This fall, some college students may be in the library studying Socrates and Shakespeare, but others will be in computer labs learning the ins and outs of artificial intelligence. Higher education curriculum is changing to reflect the global technological boom, and Westchester institutions are no exception.
A Forbes article on 2024 higher education trends highlights the shift in professors’ view of AI, stating, “Once preoccupied with how generative AI tools like ChatGPT would lead to an epidemic of student cheating, college faculty are now turning their attention to how AI can be used to improve teaching and personalize student learning.” Contestably, we may still be in an epidemic of student cheating. Even so, people have come to realize that AI is more than just a cheating agent. For better or for worse, AI is here to stay. Some Westchester college professors are choosing to incorporate AI into their courses now, perhaps partly in a reverse psychological effort to avoid fearmongering around the dangers of AI.
Westchester colleges contend that, if students learn how to use modern technology ethically, it can serve as a helpful tool to push the boundaries of traditional study. From computer science to dance, these new courses at Westchester colleges span disciplines and exhibit the bright future of higher education.
The College of Westchester
White Plains
The College of Westchester offers new concentrations in its business administration program, including artificial intelligence (AI), business analytics, finance, human resources, and digital and social media marketing. It hopes to prepare students to use AI effectively and ethically across all fields of study. Professor Ray Giles, the leading instructor for AI courses at The College of Westchester, says, “helping students to obtain the skills necessary to compete in an ever-growing competitive market is what CW is all about.” Courses such as “Artificial Intelligence in the Workplace” and “Applied Artificial Intelligence” help students gain the necessary expertise to use AI to their advantage in the workforce.
Iona University
New Rochelle
Iona University has a new minor in AI, including required courses like “Foundations and Applications of Artificial Intelligence” and “Artificial Intelligence in Business.” Additionally, Iona offers a new minor in Latin America studies, a multidisciplinary program giving students the opportunity to explore Latin American societies through many lenses (history, literature, culture, economics, and politics). Students may tailor this minor according to their personal interests related to Latin America and take courses in other departments.
Iona is moving in the direction of higher education trends to best prepare students for success in the workforce. The aforementioned Forbes article predicts that “colleges will also enrich traditional undergraduate majors with skills-oriented courses and training — sometimes in the form of supplements like industry-approved certificates, and sometimes through experiences like internships and capstone assignments.”
New masters programs in education at Iona intend to address current teacher shortages. Tracks to special education and bilingual certifications for all grades (pre-K to 12) will provide graduates with greater flexibility in the school system. Iona has also developed a series of one-credit courses on Excel and other professional skills required for all new business students this fall. These courses respond to growing demand for practical skills education in undergraduate studies.
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Monroe College
New Rochelle
Monroe College is proud to introduce a new course in its School of Business and Accounting this fall on “The Business of Entertainment.” The course is co-taught by Emmy- and Palme d’Or-nominated television producer Dorothy Toran. She will draw on her experience in the entertainment industry to “bring the course’s lessons to life,” according to the course description. The curriculum includes topics such as careers in entertainment, talent management, intellectual property, emerging trends and technologies, ethics, and social responsibility, among others. Monroe is also developing a potential minor in entertainment studies.
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SUNY Purchase College
Purchase
Purchase College has a plethora of new and popular courses in Westchester this fall. In the journalism department, students can take “Podcasting and Audio Storytelling” to develop their own podcasts while learning audio editing skills. In the history department, Purchase now offers “Digital Histories Studio: Oral Narratives and Archives in Production.” Funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and part of Purchase’s VOCES (Oral Histories and Spanish for Heritage Speakers) program, this course teaches the “art of narrative production” by giving students real experience transforming oral histories into their own digital projects.
“Gameplay and Performance” in the theater department is an innovative course in which students “design and stage their own live alternate-reality game as a means of storytelling or extend an existing narrative through transmedia.” Students taking “The TV Writer’s Room in the Playwriting and Screenwriting” program have the chance to simulate a real television writers’ room. The professor serves as the “show runner” while the class works together to create a pilot episode and each student writes their own episode for the mock TV series.
Purchase’s esteemed Conservatory of Dance has also stepped up its game this fall with fresh courses. “Collaborative Video for Choreography: Moving Bodies, Moving Cameras” explores the intersection between choreography and film. Students will “dissect the techniques used in the fusion of dance and film” and gain the tools to create their own artistic works. Another course, “Your Brain on Art: Explorations in Neuroaesthetics,” focuses on advancements in cognitive research that have shifted the way people understand and make various forms of art.
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Sarah Lawrence College
Bronxville
Provost and Dean of Faculty Kanwal Singh says that Sarah Lawrence’s curriculum is “constantly evolving.” She continues, “Our students are encouraged to study across traditional disciplines in order to understand how to approach pressing issues and to devise creative solutions to complex problems.” New courses offered this fall are prime examples of Sarah Lawrence’s outside-the-box approach to education.
In the Department of Visual and Studio Arts, students can now take “New Genres: Art From Artificial Intelligence” and do not need any prior technical or art experience to register for the course. Students will discuss the ethics surrounding AI in art and have the chance to create their own AI-based art projects in this practice-based class. The “Privacy, Technology and the Law” course in computer science explores applications of privacy law to modern contexts, like “Bitcoin, ChatGPT, self-driving vehicles, and Zoom.” Questions related to the internet’s role in our lives, security, and free speech will guide the course’s discussions along with major U.S. Supreme Court cases related to technology.
“Speaking of Race: Language Ideologies, Identities, and Multicultural Realities” is a new anthropology course at Sarah Lawrence. According to the course description, “students will investigate the concept of language ideologies—beliefs and attitudes about language—and their impact on the lived experiences of racial and ethnic groups and other minoritized communities within the United States.” Lectures, discussions and interactive projects will allow students to examine the relationship between language and systems of power through an intersectional lens.
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Related: Westchester Businesses Welcome Artificial Intelligence
