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SCHEDULE

8:30-9:30am

CHECK IN & BREAKFAST

Check-in and Breakfast

9:30-9:50am

WELCOME REMARKS​

GOBLIN KING ROOM

Lola W. Brabham, CICU

Charles Gibbs, Metropolitan College of New York

10-10:50am

GOOGLE PLENARY

GOBLIN KING ROOM

RESEARCH

Welcome to the Agentic Era

​Charles Elliott, Google Cloud

Higher education stands at the threshold of a profound transformation. As we enter the "agentic era"—where AI transitions from an experimental, siloed tool to an ambient, collaborative partner—this session explores Google Cloud’s vision for the future of education, moving beyond point solutions to an AI-native campus ecosystem. Join us as we discuss how agentic AI will scale human ingenuity across the entire academic environment. We will explore how institutions can diversify pedagogy to personalize learning and equip students for a rapidly changing job market, optimize campus operations to future-proof institutional business models, and accelerate research to drive breakthrough discoveries.

11-11:50am

CONCURRENT BREAKOUT SESSIONS

​GOBLIN KING ROOM​​

INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS

SESSION #1

Executing an AI Campus Vision & Research Announcement

Alex Sevilla & Tawnya Means, AdvancAI

Higher education is at an inflection point. Employers have reset AI fluency expectations, students need preparation that translates to real career outcomes, and boards are asking harder questions than ever about institutional readiness. Meanwhile, faculty navigate this shift largely on their own, uncertain how to adapt and absorbing pressure from all directions without adequate support or a clear path forward. The most common institutional response—task forces, fragmented pilots, and technology rollouts without strategy—is widening the gap between expectation and impact. In this session, AdvancAI Co-Founders Tawnya Means and Alex Sevilla draw on research analyzing AI integration across 48 leading business schools, as well as their active work leading an AI-Forward Campus initiative with the University of Tennessee, to surface what separates institutions genuinely transforming from those producing process without progress. This is where the day's insights converge into action. Tawnya and Alex will guide an honest, peer-level conversation about what AI-Forward truly means for CICU institutions—the real barriers, the leadership decisions that unlock transformation, and what's at stake for the students, faculty, and communities these institutions exist to serve. Getting this right is hard. Not getting it right is harder. New York's independent colleges and universities have a unique opportunity to lead this shift in a way that reflects their values and serves every person on campus. The institutions that get this right won't just survive the moment—they'll define it. Human-led. AI-Forward.

11-11:50am

CONCURRENT BREAKOUT SESSIONS​

AXEL'S ISLAND ROOM​​

STUDENT SUCCESS

SESSION #2

How a STEM-Oriented Private University Is Addressing Demand for AI Curriculum

Kelly Norris Martin & Matt Huenerfauth, RIT

As artificial intelligence reshapes nearly every discipline and profession, colleges and universities face growing pressure to ensure that all students develop AI fluency while also supporting deeper technical pathways for those seeking advanced expertise. This session presents a case study from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), a STEM-oriented private university that is responding to this challenge through a deliberately broad-to-deep approach to AI education. Drawing on cross-college collaboration among computing, liberal arts, business, and design, RIT has built an AI curricular ecosystem that provides every student exposure to AI as both a practical tool and a subject of ethical and societal inquiry, while enabling some students to progress into advanced, technically rigorous AI programs. The presenters, deans from the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Computing, will describe how disciplines across RIT have come together to reimagine general education, degree programs, minors, experiential learning, and campus-wide AI infrastructure to meet student demand, workforce needs, and institutional mission simultaneously. The session will highlight lessons learned in coordinating curriculum at scale, working within faculty governance structures, engaging faculty across disciplines, and balancing innovation with responsible use. Attendees will leave with insights into how institutions can evaluate their own AI readiness, consider multiple student pathways that vary in curricular depth, and understand how disciplines must work together to provide this range of opportunities.

11-11:50am

CONCURRENT BREAKOUT SESSIONS​

DARK CRYSTAL ROOM​​

CLASSROOM IMPACT

SESSION #3

The State and Trajectory of AI Detection

Max Spero, Pangram

The most capable LLMs still produce writing with consistent, detectable patterns rather than the full diversity of human expression. Max Spero, CEO and Co-Founder of Pangram, will cover the evolution of AI detection since ChatGPT's launch, what reliable detection requires today, and insights from Pangram’s latest model release.

12-12:50pm

PLENARY​

GOBLIN KING ROOM

INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS

Serving the Modern Student: Driving Change & Staying Relevant in the Age of AI

Joe Sallustio, Ellucian

Relevance is the defining question facing higher education right now. Students, employers, & the public are all asking the same thing, just in different ways: does what happens on your campus still matter? The institutions that answer "yes" over the next decade will be the ones willing to drive real change, not just talk about it. In this session, Dr. Joe Sallustio (Chief Industry Engagement Officer at Ellucian, co-founder/host of The EdUp Experience) makes the case for relevance as a leadership mandate, not a marketing line. Drawing on 1,300+ conversations with university presidents & sector leaders, Joe lays out what's actually shifting in student expectations, workforce demands, & the technology reshaping both, and what it takes to lead change inside institutions built to resist it. Included is a hands-on AI Bootcamp to move from ideas to action. Participants will work through a curated series of AI tools and platforms, exploring real higher education applications across admissions, advising, curriculum & assessment design, faculty workflow, research support, & daily operations. Attendees leave with tools in hand, use cases tested, and a clearer path for driving change on their own campus.

12:50-1pm

REMARKS​

GOBLIN KING ROOM

10 steps to AI happiness at the New York Institute of Technology

Remarks from Dr. Jerry Balentine

President, New York Institute of Technology

1-1:50pm

LUNCH

Lunch

2-2:50pm

PANEL​

GOBLIN KING ROOM

INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS

Building the AI-Ready and Intelligent Campus of Tomorrow, Today

PANELISTS

  • Charles Elliott, Google

  • Kelsey Cook, NYU

  • Angelo Santabarbara, Siena University

  • Brett Karopczyc, St. Thomas Acquinas College

A new era of research, discovery, and personalized learning demands a total reinvention. Transformation goes beyond technology adoption—it is about empowering faculty and researchers, deeply personalizing the learning experience, and optimizing every facet of campus life. Join this powerhouse panel of leaders to discuss how they are building the AI-ready campus of the future today. This session will detail how a full-stack cloud approach—anchored by Gemini Enterprise for Education and High-Performance Computing (HPC)—is driving strategic shifts across the institution to empower faculty and transform teaching and learning, accelerate research and discovery, and optimize campus operations. This is a new era of innovation; discover the technical and strategic roadmaps for creating a future-proof environment that supports student success and next-generation innovation.

3-3:50pm

CONCURRENT BREAKOUT SESSIONS​

GOBLIN KING ROOM

INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS

SESSION #1

Shifting from AI Ambition to Institutional Advantage

Drew Mattison, World Wide Technology​​

Every university leader is being asked the same question right now: What is our AI strategy? The gap between having an answer and executing one is where most institutions stall. This session introduces World Wide Technology’s AI Studio, a structured approach designed to help university leadership move from AI exploration to enterprise-wide impact, drawing on lessons from large-scale higher education and cross-industry AI deployments. Attendees will leave with an understanding of how the AI Studio approach assesses institutional readiness across critical dimensions, surfaces and prioritizes high-impact use cases, builds cross-functional alignment among senior leadership, and produces a sequenced roadmap that institutions can act on with confidence.

3-3:50pm

CONCURRENT BREAKOUT SESSIONS

AXEL'S ISLAND ROOM

STUDENT SUCCESS

SESSION #2​

Student Voice Intelligence in Action: A Leader's Look at AI-Powered Success at Vaughn College

Roy Moulder, EdSights​

Elaine White, Vaughn College

Colleges and universities are under more pressure than ever to retain students, and AI is increasingly part of the conversation. But for most student success teams, the real question isn't whether AI matters. It's whether it actually works on their campus. In this session, Elaine T. White from Vaughn College brings a leadership perspective on what it looks like to scale AI-powered student engagement, and how her team uses EdSights' Student Voice Intelligence to proactively reach students, surface barriers early, and give advisors the information they need before small challenges escalate. Elaine will share to how aggregated student voice data informs leadership decisions — giving teams a clearer picture of where systemic barriers exist, where resources should be directed, and where institutional strategy needs to evolve. When student voice is operationalized at scale, it becomes one of the most powerful inputs a leadership team can have. Attendees will leave informed and equipped with a real-world example of what AI-powered student success can look like in practice.

3-3:50pm

CONCURRENT BREAKOUT SESSIONS

DARK CRYSTAL ROOM

INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS

SESSION #3​

Democratizing Your Data with AI - Natural Language to SQL

Chris Morgan, Jenzabar​

What if every department on campus could access the data they need—without submitting a ticket, waiting for IT, or learning SQL? In this session, discover how natural language-to-SQL AI is transforming reporting across the Student Information System (SIS) and accelerating institutional insights. Designed specifically for non-technical staff, the solution empowers users to ask complex questions in plain English—such as enrollment trends, financial summaries, retention metrics, or program performance—and instantly receive accurate, permission-based reports. Attendees will learn how AI securely translates natural language into optimized SQL queries across a complex SIS database, eliminating reporting bottlenecks while maintaining data governance and role-based security. The result: faster insights, reduced IT dependency, and a more data-informed campus culture. Join us to explore real-world use cases across Admissions, Finance, Student Success, and Academic Affairs—and learn how institutions are accelerating decision-making by putting powerful analytics directly into the hands of those who need them most.

3-3:50pm

CONCURRENT BREAKOUT SESSIONS

DOOZERS ROOM

RESEARCH

SESSION #4

AdvancAI Research Workshop​

4-4:50pm

PANEL

GOBLIN KING ROOM

WORKFORCE​

What Students Need to Succeed in an AI-Driven Workforce

PANELISTS

  • Brian Amkraut, University of Mount Saint Vincent

  • Juanita Sorrano, CodeConnect

  • Alana Rose, Podium

  • Mike Swift, Major League Hacking

AI is reshaping job expectations faster than most institutions can update their curricula—and the students most at risk of being left behind are often those with the fewest resources to adapt. This panel brings together workforce development leaders, student success advocates, and industry partners to examine what it actually takes to prepare every student for an AI-driven economy. Panelists will explore how institutions can embed practical AI fluency across disciplines, build employer partnerships that keep programs current, and confront the equity dimension directly: What structural, curricular, and cultural changes are required to ensure AI readiness is not a privilege? Attendees will leave with actionable frameworks for treating AI preparedness as an institutional equity imperative—and concrete examples of programs already making an impact.

4-4:50pm

CONCURRENT BREAKOUT SESSIONS

AXEL'S ISLAND ROOM

CLASSROOM IMPACT

SESSION #1​

The Future LMS: AI-Enhanced Teaching and Learning

Robyn Hammontree, D2L

​

Higher education is at an inflection point. AI can now do much of what we have traditionally asked students to do, and that changes everything about how we design for learning. This session explores the widening gap between what AI can do for students and what students need to be able to do for themselves—and what that means for how we design courses, assessments, and learning experiences today. Drawing on durable principles from the learning sciences, we will examine how institutions can use AI to raise cognitive demand rather than lower it, reconnect students to authentic motivation, and build the kind of critical AI fluency that prepares them for a workforce where these tools are already the default.

4-4:50pm

CONCURRENT BREAKOUT SESSIONS

AXEL'S ISLAND ROOM

INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS

SESSION #2​

Creating an Ecosystem for Success

Ayham Boucher, Cornell University​

Higher education has a unique advantage in leading AI transformation: it is built for discovery, experimentation, and cross-disciplinary innovation. Join us to explore how the AI Innovation Lab brings staff, students, researchers, and AI together to create a dynamic engine for innovation and transformation. We will also look beyond the headlines to examine what it truly means to lead with humans and AI working together.

5-5:30pm

STUDENT PANEL

GOBLIN KING ROOM

CLASSROOM IMPACT 

Major League Hacking Student Panel

Amanda D'Avaria, Major League Hacking

The most important voices in the conversation about AI in higher education are often the least heard: the students themselves. Joined by three New York University students who have participated in Major League Hacking programs, MLH Head of Strategic Initiatives Amanda D'Avaria facilitates a candid conversation about how the next generation is already thinking about and using AI—in coursework, career preparation, and daily life. How does their actual use differ from what their institutions expect or allow? What do they wish administrators understood? Campus leaders will leave with a clearer, more grounded picture of where students are—and where their institutions need to meet them.

5:30-7pm

Cocktail Reception

Cocktail Reception & Networking

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