Our Guiding Purpose: We are guided by the academic success of all students. Ultimately, the measures of our success are improvements in students’ persistence, achievement, and graduation rates—particularly students who are the first in their families to go to college and those from groups historically under‐served in higher education. 

Dear colleagues and friends,

This newsletter promotes two workshops about generative A.I., and it feels like the right time for me to wade into this complex space, or maybe I'll just dip a toe. Kyle Pittman's workshop on resisting AI and Jeremy Winn's workshop on advancing equity with A.I. mirror my own conflicted inner dialogue about this technology. I've begun using A.I. more often in my own work, particularly as a thinking partner. I find the "on-tap" feedback useful. And at the same time, I'm deeply troubled by the disregard for human thriving demonstrated by the corporations developing and advancing this technology.

I've been nervous to wade into this conversation because the discourse so quickly became polarized. Strong opinions about inevitability, efficiency, and harm seem to be everywhere, and I'm finding it challenging to make sense of these seemingly conflicting narratives. But here's what keeps pulling me back: a question that feels more urgent than any individual stance on A.I. use. Who benefits and who is harmed? What future is being shaped? And who gets a say in shaping it?

We've seen this pattern before, most recently with social media, where innovations promised to make our lives better. Yet after we had time to study the impact, the deleterious effects on our social fabric and wellbeing became clear. I'm almost a year into my own social media detox, and I now have a personal understanding of how that technology degraded my focus and wellbeing. The question I am exploring isn't whether these tools are "good" or "bad." It's who profits from them and who pays the cost.

This is where I believe we have a vital role to play as scholars and educators. Our work is to study systems, ask questions, and hold complexity. These two workshops might seem to come from opposing narratives but I am coming to understand them as complementary inquiries: critical resistance and strategic engagement. I think we can ask hard questions about power while also exploring how these tools might serve our work. This is academic resilience: the capacity to hold multiple perspectives while refusing to cede the future to a narrative we haven't yet interrogated.

I'm curious: What are you learning about AI? What questions are you sitting with? What role do you see for higher education in this moment? Send me your thoughts at metzkerj@evergreen.edu.

In solidarity,
JuliA Metzker, Director
Washington Center for Improving Undergraduate Education

The work of the Washington Center is only possible through the vibrant community of higher education professionals who collaborate with and support our team in many ways. When we all work together, we can make a difference for student success. If you'd like to learn more about opportunities to contribute, we'd love to hear from you! 

The Washington Center Collaborative is a space for higher education faculty, scholars, practitioners, and administrators to come together and discuss emergent issues of importance to our collective work educating and supporting students. The Collaborative consists of free virtual workshops, a newsletter, and a slack space.

Monday, April 20

2 - 3:30 pm ET | 11 am - 12:30 pm PT

Facilitated by Kyle Pittman | The Evergreen State College

While 'artificial intelligence' (AI) has been around for some time in various forms, recent developments around generative AI have caused a surge of public interest in its capabilities and many industries and fields have been enticed to leverage the various AI tools to offset workload and increase productivity. Education in particular has been hit hard with the inception of generative AI tools that seem to hinder the learning process rather than support it. This workshop will explore the impacts of AI on learning and provide sensible ways to address and resist its use in the classroom.

Friday, May 29

2 - 3:30 pm ET | 11 am - 12:30 pm PT

Facilitated by Jeremy Winn | Gray's Harbor College

Generative AI may be a cloud over higher education, but there are silver linings. In this interactive session, Jeremy Winn shows how generative AI can help us build stronger mental models, deepen our understanding of equity work, and take practical steps toward more equitable institutions. Participants will explore a topic of their own using AI and leave with actionable strategies they can apply immediately.

Wednesday, June 24

2 - 3:30 pm ET | 11 am - 12:30 pm PT

Facilitated by emareena danielles and ambar martinez

It is hard to learn or teach when we are afraid, and we are living in fearful times. When students look to us for assurance, what truths can we offer? What assurances or comfort can we offer ourselves, or to each other?

There is no one answer, and perhaps that is the most important truth – that each gathering of people has an opportunity to create a generous, miraculous truth that only can be created by them. As educators, it is our gift and our privilege to guide and nurture that exploration, even more so during these uncertain times. The Pause calls us first to recognize and feel in our bodies the present moment, next to orient ourselves to its history, context and circumstances, to then integrate what we feel, observe, and receive, move into imagining potential outcomes, and finally to practice the learning as what moves us toward the outcomes we choose.

Join us for a lightly facilitated conversation about seeking the miracles in uncertainty, nurturing the small, mundane moments that that bring us closer, and remind us to fall in love with learning about each other again.