Faculty gathered at an AI forum on Feb. 18, to discuss the usage of artificial intelligence in higher education. Photo Courtesy of Mary Holland
Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article stated that Educating Without AI facilitated the Feb. 18 faculty forum and that the group is currently fighting for a university-wide AI policy. These two details have since been removed in light of new information to reflect a more accurate representation of the group.
Mary Holland was frustrated. Having been a professor for decades, she was overwhelmed by how the tides had begun to shift; students were using AI more often, and she didn’t feel they were getting what they needed out of education. She needed to do something. So she started talking to colleagues in and out of her own department and founded Educating Without AI.
Educating Without AI is a group made up of SUNY New Paltz faculty who advocate for the ability to teach AI-free classes. Holland, an English professor, started this group in the fall of 2025. Since then, they have sent out surveys concerning opinions on AI usage. Currently, over 80 people are part of the group.
As the presence of artificial intelligence continues to expand into academic spaces, conversations have also begun to emerge at SUNY New Paltz. Most recently on Feb. 18, faculty members attended an AI forum, which focused on academic approaches and discourse surrounding AI, coordinated by philosophy professor Bruce Milem and political science professor Ilgu Ozler. Last semester, students also spoke out against the Office of Communications and Marketing’s use of generative AI in this year’s Mainstage Productions promotional material.
“AI interferes with absolutely every single thing that it is my duty to teach my students to do,” Holland said. “Critical thinking, cognition in general, attention to texts and to details, the ability to think critically on their own, to do research that’s meaningful, to understand the texts they’re working with, to communicate in writing their ideas, to construct arguments, every single step of all of those things, students have to learn to do on their own.”
The campus AI surveys were the group’s latest endeavor, with separate forms sent to both faculty and students. 197 faculty members and 974 students at least started the survey. Preliminary results show that the majority of participants answered that their overall opinion of AI in higher education is negative. Participants were concerned that AI is negatively affecting students’ ability to write, and both faculty and students expressed a desire to teach or take classes with an AI-free designation.
“I’m not teaching writing intensive courses anymore because of [AI],” said Glenn Geher, a psychology professor who put the survey together. “I’m reducing writing assignments dramatically, which is really sad to me, because I’ve always told people, if students get nothing out of these four years except learning how to really write and communicate to an audience, that’s all we need.”
Geher noticed a pattern, particularly in his online classes, of students using AI to write entire papers. Even if they don’t use AI for the entire assignment, Geher asserts that using it for brainstorming or outlines robs the students of their ability to articulate their own ideas.
“If you’re brainstorming with AI, then it’s the opposite of brainstorming,” Geher said.
The group has been in communication with the Office of the Provost as well. “[Provost William McClure] listened to our concerns and was supportive about our initiatives. The work was ours to do, to be clear, but he did not express any opposition,” Holland said. “And he lent financial and institutional support to the recent Faculty Forum on AI that we held in February.”
Educating Without AI is currently fighting for an AI-free course designation. They aren’t trying to prohibit AI usage overall; they are just looking for clearer standards on the matter. In the future, Holland hopes to create a committee of students and faculty to stay on top of developments in AI and how they might impact education.
“To have this as a recognized policy on campus would mean that students would know ahead of time, when they sign up for a course, whether they’re going to be able to use AI,” Holland said. “They would know what it means when a professor says, ‘this is AI-free.’”
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