While the technological and commercial landscape remains fluid, and the long-term impacts of AI on teaching and learning remain contested, colleges and universities are ready to shift from reactive to proactive engagement with AI. AI literacy will be a cornerstone of that engagement at many institutions. The idea that students will need to know how to use and think critically about AI is one on which skeptics, agnostics, and advocates can largely agree. A few universities have already launched AI literacy initiatives. However, efforts to define AI literacy goals and competencies within specific institutional contexts and effectively integrate them into the curricula are just beginning on many campuses.

Getting AI literacy right will require contributions from across the university. Two units with particularly vital expertise are libraries and centers for teaching and learning. Centers for teaching and learning are hubs for generating and magnifying innovative pedagogies. Libraries employ experts in the information sciences, and at many institutions have long histories as key providers of instruction about other essential modern information literacies such as data literacy or digital literacy. This experience positions them to be campus and even national leaders in these efforts.

This April, Ithaka S+R will launch a new project focused on defining and implementing AI literacy. The project will be conducted in partnership with librarians and educators at 45 colleges and universities with deep commitments to promoting AI literacy as a core learning outcome. Together, we will conduct institution-specific and landscape level research on faculty and student practices, priorities, and needs around AI Literacy, and develop actionable pathways to integrating AI literacy into the curricula.

We are pleased to announce that the following institutions are participating in the project.

Alfred UniversityBowie State UniversityBrandeis University
Brown UniversityCalifornia Polytechnic State University, San Luis ObispoChapman University
Howard Community CollegeIllinois State UniversityIllinois Wesleyan University
James Madison UniversityMcGill UniversityMiami University
Montana State UniversityMorgan State UniversityMount Holyoke College
Santa Clara UniversitySouthern Methodist UniversitySUNY-Empire State
Temple UniversityTexas State UniversityUniversity of Arkansas
University of CincinnatiUniversity of California, IrvineUniversity of Kansas
University of MinnesotaUniversity of North TexasUniversity of Oklahoma
University of Texas, San AntonioVanderbilt UniversityVirginia Tech

We will also collaborate with 16 campuses of the California State University System who will meet in tandem and in parallel with the institutions listed above.

California Polytechnic State University, HumboldtCalifornia Polytechnic State University, PomonaCalifornia Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
California State University , BakersfieldCalifornia State University , Channel IslandsCalifornia State University , Chico
California State University, East BayCalifornia State University, FresnoCalifornia State University , Long Beach
California State University, Los AngelesCalifornia State University, NorthridgeCalifornia State University, Sacramento
California State University, San BernardinoCalifornia State University, San DiegoCalifornia State University, San Jose
California State University, Stanislaus

For more information about this project, or to express interest in participating in a new cohort that we anticipate organizing this fall, please contact Dylan Ruediger (dylan.ruediger@ithaka.org).

We are grateful to JSTOR for their support of this project.