Universities Lean on Existing Investments to Launch AI Tools

A primary goal, Compton-Engle explains, was to help the campus community move away from relying on unsecured consumer AI tools. Their fear was that a faculty member, for example, might leverage a free service for their research and have their data disclosed or used for model training purposes. With that in mind, when they made Gemini available, they attempted to maximize adoption by tailoring the rollout to various users’ needs.

Faculty and staff were offered trial licenses of Gemini Pro (now called Google AI Pro) so they could gain experience with the tool right away, and university leadership — including the president, provost and deans — received Pro licenses and in-person training on advanced AI use cases. In December 2025, CWRU staged a half-day event featuring Google representatives and targeted information sessions, and that was followed up with a monthly office hours series that UTech hosted via Google Meet. “Each meeting was open to the entire campus,” Compton-Engle says. “We’d present on what was new in Gemini, and then we’d have a Q&A.”

IT also maintains a web page that’s focused on the generative AI services and applications available to the CWRU community, and it runs articles on the subject in its regular technology newsletter. Today, departments across campus can purchase Pro licenses that allow their teams to work from common baselines and experiment with sophisticated Gemini workflows, while all faculty, staff, and students have access to the non-Pro tier that comes with their institution-issued Google accounts.

Case Western Reserve University students, faculty and staff have access to a number of artificial intelligence tools, training opportunities and resources.

Compton-Engle says many faculty rely on Gemini to generate course-specific content, such as study aids and presentations. For his own purposes, he turns to the tool mainly as an efficient way to manage the mountains of emails in his inbox.

“It’s not for everyone,” he notes, explaining how some are skeptical about AI and its evolving role on the modern college campus. But for those who are using it—appropriately, with safeguards—“there’s no question, it’s a game changer.”

Tool Utility and Governance Are Equally Critical

CWRU may have hit the nail on the head in encouraging adoption of an AI tool that was already integrated within its university ecosystem. Aleksander Dardeli, president and CEO at IREX, which helps higher ed institutions use AI responsibly and effectively, says most universities recognize the technology’s potential but falter when it comes to implementation.

“They really want to embrace AI, but they lack a clear strategy for doing so,” Dardeli explains. IREX recently released a report showing that fewer than 1 in 5 universities have governance structures in place for managing AI. In many cases, students, faculty and staff “are moving fast” to use a variety of AI solutions, he says, “but institutions are basically standing still so they end up with fragmented, ungoverned options.”

In-person training sessions at Case Western Reserve University help faculty and staff make the most of their Google Gemini licenses.

One institution that doesn’t have that problem is the University of Hawaii. UH’s Information Technology Services department has produced an AI Tool Decision Guide to steer community members toward solutions that comply with the university’s policies and data protection standards. And similar to CWRU’s UTech, the department has focused especially on encouraging Gemini adoption within the school’s existing Google environment.

According to Client Service and Operations Center Director Mitchell Ochi, University of Hawaii System president Wendy Hensel “has really pressed to make sure the campus is AI-ready” since she took office in 2025. Her directive led ITS to engage closely with Google to better understand its Gemini licensing options, and also to take a top-down approach to spreading the word about Google’s AI capabilities.

“We started with the executive leadership, giving them a kind of preview of how they could use Gemini at their level so they’d understand the implications for everyone else,” Ochi explains. From there, the department offered training to general faculty and staff on AI use cases and the tools available to them, and it continues to offer new educational sessions as features are released at different licensing tiers.

“Part of our strategy is to make sure we have support and documentation behind everything,” Ochi notes. In addition to Gemini, ITS includes Zoom and Otter.ai on its list of sponsored AI solutions that have been vetted for privacy and security purposes. “The more we can help people use the tools we have, the less likely they’ll be to use some of the openly available products that could potentially put them at risk, he says.”

DISCOVER: AI tools introduce new security risks to campus environments.

Gemini Deployment at John Carroll University Is Guided by a Steering Committee

At John Carroll University in Ohio, where Jim Burke is CIO, the guardrails the institution has created for AI usage are largely maintained by a dedicated steering committee. The committee, which includes faculty, students and staff, considers everything from policy and governance to ethics and environmental sustainability.

“We have a set of guidelines that basically rely on the same sensitive data policies we’ve had for a while now,” Burke notes. A Google campus since 2012, the university rolled out Gemini only after working with a consultant to understand the privacy and security risks the technology could pose. “We really wanted to know what it would be able to see — the things it might access that people wouldn’t realize if they didn’t have the right controls in place,” he says.

Today, Burke’s ITS team has integrated processes into its Google environment that monitor systems for potentially vulnerable files. The team also recognizes that Gemini isn’t the only AI solution on campus, and it has come to accept that as part of doing business.

“We do have some ChatGPT users, some Claude users,” Burke says. “We encourage the use of Gemini wherever possible because it’s the most cost-effective for us, but there may be legitimate reasons for people to use other tools. And as long they’re following our policies, that’s fine in those cases.”

UP NEXT: Making smarter model choices can curb AI spending.

No matter which AI tools users choose, Burke and his colleagues have stressed the importance of training. They run online and in-person workshops designed to help community members leverage solutions for specific use cases, and they work closely with JCU Student Government on programs that emphasize ethical adoption of the technology. Students in a business class, for example, might learn how Gemini can consolidate their research into a format that’s easier to read. But an English student who’s trying to develop an outline for the first draft of an essay? “For them, the use of AI would be discouraged because you’re looking for much more creativity,” Burke explains.

At the end of the day, JCU’s mission as a Jesuit university is to teach students not only how to learn but how to lead, serve and think critically, Burke continues. He believes the university’s Gemini rollout is in keeping with that tradition and a reflection of how the world actually works today.

“Employers are looking for graduates who know how to use these tools,” he says. “People come here for a well-rounded education, and understanding AI has become an important part of that.”