AI is Making a Case for the Liberal Arts

Barnett acknowledges that AI raises important questions for colleges and universities, including concerns about environmental impact, academic integrity, independent thinking, public trust, and the ethical use of emerging technologies. Rather than avoiding those questions, she contends that higher education should be the place where they are rigorously explored.

Barnett describes how Rollins approached the issue through a year-long process of faculty discussion and participation in the AAC&U Institute on AI and Curriculum. Those conversations led to the development of an AI literacy framework that emphasizes three components: foundational knowledge, practical skills, and ethical and social awareness. A guiding principle emerged from the process: while students should develop AI fluency, education must remain fundamentally human-centered.

The op-ed argues that the enduring strength of the liberal arts lies in cultivating intellectual flexibility, critical thinking, judgment, and the ability to confront complex problems that lack simple solutions. Barnett suggests that as technical skills become obsolete more quickly in an AI-driven economy, these distinctly human capacities become even more valuable. Rather than viewing AI and the liberal arts as competing forces, she presents them as complementary. AI can enhance productivity and expand possibilities, but it cannot replace the thoughtful reasoning, ethical reflection, and collaborative learning that define a liberal arts education. Ultimately, she concludes that AI has not weakened the case for the liberal arts—it has made the case more urgent, relevant, and complex.

Read the full op-ed here.