in AI by next semester. The school’s current curriculum includes over 11 undergraduate and 17 graduate courses. Additionally, students are welcome to visit its AI Lab in New York City.
At Pace, there is a committee that has been working through policy creation, including a draft policy that is being considered this spring that helps govern the use of AI at Pace so that students and faculty know what to expect in a course.
Meanwhile, Pace is experimenting with its own AI tools, including a copilot agent that could potentially be used as a tutor. A pilot program is ongoing this semester with CIS101 students. That course has also evolved to include a module on the use of AI, including ethics and information about how to prompt AI.
And on the other end, there is a new course for graduating seniors that teaches how to use AI in the workplace. It helps students understand what they can do with specific tools, including data analysis and leveraging chatbots.
“We all know it’s a critical skill set for new hires,” says Gabe Terrizzi, director of web, mobile services, and AI. “A high percentage of jobs are looking for people with AI experience. At the end of the four-week course, they will get an ‘Al in the workplace’ badge from Pace to put on their LinkedIn profile.”
Having this course available is an effort to make sure that all students have an opportunity to learn AI skills, but “it’s really just the beginning,” says Terrizzi. From here, Pace is considering how to have AI-related content in every course across disciplines, whether it’s education or nursing or psychology.
“We can give people guidance on what tool to use or what to be concerned about, but things change drastically and there are so many different tools,” says Terrizzi. “We still have to train people. It’s exciting and scary all at the same time”
Mercy University
At Mercy, a group of faculty are working on a new “Transformative Ideas” seminar that will study AI across a number of different disciplines, similar to what the aforementioned universities have underway. The class will be a part of a new model of General Education, which officially rolls out in the Fall 2026 semester, with this course being piloted Fall 2025.
Right now, all students take Intro to Computers and there is a unit dedicated to emerging topics, which includes AI. Similarly, AI lessons are included in Mercy’s composition sequence.
“In the past three years, AI has seen many breakthroughs and is permanently reshaping many industries,” says Sisi Li, associate professor of computer science at Mercy. “It provides a unique challenge for most educators, regardless of study.”
Mercy’s Communication Arts major includes a course called AI Essentials: A Practical Approach, which also incorporates units on the applied and ethical use of AI.
For those who are interested in diving into the computer science curriculum entirely, there is a course on artificial intelligence, as well as several other classes where AI is addressed. Mercy also has a new M.S. Computer Science concentration in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning that was launched just last year.
“We have the ability to adapt to learning to serve our students,” says Li. “Our students are excited about it.”
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