Artificial intelligence has arrived in higher education faster than most institutions can write a policy for it.
While many colleges are still debating whether to ban chatbots or quietly tolerate them, a different question is being asked on a growing number of campuses.
Not how to keep AI out of the classroom, but how to teach with it responsibly.
At High Point University in North Carolina, that question took center stage on May 5, when faculty members took part in a one-day summit dedicated entirely to the role of AI in teaching and learning.
The event, called “AI For Extraordinary Education,” was hosted by HPU’s Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (CITL) and the Office of Academic Affairs.
It opened inside the Nido and Mariana Qubein Arena and Conference Center with remarks from HPU President Nido Qubein and a keynote from Jeremy Utley, one of the world’s leading AI educators.
The framing Utley offered, AI as a thinking partner rather than a replacement for human effort, would echo through every session that followed.
A Summit Built Around a Single Idea
What made the day distinctive was its structure. After the morning keynote, learning moved to Congdon Hall, where 19 separate sessions were led by 25 faculty members.
Rather than bringing in outside consultants to lecture professors on what to do, HPU asked its own educators to show one another how they were already using AI, ethically and practically, in their disciplines.
The content was designed to be immediately usable, leaving faculty with concrete strategies they could carry back into their courses.
That faculty-led approach reflects a deliberate philosophy.
President Qubein told the audience that the university sees AI as something to be understood and shaped, not feared.
“Our world is changing quickly and becoming more globally competitive,” Qubein said.
“We recognize that artificial intelligence represents a transformative shift in how students learn and how industries operate. Our goal is to help students build both practical AI skills and the ability to understand ethical considerations and use these tools responsibly in professional settings.”
Reframing AI as a Thinking Partner
The “partner, not a substitute” idea resonated with faculty because it reframed a technology many had approached with anxiety.
Heidi Echols, director of the CITL and an assistant professor, said many faculty members described Utley’s keynote as inspiring and energizing precisely because it changed how they thought about the tool in front of them.
Instead of treating AI as a shortcut that erodes learning, the summit encouraged faculty to treat it as a collaborator that can deepen it.
Echols, who held a seminar with HPU faculty on AI the previous August, has watched that shift happen in real time.
She noted that the technology can help professors build classroom content and personalize learning, making difficult material easier for some students to grasp.
The point, she argued, is not to automate teaching but to expand what a teacher can do. “Together, we can create dynamic, student-centered learning environments that prepare educators and students to thrive in a changing world,” she said.
Why “Scaffold, Not Shortcut” Matters
Nowhere was the distinction clearer than in the session on AI-assisted writing led by Dr. Matthew Brophy, associate professor of philosophy, alongside Dr. Justin Cook, assistant professor of English and director of the HPU Writing Center.
The two explored how students can use AI to strengthen their reasoning without handing it the work entirely, a balance that depends heavily on how faculty design assignments and coach students through them.
Brophy summarized the theme that ran across the day. “The summit showed how AI can strengthen learning rather than outsource it,” he said.
“Across sessions on deliberate practice, argument stress-testing, assignment redesign, authorship, accessibility and responsible AI, a common theme emerged: Students need guided, ethically grounded practice using AI as a scaffold for thinking, not a substitute for it.”
He went further, arguing that the rise of AI actually raises the value of distinctly human abilities. “Summit presentations highlighted that AI makes human life skills more vital than ever,” Brophy said. “As students learn to work with AI, they will also need critical thinking, ethical judgment, emotional intelligence, creativity, collaboration and problem-solving.”
An Institutional Commitment, Not a One-Off Event
For prospective students and parents touring High Point University, the summit is less interesting as a single event than as evidence of a longer-term commitment.
HPU’s AI initiatives are housed under the CITL in a structured, faculty-centered way, and the university has put resources behind that structure.
In January, Dr. Zawan Al Bulushi joined as faculty development specialist for AI in education, a role created specifically to keep AI integration thoughtful, ethical and academically grounded rather than reactive.
Individual schools are building their own capacity as well. The Earl N. Phillips School of Business, for example, has established an AI committee and launched an “AI Integration Initiative” website outlining its mission, approach and classroom activities.
The CITL itself offers AI-focused workshops almost every week, on topics ranging from classroom management to student engagement, and it will move into the new $100 million John and Lorraine Charman Library when that building opens in 2027.
What HPU’s Approach Says to Other Educators
The lesson HPU is modeling is one any college, school district or teacher can borrow: the institutions that handle AI well will be the ones that treat their educators as partners in figuring it out, rather than issuing top-down rules and hoping for compliance.
By asking faculty to teach each other, anchoring the work in ethics, and pairing the technology with the human life skills it cannot replicate, HPU has tried to turn a source of campus anxiety into a shared project.
With plans already underway to expand AI programs across academic schools in Fall 2026, the “partner, not a substitute” framing looks set to define how High Point University approaches the technology for years to come.
For faculty who spent May 5 trading strategies in Congdon Hall, the message was clear: AI is not coming for their classrooms so much as joining them. Educators who learn to guide it will be the ones who prepare students to thrive alongside it.
