{"id":214927,"date":"2025-09-10T07:31:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T07:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/214927\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T07:31:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T07:31:11","slug":"sas-deans-discuss-ai-undergraduate-experience-in-pilot-podcast-episode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/214927\/","title":{"rendered":"SAS Deans discuss AI, undergraduate experience in pilot podcast episode"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"split\"\/
\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Stephen A. Levin Family Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Peter Struck joined Penn School of Arts and Sciences Dean Mark Trodden in a special edition of the Ampersand Podcast on Tuesday. (Photo from Penn Today and Chenyao Liu)<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCredit: Chenyao Liu<\/a> \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Penn School of Arts and Sciences Dean Mark Trodden hosted Stephen A. Levin Family Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Peter Struck in a special edition of the Ampersand Podcast on Tuesday.\n<\/p>\n

The Sept. 9 podcast \u2014 titled \u201cDeans in Conversation\u201d \u2014 is part of the Ampersand series, where faculty from different disciplines discuss a topic of their choosing. During the episode, Trodden and Struck spoke about the enduring value of a liberal education in the world of artificial intelligence, addressing the undergraduate experience as well as the role of classics in modern education.\n\t\t<\/p>\n

Struck, who is a Classics professor in the College, discussed how the concept of a liberal education began with the Romans.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe etymology of our term liberal goes back to the idea that a liberal arts education would liberate you, and it frees you from things,\u201d Struck said. \u201cIt frees you from narrow mindedness of all kinds.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Trodden went on to say that the liberal arts allow interdisciplinary fields to come together. Struck emphasized the importance of nurturing this interdisciplinary thinking amid the rising usage<\/a> of AI among students.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a person takes a skills-based approach to their undergraduate education, it’s an invitation to AI to eat their lunch,\u201d Struck said. \u201cThe more productive way forward is to discern what’s distinctive about our human intelligence and to nurture and strengthen that.\u201d\n\t<\/p>\n

The episode also highlighted Penn\u2019s focus on real-world experience, citing that 92% of College students have at least one internship before graduating. Struck credited this figure to the College\u2019s focus on \u201ccomplexity of thinking.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Both deans took time to explain new initiatives they\u2019ve been involved in \u2014 with Struck highlighting his involvement with College Foundations<\/a>, and Trodden focusing on his work with Living the Hard Promise Initiative<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the students who came up and they asked the most remarkable questions, and they were not softball questions,\u201d Trodden said regarding discussions during the Living the Hard Promise Initiative. \u201cThey were very, very difficult. And so they’re clearly ready for this, I would say.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The podcast wrapped up with both deans sharing their concerns as well as hopes for how Artificial Intelligence will affect their respective fields. Trodden, who is a cosmologist and professor of physics and astronomy, shared his thoughts about AI in data analytics.\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\tSign up for our newsletter<\/p>\n

Get our newsletter, DP Daybreak, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI worry a little bit about whether people will have the requisite skills to figure out whether the patterns we find are meaningful,\u201d Trodden said. \u201cThat’s a small part of my pessimism, but I\u2018m often optimistic.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Struck touched on the role that institutions like Penn will have as AI continues to take on a more prominent role in higher education.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to need wisdom and an ability to make very tough calls,\u201d Struck said. \u201cThere\u2019ll be great advantages that come from certain things that we adopt, and there’ll be other things that’ll be deleterious to our society. We’re going to need institutions and structures that can help us adjudicate those things.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper. Please consider making a donation<\/a> to support the coverage that shapes the University. Your generosity ensures a future of strong journalism at Penn.<\/p>\n

Donate<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stephen A. Levin Family Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Peter Struck joined Penn School of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":214928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[10436,8431,5672,5229,8432,24255,50,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-214927","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-academics","9":"tag-academics-faculty","10":"tag-administration","11":"tag-america","12":"tag-beats","13":"tag-front","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-pa","16":"tag-pennsylvania","17":"tag-philadelphia","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115178837526779468","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}