Greetings From Dean Maxfield – April 2023
Dear Friends,
If I told you artificial intelligence created this newsletter, you might not find the idea entirely implausible. (I promise, by the way, that it did not.) AI is creating a lot of things these days; I just came from PC’s annual celebration of student research and creativity and three sophomores gave the most remarkable presentation of research and policy recommendations about AI-generated art. They represent among them majors in quantitative finance, computer science and economics and they applied moral decision-making frameworks to this growing phenomenon.
Perhaps surprisingly, it has been less than six months since the artificial intelligence organization Open AI made ChatGPT available to the public. This tool has made on-demand access to chatbot-generated information ubiquitous and the impact on higher education has been seismic. It is a subject of discussion on campuses everywhere, as evidenced by the deep interest that inspired that student group to create such an impressive presentation.
For those of us in academic leadership, the first – and most important — challenge is to develop the guidelines that enable and support our faculty in their work toward our fundamental imperative, making sure that students learn the subject at hand. Faculty are rightly concerned about the potential for generative artificial intelligence to disrupt the teaching and learning process, while also understanding that these technologies have educational use.
As always, the Providence College School of Business faculty is demonstrating leadership and initiative. We have been working together for weeks to develop the initial solutions that we have put in place and a faculty task force will continue that work during the summer, working toward answers to questions about how we respond to these emerging challenges in the classroom. Simple remedies do not exist, but we take this seriously and we are committed to this work. We owe it to our students to provide the best business education possible, and I am confident that we will effectively navigate this landscape in ways that model our commitment to PC’s mission and our fidelity to its core values.
One of the reasons for my confidence is the foundation upon which our business curriculum is built, within an academic context that emphasizes the habits of mind associated with a liberal arts-based education. These include the capacity to draw inferences and make connections, to communicate with confidence and insight, and to seek the truth in all that is observed and studied.
Specifically to the business school, we have always foregrounded active learning – a concept that requires meaningful engagement and the real-time integration of original ideas into the thoughtful concepts that enable our students to both answer questions and question answers. In this sense, we are well-positioned to seamlessly make the necessary adjustments to continue providing the high-quality business instruction that characterizes PCSB and gives our graduates the tools for career success.
On a parallel track, I have been thinking about another unavoidable impact of generative artificial intelligence – the changes it will create in the hiring landscape. We are already seeing the transition of certain jobs to formats that do not require a human touch, and it is incumbent upon us to have a clear view of the likely changes before us so that we can adjust accordingly. There will certainly be a long-term shift in employment dynamics and we need to be sure that we are providing students, now and in the future, with the education they will need to thrive in places where opportunities are plentiful. This is something that has our full attention, and our stakeholders can be assured that we will sustain this focus.
Considering these challenges as a whole, I also see opportunities. To some extent, addressing the emergence of AI is about how we teach; to an even greater extent, taking the long view, it may be more about what we teach. We have seen this coming and have been planning – work that will continue with our faculty – to devise ways to emerge even stronger and better positioned to serve our students.
With appreciation for your continued interest and support,
Sylvia Maxfield, Ph.D.
Dean
