2025 End-of-Semester Newsletter

As we come to the close of another year in our College of Liberal Arts, I want to take a moment to reflect on the remarkable progress our college has made related to reorganization.

Although clearly not an easy or quick process, this year in many ways has brought us closer as a community, emphasizing the importance of collaboration and learning about our various areas of expertise across the college. As we begin the engaged portion of our college strategic planning process in the spring, the perspectives of our faculty, staff, and students will be the primary driver of our college's goals and priorities. 

Our commitment to shared governance remains at the heart of our decision-making process and I hope to continue fostering an environment where more voices are heard.

I am eager to collect insights from a broader range of faculty, staff, and students beyond our traditional faculty meetings, staff meetings, and emails. By participating in these discussions with a range of groups and utilizing new platforms, we can promote a more nuanced and richer exchange.

Discussion was especially important this semester, and will continue into the coming years, as we grapple with the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) in academia. While some view AI as a revolutionary tool for education, many others have expressed concern over its impact on the learning experience.

While we consider our approach to AI integration, we will acknowledge that while these technologies offer efficiency, they should never replace the critical, human-centered inquiry that defines the liberal arts. Faculty and students have shared their fear that reliance on AI will compromise the integrity of higher education by discouraging critical engagement and diminishing the value of traditional rigorous scholarship. I am sympathetic with this concern and look forward to working together to galvanize our already considerable strengths in these areas.

Furthermore, the rapid integration of AI into academic frameworks has ignited debates regarding its implications for the humanities and the future of learning itself. The commodification of learning raises ethical questions about the degree to which educational institutions prioritize profitability over learning experiences.

Critics, and I count myself as one, write that such partnerships often result in a superficial approach to education, threatening to reduce the university’s mission to credentialism. Although I believe we need to be proactive in our approach to integrated AI into our curriculum, I have recently completed an article on the subject of this double bind — the awareness that our courses ought to foster engaged critical thinking and civic engagement, and the pressure to rebrand liberal arts courses as remedies for achievement gaps in marketable skills.

The discourse around the role of AI in education will continue to be incredibly important for our college to consider as we navigate the direction we will take. But as always, we’re up for the challenge, and I look forward to the continued discussion. 

— Kelly Norris Martin, Ph.D., Dean of the RIT College of Liberal Arts 

Nineteen state-of-the-art labs will advance research in cognitive science, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, and more in RIT’s new Research Building that officially opened its doors recently.

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RIT and Gallaudet University are partnering on a $4.5 million National Science Foundation grant focused on developing AI that can be used by everyone. Some members of the project include, from top, Angelique Armstrong, project coordinator at RIT; Charmaine Mendonsa project coordinator at Gallaudet; Esa Rantanen, RIT associate professor; Cecilia Alm, RIT professor; Christian Vogler, Gallaudet professor; Raja Kushalnagar, Gallaudet professor; Jamison Heard, RIT assistant professor.

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